Bad SAT scores, but good grades and lots of extra curricular activities. Can I still get into a UC?

State Forums
1

So today i recieved my sat score and it was really really low. Im a really bad test taker and i recieved lower than my psat score of 1470. Anyway, i was wondering if UC s will still be able to accept me for my other achievements and high GPA.

So far:
-i have an accumulative gpa of 3.9

  • has taken 2 honors classes and 2 AP classes
  • ranked top 3% of my class
  • captain of the badminton and golf team
  • junior and senior class vice president
    -co-president of Journalism club
  • involved in clubs:
    Filipino-American club (filam)
    Journalism
    National honor society
    California Scholarship Federation
  • has over 100 hours of volunteer hours
2

Calculate your UC GPA: http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Your SAT is below average for all the UC’s even UC Merced whose average was 1638 last admission cycle. You have a competitive GPA, but your SAT score will hurt. You need to spend time this summer prepping and retake in Oct and aim for at least a 1700+ for a good chance at UCM/UCR/UCSC. You might also want to try the ACT in September. Both of my son’s did better on the ACT vs. SAT. EC’s and essays are also part of your application but unfortunately they will make up for lower than average tests scores. My older son was not a very good test taker but was able to get an ACT of 26 (SAT equiv to 1760). He did explain his difficulty in his timed test taking indirectly in one of his UC essays. Work hard and Good Luck.

3

Thank you @gumbymom! I was actually thinking about taking the ACTs in september since I hear the test is mainly math and science. And if i happen to not do as well on the ACTs i was planning on going to a state university or a community college.

4

The ACT consists of Math/Science/English/Reading and Writing. Similar to the SAT with the addition of Science but the science section is more about reading graphs and interpreting data. I suggest you get a prep book for the ACT and it is much more time dependent than the SAT.

Many of the Cal States are comparable academically to the UC’s such as Cal Poly SLO, SDSU and CSULB. These are great options.