Asian Male 16 High School Junior. Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Ethnicity, gender already stated above.

High School: Top 50 public in nation

Unweighted GPA: 3.35
Weighted GPA: 3.45
UC GPA: 3.60
(these are only GPAs up to 1st junior semester)
(I hope my low GPA will be an exception. If my grades were a graph, they would exponentially rise, due to my increased GPA from freshman to junior 1st sem.)

SAT: 1470 (Math: 750, Reading:720) Writing: 21/24
ACT: 32 (planning to retake, hoping for 33+) Writing: 10/12

Extracurriculars:
-Piano (11 years, 17 competitions, Southern California Bach finalist, CM 10, taking Panel in Feb.)
-School Orchestra (3 years, String Bass)
-Vice-President of county branch of major volunteer organization (elder center visit, manage teens, leadership, speaking, etc.)
-Novice Java programmer (learning along with the horrible AP Computer Science program at my school)

-[IN PROGRESS] writing Java book with friend (planning to publish on Amazon)

Hobbies:
-user on WallStreetSurvivor (stock market/economy simulator), ranked top 2% in Practice Portfolio
-stop-motion Lego animation YouTube channel (mildly successful)
-“works” at drama website, translating T.V. series to English

College Goals (general thoughts):
Reach: Georgia Tech, Rennesauler Polytechnics, UC Davis, UCI, UCSB
Target: UIUC, Virginia Tech
Safety: Cal Poly Pomona, Calstate Fullerton, UC Riverside, WPI

I’m not sure what to major in (I’m not good at anything) but I am leaning towards the STEM field.
Generally (and most likely), engineering. Hopefully also pick up Business or Accounting on the way.
Ideally, I would like to work in the cybersecurity industry. However, I do not know much about it.

2

I will only comment on the CA schools.

Based on your stats, I would remove either UCD or UCSB from your Reach schools. You only need 2-3 at most.

I would also put UCR as a target school. Cal Poly Pomona and CSU Fullerton are good safeties especially if you are in their local in-service area.

If you are targeting STEM/Business, I would add CSU Long Beach or San Jose State or San Diego State as Target schools and also possibly UC Santa Cruz.

For the UC’s, if you planning to pursue a STEM major, your low GPA will not be an exception unless you have a compelling reason for your lower grades. If you look at the decision threads from the last few years, High GPA almost always wins out over High Test Scores.

Since it looks like you are a CA resident, make sure you run the costs of the out of state schools by your parents to make sure they are affordable. Good Luck and get good grades Spring Semester.

3

Sorry, I mistyped. The UCD, UCSB, and UCI should be in my target section.
Do you think I have a shot at those universities?

4

With your current UC GPA of 3.6, it will be really tough for the Mid-tier UC’s especially for STEM/Engineering.

Freshman admits with UC GPA of 3.40-3.79:

UCD: 11%
UCSB: 13%
UCI: 16%