2.5% ranking but 3.53 unweighted gpa

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi, I am a senior that lives in so-cal.
I really want to go to UCSB, UCSD, UCI, or Cal poly SLO.
I noticed that I have a relatively high rank (I have 4.46 weighted gpa) among the students in my school, but I have a very low unweighted gpa.
It is probably caused by my challenging schedule. I took AP Calc BC (A/A), AP Chem (B/A), and AP Bio (B/A) in my sophomore year along with English Honors and World History Honors. (+Spanish 2 and PE)
Then, I took AP Physics B (A/A), AP Envi Sci (A/A), AP Stats (A/B), AP English (B/B), APUSH (B/B), and AP Computer Science (A/A). (+Spanish 3).
I am taking AP Psychology, AP English, AP Gov/Honors Econ, AP Art History, and one elective class.
I basically took all the AP classes that my school offers except AP Spanish, AP French, and AP music theory.
I did not take any SAT I, but I got 730 on SAT Chem, and 790 on Math II.
I got 29 on ACT though.
I always believed that I have good chances to get into UCSB or UCI since my class rank was high and my ACT score was decent, but I recently noticed that my unweighted gpa is low, and it makes my UC admission gpa low since they say, "In addition, UC calculates a weighted GPA limited to 4 years of courses with no more than 2 years of 10th grade courses."</p>

<p>I am really worried about it right now. Do you think I still have good chance to get into some UC's or some out of state schools like U dub? (I am not talking about UCR, UCSC, or UCM) Should I go for less competitive schools? Any recommendations for the schools I should apply?</p>

<p>Thank you! </p>

2

<p>I am going to major in engineering btw. </p>

3

<p>Calculate your UC GPA. <a href=“http://collegetools.berkeley.edu/documents/cat_113-128/Calculating_GPA.pdf”>http://collegetools.berkeley.edu/documents/cat_113-128/Calculating_GPA.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>California schools, California rules. You have to play by the rules they set up and that puts you in competition with everyone else on the same plane, so figure your chances based on that.</p>

5

<p>Your rank is very nice. The disconnect between your rank and your GPA is probably due to the school not being very competitive. You challenge yourself, but the rest of the graduating class does not. Calculate you UC GPA. UCLA and UBC do not cap GPA, the rest of UC does.</p>