<p>I’m a junior right now, and I really want to go to UCSD, unfortunately i’m off to a slow start so I need tips on how to improve my chances.</p>
<p>My freshmen year was horrible, I bombed 2nd semester and ended up with a bunch of Ds and Fs. Sophomore year I improved drastically, getting a 3.667 GPA that year(2.843 counting freshmen year but I understand UC doesnt look at 9th year grades).</p>
<p>Courses I took during sophomore year:
Biology Honors B / A
Geometry A / A
English Honors B / B
Spanish 1 A / B
PE/Health A / A
US History Honors B / B</p>
<p>Junior Year:
AP Lang and Comp
Economics/Modern Hawaiian History
Spanish 2
Alg 2
Advanced Tech
Physics Honors</p>
<p>Doing okay so far, predicting a ~3.6 GPA, same as last year.</p>
<p>Senior year I plan to take:
AP US History
AP Physics
AP Lit and Comp
Chemistry
Programming
Precalc</p>
<p>I also might take 1-2 more courses on e-school as an added bonus.</p>
<p>My passion is with computers, I plan to major in computer science and I already have quite a bit of experience self-learning graphic design, HTML, robotics, and some programming on the side.</p>
<p>As far as extracurriculars go, I have almost nothing. I was in a robotics competition team(botball) in Middle school and won a team award, but i’m not sure if that counts seeing as it was in middle school.</p>
<p>I built and ran a website for about a year in sophomore year, but i’m not sure if that counts since it’s not really an “official” school related thing, same with my hobby building/programming robots with my lego mindstorms kit.</p>
<p>I also worked extensively on a game modification for warcraft 3, which involved heavy use of logic skills(GUI programming) combined with graphic design skills, and a bit of math, but again, I don’t know if this counts.</p>
<p>I have zero volunteer hours so far, but i’m going to work on building those up to an acceptable level. I have no clubs atm, but I am planning on joining leo club/red cross club to get some volunteer work in, i’m no good at math so math team’s out of the question and unfortunately there are really no clubs that genuinely interest me at my school (I will be joining the botball team this year though). Science bowl would sound interesting but there isn’t a team in my school. I don’t really know where to look to get involved, i’ve tried my city website, newspapers, etc, but I cant find anything. I read other people posting here about how they start clubs, do all these cool things, which I would like to do but I dont really know where to start.</p>
<p>I am also one of the best writers in my class, so I dont think i’ll have problems churning out a good essay.</p>
<p>So basically,</p>
<li><p>Would my relatively low GPA ruin my chances at getting in? (so far)</p></li>
<li><p>Do some of the extracurriculars I listed actually count as extracurriculars?</p></li>
<li><p>What are some tips for getting involved in some interesting extracurriculars?</p></li>
<li><p>What are my chances at getting into UCSD if I continue my GPA track, get maybe 50-100 volunteer hours, and some extra curriculars in? (assuming adequate SAT scores)</p></li>
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