I’m nearing the end of my junior year and i’m not so happy with my grades, but I honestly tried my hardest so that’s enough for me. I always struggled in mathematics and to be honest, my chemistry teacher is the type that has been teaching the same course for so long that they get comfortable knowing they can’t be fired, so they put in minimal effort into teaching so I was basically self-studying Chem.
I’m trying to get into UC’s like UCSD, UCSD, UCSD, and UCSB. (aka lower to mid tier ones) I’m not sure about my major yet since it seems that I don’t excel in any subject. :(( My grades were as follows:
1st Semester-
AP US History: B+
AP Chem: B+
AP Calc: C+
Teacher assistant: A
English 3 Honors: A
Spanish 3 Honors: A-
2nd Semester
AP US History: B+/A- not sure yet
AP Chem: C
AP Calc: B
Teacher assistant: A
English 3 Honors: A
Spanish 3 Honors: B+/A- not sure yet
Test Scores up to soph year:
SAT: 2220
ACT: 30
AP Euro: 5
Didn’t take any subject tests. 
Is it too late now?
I’m really low on EC’s that require one to join an organization such as Key Club, Interact, etc. However, I do participate in church events weekly, play basketball and swim (I’ve been playing basketball since 4th grade and swimming since 5th grade though not in any organizations), play piano (though I stopped 2 years ago due to a loss of a very important family member, my father (I was level six at the time), care for my dogs, and that’s all I can think of off the top of my head. Is it too late to become more active an join organizations this summer and are these types of activities even viewed as EC’s by UC’s? Also should I mention the impact my father’s passing has had on me because I feel like that is something they need to know. I plan to apply for financial aid but I don’t know when to apply for FAFSA. Can someone tell me when is the time to apply?
By the way, thank you to those of you who took the time out of your day to read/respond to my post. It really means a lot. <3 I’m just really stressed because I go to a semi-competitive school and seeing my friends and their GPA’s adversely affected mine. I never really confronted my teachers about my situation and in retrospect, that was the biggest mistake I could have ever made. I didn’t even tell my friends about it until months after. I never really opened up about it until it was too late. I ended up not consistently doing my homework and missing school during my freshmen year and I never really transitioned into a normal life until the end of sophomore year since my father was the only breadwinner in the family, so we had to make drastic changes. I just don’t know how to convey this to the UC’s since their primary focus is GPA.
You may have lower chance to get into STEM majors.
You may have better chance to get into politics.
Did I read that right? UCSD, UCSD, UCSD, and UCSB? Either way while your SAT is pretty competitive for both schools that GPA makes them kind a reach even with your solid essay topics
@coolweather UCSD admits to the university, not to the major. Not sure about SB
if you’re unsure of your major you should try community college. lets you figure out what you want to do without getting in debt for the same two years of education. don’t just go straight to a low tier UC school just because you feel that a UC is the only route. i knew many people like that who thought the greatest accomplishment in life would be getting into UCSD and now they have a biochem degree but are flipping burgers cuz they dont want to look for jobs in their field. no passion for what they studied. they just do it cuz it’s what everyone else is doing.
you have great SAT scores. you should try to go to community college and try to excel there and aim for even better schools. aim for berkeley, aim for some privates. it’s easier to get into ucsd and other uc’s when you’re a transfer. there’s the TAG program for several and the there’s university link for ucsd if you’re from san diego. if you don’t know what you want to major in, i highly recommend community college. you’ll save so much money and time. plus if you excel highly in community college, you may have a better chance of getting into better schools and getting better financial aid[better financial aid if you do great…since not much aid given to transfers but if you’re great you may get some. even if you don’t get as much as you might get as a freshman, which tbh, with those grades you may not get that much in terms of merit aid, it’ll still be cheaper than if you had gone for 4 years at a university]
apply to FAFSA for the 2017-2018 school year on january 1st, 2017.
and the thing about your father, that’s a great thing to write about in your essays. GPA isn’t everything. they’ll look at your entire application in context of the circumstances you were in. for example you can talk about how you never spoke up about it because you thought it wasnt relevant to your school life. i went through some family stuff during high school that i never even thought of telling my professors about, i never even wrote about it in essays. i felt like if i wrote about it or told professors about it, it would just sound like an excuse to do badly. but you can talk about how you learned about how important it is to be in a right state of mind and what it means to work hard or struggle financially when the breadwinner is gone and about family roles and learning to adapt to chance, staying resilient and knowing that sometimes life happens and you have to change and adjust and accept the hardships and get through them ect.
im not saying to not apply or to just go to community college cuz it’s bad or anything. im just saying in terms of not having a major, it’s great to explore without having that financial burden of a $14,000 tuition. if you can write a compelling essay i think UCs will definitely consider you. you only did “badly” on AP classes and those are tough. some people in your situation wouldn’t have passed. i know cuz im one of those people that got Fs and Ds on even non-AP things when i went through things. your essay will give context to why you don’t have many extra curriculurs for example. and your SAT score is your saving grace, honestly. it shows that you’re smart and that the potential is there. don’t worry about what your classmates are getting. focus on yourself and in giving 110% in everything that you do. sometimes your best is an A, sometimes it’s a C-. sometimes a half-hearted effort can earn you an A, or even a D. but as long as you did your best you can hold your head high and know you gave it all. it’s important that you’re learning how to do your very best now. i didn’t really try much in high school and i wish i could have tested my limits back then in an earnest manner. it’s something to be proud of when you give something your all. don’t worry too much about the points, in the end you earn something much more valuable than just an averaged number.
UC GPA? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
BTW: UCSD is considered a top tier UC along with UCB/UCLA.
@coolweather Yes, but even if you get rejected by those departments you can be accepted as undeclared to the university. Your major does not affect overall admission.
@DoctorP Huh that’s strange haha. I recall typing UCI, UCR, UCSD, UCD, and UCSB. I don’t know why they all became UCSD. I was posting on my phone so it must have been autocorrect.
@coolweather thank you for that info, I will consider it.
@otoribashi I see what you mean in terms of saving money by going to a CC for two years then transferring to a UC. I never really opened my eyes to CC’s though. I’m also considering CSU’s though i’m not really sure what majors each of them excel in. Similarly for UC’s, I only have a general idea of what majors they specialize in. I may visit some colleges this summer to get an idea. I just want to keep my options open before thinking of going to a CC because although it saves money by going for two years then transferring, I feel that won’t be as strong on a resume than if I had took four straight years at a UC. I do know that there are opportunities for reduced tuition, etc. if you maintain a certain GPA at different UC’s and I will look into that.
I will include the impact of my father’s passing in my essay. I also was unsure if they would see it as an excuse but I feel like it would give a context for my struggle to recover instead of pretending that it did not happen and the admission people thinking that slacking off was the reason for my lower grades. I’m sure they have hearts too and will understand.
I will consider what majors I’m willing to explore after I visit some of these colleges.
The thing I fear is UC’s thinking that I bit off more than I can chew in terms of AP classes. However I did get a B+ first semester for chem and I did get a B in calculus this semester which is better than C’s both semesters.
@Gumbymom Oh nice. Do AP and Honors classes fall under UC Approved Honors Courses? And what are considered as UC approved honors classes?
@Gumbymom Is there a list for the courses that are considered as this? I only found this http://ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/honors/index.html
If you attend a California HS, then you can look up the UC approved Honors/AP courses for your school. Here is the link:
https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/institution
@donaldtrumped i understand most high school students look down on community colleges so i wont try to persuade you further but i just wanted to correct you and say that employers don’t care at all whether you went to community and then to a UC. in the end you just put your degree down on your resume and that’s that. you dont even have to say you went to community. not that there’s anything wrong with that. lots of employers i know actually like community college students cuz they know what the real world is like and they dont tend to look down on them as much as high schoolers do.
also may i suggest looking at majors and university websites? it just doesn’t sound that realistic to only think about potential majors once you’re visiting a school. you don’t really learn too much about all the majors they offer when you’re on a campus tour. that’s something you’ve got to do on your own time and investigate all the programs a school offers and stuff like that. you can end up hours at a computer investigating stuff like that. much more productive than just waiting til you happen to visit a school because realistically you won’t really get told about each individual major when you’re at a school. maybe they’ll go over certain colleges within a university (business, engineering, ect.) but you cant expect tour guides to just do all the research for you. you’ve got to take initiative and figure stuff out for yourself and be active in your pursuit of a potential major.
that way you can ask questions and know what you want to get more info on once you actually visit a campus