Chance a Cali Resident for PoliSci [4.0, 1570]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics

  • US domestic (US citizen or permanent resident) or international student: US Citizen
  • State/Location of residency: (state is important if you apply to any state universities): California
  • Type of high school (current college for transfers): Public School
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity (optional): Asian Male
  • Other special factors (first generation to college, legacy, athlete, etc.): None

Intended Major(s)
PoliSci

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.55
  • Class Rank: 5/580
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1570 (780 EBRW, 790M), 1510 PSAT

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))
10th: AP Euro (5), AP Chem (5), AP AB (5)
11th: APUSH, AP BC, Honors Spanish, Honors Anatomy, AP Lang
12th: AP Spanish, AP Econ, AP Stats, AP Gov, AP Lit

Awards
Speech and Debate Nationals 2x
Speech and Debate States 2x
Couple of other major tournament victories

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Featured performer at a prestigious youth orchestra
All State in 9th Grade on my instrument
Spent summers tutoring local kids in S & D (3 years)
NSLI (Summer of 2023)
President of DECA (3 years)
President of Speech and Debate Club
Other Volunteering

Essays/LORs/Other
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)
Essays 9/10
LOR 10/10
LOR 2 10/10

Cost Constraints / Budget
(High school students: please get a budget from your parents and use the Net Price Calculators on the web sites of colleges of interest.)
Full Pay

Schools
(List of colleges by your initial chance estimate; designate if applying ED/EA/RD; if a scholarship is necessary for affordability, indicate that you are aiming for a scholarship and use the scholarship chance to estimate it into the appropriate group below)

  • Safety (certain admission and affordability)
    UCR
    UCM
    UCSC

  • Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
    UCSB
    UCSD
    UCI
    UCD

  • Match
    UMich
    UCB
    UCLA
    Georgetown
    USC

  • Reach
    Columbia (ED)
    UPenn
    Dartmouth
    Harvard
    Stanford
    Cornell
    Yale
    Brown
    UChicago
    Northwestern

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Strong candidate. Hard to chance UCs The test won’t count. You’ll need your 3 GPAs for others to chance.

If you’re ok with your 3 safeties you are good to go.

With a 4.0 you could have access to big merit at other OOS publics too if interested - an Arizona, Miami of Ohio, etc.

I would move your matches to reach category but I surmise you’ll get into one but it’s impossible to know. You might want to add in a William & Mary or Brandeis type vs pure reaches. American or GW might be others to look at.

Good luck.

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Congratulations on your achievements.

Here’s the UC GPA calculator, so you can calculate your 3 UC GPAs. GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

I can’t chance you but agree with tsbna that all your matches are reaches. They all have sub 20% acceptance rates, so are reaches for all unhooked applicants.

I do think you have too many reaches. Can you pare them down? Applying to all these schools will require many essays, which will take considerable time and effort to do well.

Also agree with tsbna’s additional school recs. What are your career goals (realizing those might change)?

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Congratulations on your excellent academic record and being a competitive applicant. I agree that since the UC’s are test blind and only UCB may ask for LOR’s, your chances are not that straight forward.

Since Political science is found in the College of Letter and Sciences at most of the UC campuses, the College does not admit by major so you are competing with all applicants within that college.

For example, UCLA’s admit rate for the College of L&S was 10% which puts it in the Reach category.

Below are how I would chance you for the UC’s and if admit data for PS was available, I have included that information.

Very Likely: UCM (90%) and UCR (90%)

Likely: UCSC (53% admitted into a proposed major of PS)

Target: UCD (38% admitted into the College of L&S)

High Target/Low Reach: UCI (28%), UCSB (27% admitted in the College of L&S), UCSD (27% extrapolated based on yield and College admits)

Reach: UCLA (10% admitted into the College of L&S) and UCB (12% admitted into the College of L&S).

Best of luck and you will have many options from which to choose.

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They may be affordable and you may be likely to be admitted, but would you happily attend Riverside, Merced or Santa Cruz? If not, you need to find a likely/safety that you will be happy to attend.

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Congratulations on building such a strong profile in high school! You will be a strong candidate at many schools.

I agree with others about how to rearrange your list with respect to reaches (i.e. most of your matches are reaches and you have a LOT of reaches). Would you be happy to enroll at every single institution on your list and remain there for four years? If any college on the list doesn’t have a “yes” as an answer, then you should remove the school. Too often students put “safeties” on their list but think of them as schools of last resort, and end up quite unhappy when those are the only options available to them. Don’t let that be you.

In looking at your list it appears that you prefer medium to large schools, preferably with some cachet. If you are looking for schools that are likelier than your reaches but not a UC, then these are some other schools you may want to consider. The schools with the asterisks are those in their state capitals, as it is often beneficial for students with a poli sci major to be located in a capital for the internship opportunities.

  • Brandeis (MA): About 3700 undergrads. Not in the state capital, but a 22m drive from it.
  • College of the Holy Cross (MA): About 3100 undergrads
  • Fordham (NY): About 10k undergrads
  • Lehigh (PA ): About 5600 undergrads
  • Loyola Marymount (CA): About 7300 undergrads
  • Providence* (RI): About 4k undergrads
  • San Diego State (CA): About 32k undergrads
  • Santa Clara (CA): About 6100 undergrads
  • U. of Maryland: About 30k undergrads…make sure to apply EA as more than 90% of slots are filled EA.
  • U. of Minnesota-Twin Cities*: About 36k undergrads
  • U. of Richmond* (VA): About 3100 undergrads
  • U. of Rochester (NY): About 6800 undergrads
  • U. of San Diego (CA): About 5700 undergrads
  • U. of Wisconsin - Madison* : About 36k undergrads
  • Villanova (PA ): About 7k undergrads
  • Wake Forest (NC): About 5500 undergrads
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If proximity to a state capital is desired, there are also (among state universities):

  • Alabama State University and Troy University
  • Arizona State University
  • CSU Sacramento and UC Davis
  • University of Colorado - Denver and Metropolitan State University - Denver
  • Florida State University and Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
  • University of Hawaii - Manoa
  • Louisiana State University
  • University of Massachusetts - Boston
  • University of Nebraska - Lincoln
  • The College of New Jersey
  • University of Nevada - Reno
  • SUNY Albany
  • North Carolina State University
  • The Ohio State University
  • Western Oregon University and Oregon State University
  • University of South Carolina - Columbia
  • Tennessee State University
  • University of Texas - Austin
  • University of Utah
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What is your interest in Cornell College (which is different from Cornell University) and the United States Military Academy, which are in the tags?

If you are interested in the USMA and therefore a career as an Army officer, will you be doing Army ROTC at other colleges?

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Is this meant to go in a different thread? If not, can you please clarify how this relates to OP? I am rather puzzled by your post.

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OP tagged Cornell College and West Point when creating the post. Perhaps in error but good to clarify if they have interest in those.

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Seconding American, Brandeis, UWisconsin Madison, URichmond as good matches to have - most of your matches are low reaches due to acceptance rates although you’re competitive for them.

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Hey sorry that was a mistake, I didn’t mean to do that haha

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I removed them for you.

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Hey sorry I actually forgot to include this in my post but I do have sibling legacy to columbia, would that help in any way? That also kind of influenced my choice to ED there

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According to Columbia’s website, your connection to your sibling will not qualify you as a legacy (source).

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You should only ED to a school that is your clear #1 choice. You will be a strong candidate anywhere. I would advise against choosing an ED school based on where you think you have your “best shot.” Most of the schools are reaches, simply due to their popularity, but you stand a chance at any of them.

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