Any suggestions on where to apply?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So hello there.. realized I was going to be a senior, started looking up colleges, but I really don't know where I should apply still. I'm thinking of going into nutrition but that's an extremely uncommon major.. then there was this idea of optometry.. computer science.. oh, it changes with the seasons. So anyways, here are my "stats" as I can remember them.. haha they might be slightly off. Ehh i'm going to have to do some digging later =(</p>

<p>9th grade:
Art 1 - A
Chinese 1 - A
P.E. Core - A
English 9 Honors - A
Algebra 2 Honors - A
Chemistry - A</p>

<p>10th grade:
AP World history - A (3)
Chinese 2 - A
P.E. Core- A
English 10 Honors - A
Adv. Math Analysis - A
AP Chemistry - A (3)</p>

<p>11th grade:
Orchestra - A
Chinese 3 - A
DS P.E. - pass
US History - A
AP Comp - A
AP Calc BC - B | A
AP Bio - B | B (I think I actually have an A.. but I have to check that next year X_X)</p>

<p>Anticipated schedule for next year:
Orchestra
Physics
DS P.E.
AP Lit
AP Stats
AP Gov
AP Environmental Science</p>

<p>GPA.. I have no idea anymore.. and I don't feel like calculating it. Well lets see.. 5 AP's and 1 weighted class that isn't an AP.. 3 B's in those APs.. Ehhhh!!!!</p>

<p>SAT I : 2000 (mm .. will retake. i did bad on the essay -_-)
SAT IIs : Math II c -690 Biology - 730 Chemistry - 680 </p>

<p>Yeah, not too pretty on the standardized stuff. I totally regret not taking Math IIc when I was taking Adv Math.. Calculus is like useless on that exam. Anyway...<br>
oh..yeah my AP scores suck.</p>

<p>I'm bulletin editor for Key Club, and I kind of ditched the rest of my clubs junior year for some reason.. probably a really bad idea, but yeah. -<em>- I was too lazy to pay dues. Haha, what a reason.
Piano for 12 years (lots of awards for this -</em>- typical asian girl lol)
Viola for 1 year .. haha
Guitar for .. I don't know.. 3 years? O_o such bad memory
JV badminton
Volunteer at the library
Church..
Link Crew Leader
Mathlete (yay-ah!)</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure I'm in the top 5% .. I was rank 1 last year (with a lot of my friends haha) but.. Yeah i kind of messed up junior year.. so who knows. O_o
I go to a large school, around 2000 students.
Definitely am not taking the hardest course there is here, but that's because my school offers way too many APs haha</p>

<p>I'm not much of a writer.. well okay, I really have no idea. My writing quality fluctuates madly. So the essay thing is kind of unpredictable. Oh, and I hate interviews.</p>

<p>So, someone tell me if I'm shooting way out of my range, or what?
Honestly I really don't have a clue what goes on in this applying-to-college world.</p>

<p>So what do you think of my list?</p>

<p>List! haha this is so depressing.
Reaches:
Stanford (yeah right. but anyway.. parents somehow wanted me to try!)
Pomona
UC Berkeley
UCLA</p>

<p>Matches:
UCI
UCD (er princetonreview called this a reach but i think it belongs here?)
USC
Cal Poly
Westmont
(er.. i dont really know anything about these colleges)</p>

<p>Safety:
What safety?
I need some safety schools..</p>

<p>Oh yeah, I would really like to stay in California.. but.. if there's something out there that would be good..?</p>

2

<p>The lower UCs will be safe.</p>

3

<p>Just go to Berkeley. It's sexy. I wish I could take advantage of the UC system in-state. You're lucky. For safety schools, just find some large in-state colleges that care about numbers (because your numbers are good), and perhaps get some good private ones too. I'm not too familiar with California colleges...UCs, Stanford, and USC are all that come to mind. Good luck!</p>

4

<p>Haha, sexy, ay?</p>

5

<p>Yes ma'am. Good programs and lots of Asians. How could one go wrong?</p>

6

<p>Yeah, true. But if you knew me, I don't know, most people can't see me at Berkeley because I am so not liberal.</p>

7

<p>I agree, but I think I'd like constantly battling liberals in endless debates. The political atmosphere of a college doesn't bother me too much, and I think it'd be interesting to form a more conservative group at Berkeley -- for sport, I'd say. Just watch out for election 2008.</p>

8

<p>Ah, elections. -_- Haha I think I would get sick of debating after awhile. Conservative group at Berkeley would be quite interesting! If only I could find such conservatives.</p>

9

<p>hm.. what about like.. UCSD? or something.. any other potential colleges I forgot? yeahhh i'm so lost. I liked Berkeley when I visited it.. but outside of Berkeley it's soo.. dirty.. >_< which i didn't like.</p>

10

<p>Does UCDavis have one of the best food science programs in the country? Give it a look see. Medium to large state schools, would probably be your best bet with your range of interests.
Also, I'm assuming you are in-state for California, if you decide on a specialized program like food science or nutrition, etc, and one school like Davis is much better than your other choices, you might consider going the community college route and transferring, in order to get into a specific program.</p>

11

<p>I recall that Davis does have some sort of food science program, but I really don't know. Oh question, why would going to community college and then tranferring get me into a specific program? Does it make a difference to transfer?</p>

12

<p>This is a question for your guidance counselor, but I think CA has a top notch CC system, which facilitates transfers into the best CA unis (of course, for students with high grades in CC) My reasoning was that if you identified a specific program like food science or enology or animal science that was particularly strong at a particular CA uni, then if you didn't get into that school, rather than going to a second best program, go to CC and apply as a transfer.</p>

<p>Most kids posting here are doing some flavor of general liberal arts, possibly pre-med or pre-law, with a healthy minority of engineers and computer science folks. If you have an interest in a defined program like nutrition, or pharmacy, nursing, teaching, vet school, accounting, etc, you may want to start your college search by identifying the schools that have strong programs in your area of interest, rather than looking at what is the best school I can get into - Davis might be much better than Berkeley, for example, for a kid interested in some aspects of food science.
That doesn't mean you can't transfer from a higher ranked school to a lower, but other folks from Ca have posted that it is difficult to go from a lower ranked 4 year to a higher ranked 4 year - those spots are "reserved" for the CC transfers. These are issues to explore with your GC, but first you need to think yourself about what you want to do with your life, and how certain are you that a given field is for you. As you answer these questions for yourself, it will help you define what is the best academic fit for you.</p>

13

<p>Just wanted to mention one thing: if you're applying to the UC's, double check that orchestra will cover your "fine arts" UC requirement. The UC's have approved it at some schools but not at others. You can check by doing a search for your school's UC approved classes at <a href="http://www.ucop.edu/doorways%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.ucop.edu/doorways&lt;/a>. If your school doesn't have UC approval for it, you will need to fit in a class to cover that fine arts requirement this year.</p>

14

<p>Adv. Orchestra is approved, Beg. isn't, so i'm okay ^^;;</p>

<p>Thank you for the replies!! =) My guidance counselor is not so much of a guider, unfortunately.. I find myself more confused when I ask her questions and she's not all that helpful, but I'll give it a try.</p>

<p>I'm not really sure if nutrition is what I want to do.. I am incredibly indecisive >_< But yeah I should probably figure out what I want to do, or what fits me, first.</p>

15

<p>Berkeley has nutrition as a major and also as a graduate program.. (i dont know if i worded that right)
Is it harder to get into a graduate program if you were an undergrad at that school? O_o</p>

16

<p>Your reach/match list sounds good. add UCSD to match.</p>

<p>do you want to stay in CA for safety? LMU, santa clara university, "lower" UCs, pitzer,</p>

17

<p>yeah I want to stay in California</p>

18

<p>okay, redo of my list</p>

<p>Ridiculous Reaches:
Stanford
Pomona
Cal Tech
(haha ignore these.. the chances of getting in there are like.. .0000000000000001%)</p>

<p>Reaches:
Claremont Mckenna (can someone tell me more about this school?)
UC Berkeley
UCLA</p>

<p>Matches:
UCD
USC
Scripps (not sure about this.. it's all women.. any more info on this?)</p>

<p>Safeties
APU
Cal Poly SLU</p>

<p>..do i really need two safeties?</p>

19

<p>Scripps is a very good college. The woman I'm interning for this summer went there and had a great experience. She took a variety of classes at Pomona and Claremont McKenna so there is that opportunity to take classes at coed schools. Don't be hesitant about looking into women's colleges, it may turn out to be a great experience :)</p>

<p>I think you're a shoo-in for Cal Poly SLO and UCD based on your grades and test scores.</p>

20

<p>I am currently a student at UC Davis and it is very difficult (often a reach) to get into any major to do with agricultural engineering, veterinarian studies, food science, biology, etc. For most other majors it is on par with the mid-UCs. It is certainly one of the best in its specialty though.....Check out this link.....
<a href="http://www.in-cites.com/research/2003/march_24_2003-1.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.in-cites.com/research/2003/march_24_2003-1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>