Chance a non AP/IB student for UC Berkeley + T50 schools?

Demographics: Transgender male, White, Medium public school, First-gen student

Geographics: small town in Washington state

Financial: $90,000 a year income

Major: Political science

SAT/ACT: Not submitting, didn’t get the chance to take it before COVID

GPA and rank: 3.94 UW and top 8% of class

My school doesn’t do weighted GPAs, however, when self calculated it’s uncertain as I have taken lots of Dual Enrollment classes which every state/school weights differently. So, depending on weighting it could be anywhere from 4.4 - 4.7 W

Classes:

1 AP, 10 Honors, 18 Dual Enrollment college courses

My Dual Enrollment means I will be graduating from High school with an AA

Was in the highest musical groups of Jazz and Orchestra in my school all 4 years.

EC’s:

Created my own successful online business in my Junior year making $50,000+ a year. Managed PR, ran marketing campaigns, did my own accounting

Local Philharmonics Principal Bassist. was #1 Bassist in my counties musical philharmonic 10th-12th grade

Nearby cities Youth Jazz Ensemble. Played bass from 7th-9th grade, till offered a better position by the philharmonic above.

Invited as a Pacific Lutheran University Jazz and Orchestra Honors musician 9th-11th grade. Met twice a year for a large concert.

Worked as a Barista 10th-12th grade at Barnes and Noble.

Started volunteering as a bassist for my local church during COVID to play in the band on online broadcasts when people couldn’t attend service in person. Raised money for local nonprofits.

Volunteered as a “Stream Steward” in 12th grade by restoring local parks and nature reserves. Also focused on climate change and creating more sustainable parks.

Gay Straight alliance member 9th-10th grade

Awards:

CWU John Moawad Musicianship Award: I was chosen after my jazz band I played in performed and was judged by a panel. Judges then would take note of select players that stood out due to their solos and overall outstanding ability. Out of a few 1000, about 20 were chosen. Won for my own written solo piece/overall playing

Olympic College Presidential Scholar: This award was given by my local community college to students who maintained a 4.0 GPA while taking a certain number of higher-level courses that the college offered.

Essays:

Common App: Wrote about the intersection of my transgender identity and my journey as a musician. didn’t spend a super long time on it, but I still thought it was pretty good and a unique topic.

UC Essays:

  1. Wrote about my journey of creating my business and leadership. Tied it into certain creative dreams of my childhood and how they connected with what I was doing now.
  2. One of my favorite essays. Wrote about my creativity in music and the experience of being engulfed in it when playing shows.
  3. Talked about what my transgender identity means to me and my unique discoveries due to it.
  4. A couple of years ago I attended a community event where I witnessed an act of police brutality as a BIPOC man was shot and killed about 5 feet in front of me. There was no reason for the violence that day, yet my judiciary allowed the officer to continue working while receiving no charges. Talked about my experience and, how this lead me to political action and my future dreams of a career in politics.

College List: (All RD)

Western Washington University: accepted

University of Oregon: accepted

Loyola University Chicago: accepted

University of Washington - Seattle

University of San Francisco

University of Denver

UCSC, UCSB, UCSD, UCLA, UC Berkeley

George Washington University

Fordham

Boston University

Showed as much demonstrated interest as I could for every single one of my private schools.

UCs: very little chance of being affordable, as they give no need-based financial aid to non-California residents, and large merit scholarships are rare and should be considered high reach.

I’m not worried about the affordability right now, I’d just like to know if I could get in.

Admission without affordability = rejection.

For the three colleges that admitted you, do you have financial aid packages that make them affordable?

For the others, have you run the net price calculators on their web sites?

What is your UC GPA’s? GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

HS course rigor is Very Important to the UC’s and as an OOS applicant only AP/IB or DE courses (which are UC Transferable) will be recognized for the extra honors points in the GPA calculation.

Here is some UC admit Data below:

2020 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:

UCB: 14%

UCLA: 8%

UCSD: 39%

UCSB: 40%

UCD: 55%

UCI: 38%

UCSC: 82%

UCR: 90%

UCM: 97%

2020 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:

UCB: 37%

UCLA: 38%

UCSD: 78%

UCSB: 81%

UCD: 86%

UCI: 60%

UCSC: 92%

UCR: 97%

UCM: 98%

2020 UC capped weighted GPA averages along with 25th-75th percentile range:

UCB: 4.22 (4.13-4.30)

UCLA: 4.25 (4.18-4.31)

UCSD: 4.16 (4.04-4.28)

UCSB: 4.15 (4.03-4.27)

UCI: 4.11 (3.96-4.26)

UCD: 4.11 (3.97-4.25)

UCSC: 3.94 (3.71-4.16)

UCR: 3.88 (3.65-4.11)

UCM: 3.68 (3.40-3.96)

UCB and UCLA should be considered Reach schools. UCSB and UCSD depending upon your UC Capped weighted GPA are either Low Reach or Target schools. UCSC would be a safe/likely school if affordable at $65K/year.

I think you have a very good chance of getting in. Any college would/should be happy to get a student like you.

1 Like

agreed