Chance Me (Communications Major UCI UCSB UCLA NYU BU)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi I am currently an incoming senior
GPA (weighted): 4.0
GPA unweighted: 3.64
Class Rank: 200/564
SAT: 1420 (taking ACT)
PSAT: 1470
SAT IIs: taking Math later
upper middle class
east asian
silicon valley
female

took 1 ap sophomore year (ap euro)
AP EURO: 4
took 4 aps junior year (ap lang, ap capstone seminar, apush, & ap calc ab)
AP LANG: 5
AP CAPSTONE: 4
AP CALC: 4
AP US HISTORY: 3
planning on taking 4 aps senior year (ap lit ap stats ap gov econ)

extracurriculars:

  1. president of volunteer club
  2. active member of coding volunteering club for elementary school kids
  3. board of arts & crafts club with autistic children at school
  4. tutor for middle schoolers
  5. journalism staff at school since sophomore year, page editor and writer (award winning school newspaper)
  6. summer full time job TA for a summer school (teached English)

teacher recommendations ( I know UCs do not ask for these but for other colleges):

  1. getting it from my current AP lang teacher, TAing for her as well (will be good, we are close and she has had me for 2 years and saved my work from freshman year because she liked my writing)
  2. second from apush teacher (we are close)

major: communications

I know my stats are not very impressive but I want to know realistically where I can get into. I would prefer colleges in California (high to mid UCs) or the east coast (BU, Fordham). I also prefer larger public schools that are good for communications.

i still am yet to look more into colleges, but public school wise i want to go to UCI. can you suggest what shoud I write about in my college apps? And what schools would suit me best.

2

Your stats are going to be low for all the schools on your list.

Your UC GPA will be in the 3.95 range. UCLA you have a < 10% chance. The average for I and SB will be around 4.13, so consider those 2 two to be reaches.

3

UC’s tend to be GPA focused so a GPA below 4.0 will be a tough admit. Your SAT is competitive and your EC’s are decent. Do you have any safeties on your list? Start with the identifying 2 safety schools and then work on the Target and Reach schools. For the UC’s you need to calculate your Capped weighted and Fully weighted UC GPA: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Add UCSC and UCR to your list along with some Cal states or some privates such as Chapman or LMU.

2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 10%
UCLA: 9%
UCSD: 34%
UCSB: 38%
UCD: 41%
UCI: 38%
UCSC: 70%
UCR: 84%
UCM: 95%
2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCB: 4.23
UCLA: 4.23
UCSD: 4.16
UCSB: 4.13
UCI: 4.13
UCD: 4.11
UCSC: 3.96
UCR: 3.81
UCM: 3.71

2018 Data:
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:

UCB: 1360-1540

UCLA: 1340-1540
UCSD: 1300-1520
UCSB: 1270-1500
UCD: 1220-1480
UCI: 1230-1490
UCSC: 1210-1450
UCR: 1130-1380
UCM: 1020-1280

25th - 75th percentiles for ACT:
UCB: 30-35
UCLA: 31-35
UCSD: 28-34
UCSB: 28-34
UCD: 26-33
UCI: 26-33
UCSC: 26-32
UCR: 22-30
UCM: 19-26

Best of luck.

4

as for BU and NYU, you’re also in the general range, a bit on the low side for both GPA and SAT. I think your chances for both schools are about the same as for UCSB and UCI.