<p>Hey guys, I thought it'd be much more accurate to ask for my chances on the college forum then the overcrowded, crazy*ss "What are my Chances" forum haha.</p>
<p>Gender: M
Ethnicity: Asian</p>
<p>SAT: 2310
SAT II's: Math II (800), Chem (750)
AP's: Chem (4), Psych (5), Stats (5)</p>
<p>Senior Year Schedule:
AP English (W)
Govt/Econ
AP Physics B (W)
Finite/Discrete Math (W)
AP Calculus AB (W)
Digital Imaging</p>
<p>EC's:
-volunteering ~150 hours
-track and field 9th, 10th grade
-football 12th grade (Varsity)
-DECA States Comp(ranked 8th place)</p>
<p>Probably gonna apply for a community college course over summer as well. Will my test grades overshadow the GPA issues (esp. considering that my courses are pretty difficult and there's a upward trend)?</p>
<p>you need a really touching sob story that grabs the readers attention and emotions for one of your essays and you will be in.</p>
<p>without a great explanation for your grades, its going to be tough albeit possible because of your sat score. just keep in mind that the value of sat scores has been diminishing with ALL uc’s for the past few years now. MAKE SURE you apply to a lot of private universities because your sat score should take you pretty far with them.</p>
<p>Well, gotta admit I’m kinda lazy lol, but my high school is ranked around 36th best in the nation overall and top 5 public high schools I believe. I don’t really have a great explanation haha, but I guess the personal statement and essays will be deciding factors for my case, especially since my EC’s aren’t that great either.</p>
<p>So, it’s a combination of competitiveness and laziness? The competitiveness is understandable (I go to a similarly ranked high school as yours), but the laziness is more tricky to explain.</p>
<p>If you can find a good difficulty or hardship that you’ve overcome in your life, that may help cover your bad grades.</p>
<p>For now, you have an okay chance. Remember the UC’s focus the most on personal statement, then GPA. If you can write fantastic personal statements that reveal who you are, your fears, your aspirations for the future, your beliefs (not political or religious, but rather your moral and ethics), then your chances go up A LOT. Treat your personal statement like an interview and you will have a very nice chance at, not only UCSD, but UCLA and Berkeley as well.</p>
<p>I wish you the best of luck. If you can, start on those personal statements and start revising. It’s best to start early on these and not rush them.</p>
<p>@latitude123: You will see MANY 3.9-4.0 students get into the top UC’s with 1800-1900 SAT’s. They are MUCH more GPA orientated than SAT orientated. </p>
<p>But they are even MORE personal statement orientated than GPA. I talked to both a UCLA and a UC Berkeley admissions officer. They told me that the personal statement was THE most important part of the student’s application. If their personal statement really showed the type of person they are and revealed a lot of personality and potential, a lower GPA and SAT can be overlooked.</p>
<p>However, application review processes are HOLISTIC. Your GPA and SAT NEVER goes away for good. You still need to be realistic. A 2.0 GPA and 1200/2400 SAT isn’t going to get you into Cal or UCLA unless you cured cancer and had Down’s Syndrome or something. But the personals statement, if written well, can get you very far.</p>
<p>My own experiences with the UC admissions is a testimony to their emphasis on the personal statement.</p>
<p>If you asked me before I went through this application process, I would completely disagree with AceAites. However, having gone through it, it is true. The personal statement has a hell lot of power with the UC’s now…GPA and Personal Statement are around the same level now. It is kind of scary that someone can get years of slacking overlooked based on one essay but it is what it is. </p>
<p>Like I said, if you make your personal statement really touching and emotional (that you overcame hardship), then your GPA will be overlooked due to that essay in combo with your SAT.</p>
<p>OP’s stats aren’t even that bad. The SAT is phenomenal, which makes a “sob but overcame hardship” story much more believable, since the admissions would probably interpret it as “a super bright student full of potential going through major difficulties” because his SAT and other test scores are so disproportionately high compared to his GPA.</p>
<p>@OP: You do have a huge advantage working for you. Can you think of any tough hardships that you’ve overcome and used as motivation to succeed? If you can and write very well by playing on that, with your high SAT, I believe that Cal is very possible for you.</p>
<p>Hmm… cause my GPA is pretty low (approx. 4.06 fully weighted, with a strong upward curve 3.86 → 4.4, my unweighted is pretty low), however I am confident I can get a good ACT (31 no prep), with pretty good ECs. So if I write a great Personal Statement, could I be a competitive applicant?</p>