A target for me?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Davis
1

<p>I think this school could be a target for me. My SAT scores are in the upper middle 50% and they like OOS tuitions, right? ($$$) I know being Hispanic won’t help as much is Cali.</p>

<p>Applying for computer science; out of state.</p>

<p>ACADEMIA:</p>

<p>Freshman GPA: 3.52
Sophomore GPA: 3.52
Junior GPA: 3.75 W, 3.7 UW
Overall GPA: About 3.6</p>

<p>SAT Critical Reading: 610
SAT Math: 680
SAT Writing: 680
Total: 1970</p>

<p>My School does not rank.</p>

<p>AP Courses:
Biology (This year)
Computer Science A (Next Year)
Economics (Next Year)</p>

<p>3 letters of recommendation (math teacher, club advisor, guidance counselor)</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULAR:</p>

<p>President of Support our Soldiers Club (10,11,12)
-Interviewed WW2 Veteran, contributed to National Archive</p>

<p>Red Cross Volunteer (8,9,10,11,12)
-Office management, computer database organization, phone duty, etc.</p>

<p>Varsity Swimming (9,10,11,12)
-Not a recruit!</p>

<p>Member of School Atmosphere Committee(11,12; Club was founded this year)
-Group of students selected by faculty
-Helped create a video to send to New England Board of Accreditation to display information about our school
-Spread word about school ideals and beliefs in various ways</p>

<p>HOOKS:</p>

<p>I am of Hispanic descent.</p>

<p>I will not be applying for financial aid (?).</p>

2

<p>Your test scores are good (if you have the chance to improve them, it can’t hurt), but you’ll want to work on that GPA. 75% of admitted freshmen this year had a weighted GPA of 3.86 or above. Also, we need a bit of context; what kind of school do you attend? Public, private, how competitive, is it magnet or prep or what? If your school offers a lot of AP classes and you’re only taking three of them, you will not look like a student who really wants to be challenged. Why no AP calc or stats? What math will you be taking?</p>

<p>I doubt that your residency and financial aid status will be significant either way. Keep in mind that although we have around a 50% admit rate, the vast majority (>85%) are CA residents which means that number may not accurately reflect the rate for out of state and international students.</p>

<p>If you blow them away with your essays and letters of rec, you should be an easy in. But I don’t see any particular strengths jumping out at me, so if your essays and recs aren’t likely to be particularly strong I would put this one down as a reach for you.</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the reply, I have decided to apply to Clemson instead.</p>

4

<p>Why “instead”? Why not apply to both, and see how it goes? Compared to the eventual cost of your education, in terms of both time and money, applications cost almost nothing.</p>