Gender/Race/Ethnicity: female, white (middle eastern)
Other special factors: first gen american (not first gen college student internationally though), uncle has gone to duke for undergrad and yale for grad
Intended Major(s)
mathematics or economics
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.95
Weighted HS GPA: 4.76
Class Rank: top 10%
SAT Scores: 1390 (silly mistakes, retaking it 2x but chance me based on a 1390 - 1430 range)
Coursework (AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))
AP classes (five max in school): WHAP (5), APUSH (?), APLang(?), APGov(senior year), Macro(senior year)
DE classes (over 30 classes): achiving 3 associates degrees including one in mathematics and one in business; taken programming courses, business courses, law courses, econ courses, accounting courses, mathematics courses, etc.
Level of math (highest): linear algebra and differential equations
Level of language (highest): Spanish 4B – highest possible spanish course
Awards
(general to maintain anonymity)
1st place public speaking contest (regional)
volunteering award
1st place short story contest (school)
runner up poetry contest (international)
academic excellence (3 yrs in a row) - I am 1 out of 2 students who got it each year
MUN comp award
Extracurriculars
10+ yrs of martial arts, almost 2nd degree black belt, teach kids karate, judge black belt tests and karate competitions, and have my own awards in regional competitions
300+ hours of volunteering (tutoring math and teaching ukrainian kids english)
4 yrs of VP on student gov (+ another niche position)
4+ yrs part of activist/cultural org w my posts reaching over 30k likes, $10+ thousand dollars raised, led legislative initiatives
2 yrs on county youth commission for policy making and stuff
dif eq and comp sci related university internship w professor
financial manager (+ marketing manager) of family run business (fancy term for “i figure out how to maximize profits and minimize losses and complications)
tutor for college level subjects at a place connected to local university (paid)
model un club founder, mediocre awards
couple more along those lines (mini passion project of an archives page but it’s really small so i’m not including it)
Essays/LORs/Other
essays (i’ve been a strong writer but idk how well i’ll do with word count)
lors (should be decent)
Schools
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UCSC
CSU LB
Calpoly SLO
Washington State
Uni Washington
Uni of Oregon
Colgate
UMass Amherst
Dartmouth
Northeastern
Northwestern
U Chicago
Duke
Princeton
UPenn
Harvard
CMU
Wesleyan
UCI
(also, what would be some good targets for me (preferably on the east or west coast)? i feel like I have way too many reaches and safeties)
So the UCs and CS don’t look at test score. I’m not the one to guide your chances on those schools - @gumbymom will give you data - based on your three UC GPAs.
I think you’ll get into both Wash schools, Oregon, UMASS, and maybe Wesleyan.
The rest - likely TO and will be unlikely, but you never know.
Are you planning an ED?
Is cost an issue or you just want to go cheap? Check out Arizona, Alabama, Mississippi State, etc.
As for “matches” - and maybe they’re more like safeties - West Coast - the jesuit type schools - San Diego, LMU, Santa Clara…a Pacific.
As for targets - a U of SC + Honors, UGA, UF, Richmond, you might try W&L Johnson Scholar, UMD is strong in math.
Really - you should narrow down - size, geography, urban/rural, greek life, etc. Your list is all over the place. so you can narrow down to find perhaps the right kind of school for you…vs. ones you’ve read are strong, etc.
Below is the UC admit rate based on the Capped weighted UC GPA. This data does not take into account intended major and residency (In-state, OOS or International).
Campus
4.20+
3.80-4.19
3.40-3.79
3.00-3.39
Berkeley
30%
11%
2%
1%
Davis
85%
55%
23%
10%
Irvine
60%
31%
14%
1%
Los Angeles
29%
6%
1%
0%
Merced
97%
98%
96%
89%
Riverside
97%
92%
62%
23%
San Diego
72%
25%
2%
0%
Santa Barbara
73%
28%
4%
1%
Santa Cruz
91%
81%
46%
9%
Economics may be impacted/capped at some UC campuses. For example, UCB requires a secondary admission process based on pre-req courses and minimum GPA to declare. Information link below: Applying to the Economics Major | Department of Economics
UCB would be in the Reach Category.
UCSC and UCD look like good target UC’s.
UCI admits into the University first and then into the major, so make sure you select an alternate major ie. Economics 1st choice, Mathematics alternate choice. For 2021, Econ had a 22% selectivity rate while Math had a 25% selectivity rate. UCI would be a Low Reach school.
Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades for their GPA calculation with an 8 semester honors point cap for qualified courses (UC approved Honors/!P/IB/DE) taken 10-11th grades. Economics has around a 19% acceptance rate while Mathematics has around a 35% acceptance rate. Econ would be a a slight Reach admit while Math could be a target admit.
Assuming CSULB is your likely/safety.
Best of luck and I agree with @tsbna44 that you might want to narrow your list. Do you have any budget limitations?
These schools are all very different environments. I was going to suggest that you send your application to more UCs but I’m not sure what you are looking for.
Being a first generation American isn’t a hook. Being a first generation college student is, but it sounds like your parents have a college degree from abroad? If so, then you’re not going to be counted as a first gen student at most colleges.
What kind of success does your high school typically have at Ivies and other top schools? With the SAT range you mentioned, you will likely be applying TO to those schools…were kids from your school able to get in TO at highly selective schools during the past 2 years?
Since you like math and economics, you may want to check each college’s intermediate microeconomics and econometrics courses for their math prerequisites. You will probably prefer colleges where these have higher math:
Low math: calculus not required.
Moderate math: single variable calculus required.
High math: multivariable calculus and/or linear algebra required.
Some colleges offer more than one option in terms of math level for intermediate microeconomics and econometrics courses.
What is your college budget? I think it’s hard to be realistic about college chances without knowing that. This is because…if you can’t afford a college, it’s just not a good choice.
Are you a resident of CA? It seems like you are. If so, there is at least one public university that would work for you. If not a resident, you will be full pay because the CA publics give no need based aid and very little merit to OOS students.
I think this is a very top heavy list. Also, it’s 21 schools long…I would suggest trying to vet the schools a little better. Where did this list come from?
my school sends about 90% of it’s population to the UCs (whether it be Irvine, Davis, Berkeley, or LA) but there have been one or two ivy/t10 school acceptances every year. I don’t know whether they submitted scores or not, but yeah
Yeah I was struggling finding out a school type I liked since I felt like I would be fine with any. But I think I’ve found out that LACs are more my type so I’ve swapped a couple of these schools for Wellesley, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore (though I don’t know if I’m going to apply to Swarthmore just because it’s highly competitive). By the way, what is TO in reference to? Thanks!
my school doesn’t offer any STEM APs, but I’ve taken all three rounds of Calculus (calc 1, 2, and 3) in a community college and am going to take linear algebra and differential equations at the same school senior year. I also took stats at the community college.
I think a decent handful get into more competitive schools, maybe like 10-20% but that’s also because the school is pretty small and rigorous. However, most choose UCB or UCLA due to it being instate.
thank you! Yeah I particularly don’t really like southern california (so I don’t feel like I want to waste money applying to UCSD or UCSB or UCLA) but CSU LB and SLO(?) are my only exceptions for that rule.