Chance Me + A LOT of Questions

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Santa Barbara
1

<p>Sex/Ethnicity: Male, White (German immigrant, attained citizenship 10 years ago)
In-State
1 Parent with graduate school - "wealthy" - can't pull the poor or the immigrant card, fml
Major: Engineering (not exactly sure what branch yet)
Public School (top 30 in California)
GPA: UW 3.5, W3.7
SAT I: 2040 (M: 750, CR: 660, W: 630)
SAT II: Math 2: 700 - Physics: 670 - Chemistry 585 (not submitting chemistry, was from way back in freshman year, people just told me to try it, no harm done)</p>

<p>APs:
Mehap: 3
*most of the AP courses at my school are only offered our senior year
Senior year (yet to come)
Physics C AP
Spanish IV AP
Microeconomics AP</p>

<p>EC's:
Club Soccer 10 years - regional champion, two time state champs
Cross Country - 2 years
Soccer (JV 2 years, Varsity 2 years)
Guitar - 7 years
DJing - 2 years</p>

<p>Clubs:
Model UN (2 years, Treasurer)
Spearheaded the Ski/Snowboard Club (President, 1 year)
(biggest club on campus, had to organize 300 people - liability wavers, transportation, arranging trips, totalling costs, ect.)</p>

<p>Community Service: 100 hours (haven't actually gotten these total hours yet but they're going to get done this fall before I have to send in applications) Won't be saving the starving children in Africa, curing cancer, or teaching the mentally handicapped how to read......just me teaching classes as the YMCA, god help me I'm not a "I'm gonna change the world" person. </p>

<p>GPA would have been a 3.6 but I had some problems in my sophomore year with some teachers losing a packet of work covering an entire semester, hence a D in what should have been an A. Came back second semester and got a 105% in the class but teacher refused to change my previous grade. This was for MEHAP btw, ended up getting a 3 on the test. meh</p>

<p>I'm planning on retaking my SAT I because I only got 2 problems wrong on the math section and they were both careless errors on the easier section, and I'm going to study up on the writing since that's what really held back my score overall (mostly getting Vocab wrong which should be one of the easiest things to study for as it's just investing time).</p>

<p>Also retaking the SAT II's. I'm taking German for sure (I'm a native German speaker, but I think having an 800 on the SAT II is a lot more respectable than just saying on my resume "I'm fluent in German, Spanish, and English," since anyone can say that in passing.</p>

<p>I really don't think I would do well on my tests if I took 3 at a time and so besides German I would prefer to only have to retake 1 of my other SAT IIs. So should I retake the Math 2 or Physics?</p>

<p>I took Calculus 10A at UCSD this summer, because I was going to have 7 periods in my senior year of highschool (4 of them being AP's) and didn't think I'd be able to cope with the academic load. So by not having to take a math class during the year I've cut my courseload to 6 classes with only 3 being APs. (Also took a Poli Sci 12: Intro to Int'l Relations class, which has nothing to do with engineering, but just thought I'd mention it).</p>

<ol>
<li>Overall chances of me getting into UCSB?</li>
<li>Do you think this is unappealing to colleges since it will look like I didn't want to take a math class my senior year? </li>
<li>Will I look more unappealing than a student who just took Calc AB during their senior year and took the AP test? I fail to see the point of taking the AP test for Calc seeing as colleges will already have given us their acceptance/rejection letters so is there any point?</li>
<li>Also I know that Calculus AB (as well as BC) in highschool cover the course material of both Calc 10A and 10B, so I'm considering taking 10B at my local community college so I won't be "behind."</li>
<li>Again, retake Math 2 or Physics for my SAT II. Physics would definitely see a more substantial gain percentage wise, but an 800 in math 2 would look a lot better engineering wise.</li>
<li>Also while I'm at it, if I don't get into UCSB for Engineering, should I go as undeclared and then try to make up the classes I've essentially "missed" over the summer session and try to transfer into Engineering? Is it really difficult to transfer into engineering?</li>
</ol>

2

<p>I am sure you have a good chance to get into SB. As for Engineering, yes… take hard math classes and get good scores. </p>

<p>Although… I think that D might screw you over. People in 2009 were rejected for having a D on their transcript to ALL the UC’S. This is just info from my friends though, not sure how true it is.</p>

3

<p>can anyone else answer some of my other questions?</p>

4

<p>3) the reason they want you to take the AP test is so they see you follow through. Why would you take an AP class without taking the AP test that the class prepares you for? They will expect to see the score when you send in your AP scores.</p>

5

<p>yea but even if I were a senior who regularly takes calculus during this year, I still wouldn’t be taking the AP test until May by which we’ve already gotten college acceptance/rejected letters.</p>

6

<ol>
<li>You have a decent shot, but that D might really hurt you. Why didn’t you make it up at your CC over the summer? Could you still maybe fit it in online somehow or something?</li>
<li>No, I don’t think it will be unappealing. My junior year math teacher (Pre-Calc) actually recommended taking Calc over the summer for those of us with heavy courseloads. You gave up part of your summer, so I don’t think it will show laziness in your senior year but rather the opposite.</li>
<li><p>I don’t think it will look more unappealing, and I don’t think that not taking the test will mean you aren’t “following through.” You took a class at a CC, NOT an AP class. There’s a difference. An AP class is a high school class, which prepares you to take a test to get college credit. A class at a CC is what your test would give you credit for. My high school counselours always made it seem like taking a class at a CC over the summer is basically equal to taking an AP class and passing the test. If they transferred over to high school credit as well as college, they even weighted our grade. Most of the high achieving kids I know took classes over the summer at our local CC in place of AP classes that wouldn’t fit in their schedule.</p></li>
<li><p>It is easy to transfer between majors within the College of Letters and Sciences, but it is a different process to transfer into the College of Engineering. I don’t know much about it, but maybe you can search around the forum. I don’t think it’s VERY difficult, but I believe you would need a certain GPA as there are different requirements to enter that college. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>Good luck!</p>

7

<p>If it’s just a GPA then all I have to do is work hard during the year to keep a decent GPA, and get the rest through stat-padding classes over the summer. </p>

<p>I was looking through the collegeconfidential stat things under who got accepted into UCSB, and all the people with 3.5-3.6 GPA’s like me had 2100 SAT scores (while the 3.8+ people had like 1900s) so looks like that’s gonna be a big thing I need to study for.</p>

8

<p>actually i dont think that D will harm you as much as you think it may…</p>

<p>this is embarassing, but i actually had two D’s on my transcript, one for second semester of honors algebra 3/4 and one for second semester of honors pre calc.
i ended up retaking those two semesters over summer, and still got C’s…and i still got accepted.
i think it depends on what major you are applying for. i applied as a poli-sci major and then switched to communications, so im sure they didnt focus that much on my math or science grades because those have nothing to do with my major, but looked at my english, history, language, etc classes much more closely. </p>

<p>And a huge factor is also your courseload and EC’s, i think. because my gpa was a 3.4 or 3.3 i think, but i had taken 8 ap classes and 9 ap tests, and i had a ton of EC’s and scored pretty okay on my SAT and Subject tests…</p>

<p>so to sum it all up, i think you have chance.</p>

9

<p>*i mean i think you have a good chance</p>

10

<p>^You retook those subjects and got C’s, so your grade was replaced with a C, which is accepted. As far as I know a D is an automatic rejection, makes sense because after you are accepted they say you have to maintain a 3.0 and no D’s or F’s. Why would they accept you, if you have a D or F already. Although, you can explain to them why you got that D or F and if they take it, then you are fine.</p>

11

<p>If you have a D, that class can’t fulfill a A-G requirement, or something, but you can retake a class with a D or F and replace the grade, I believe.</p>

12

<p>Im gonna try talking to the teacher because my friend was in a similar situation and he changed it. Thing is this teacher hated me, and I can only imagin him saying “So let me get this straight, you’re coming to me, 2 years AFTER you get your D, and NOW you have a problem with it?” Anyways I’ll just bring my girlfriend cause he’s a sexist to anyone with a *****, but doesn’t want to make himself look mean in front of the ladies.</p>

13

<p>yeah, but i dont know if it was replaced, i think it was just added on as a seperate grade into my transcript. So even though the D’s were there, they saw that i had retaken the classes and passed.</p>

14

<p>Alright well I’m still freaked to talk to my teacher about the D but I’ll do it sometime soon when I get over my fears.
Apart from that at least I found a way to get the 100 hours of community service before November when UC apps are due.</p>

<p>Also if I take the SAT II’s in November, then my scores won’t be released until December. Can I still send those scores in and they’ll replace them with my previous ones on my trancript (app)?</p>