My DS is applying to UCs either Bioengineering, Biomedical, or Biophysics / Physics major.
In state Norcal public school
Applying to UCLA Biophysics major
GPA UW/ UC Cap/Fully W: 4.0/4.42/4.63
SAT Bio 800, AP Bio, Stats, Chemistry, CS, Lang all 5s
ok course rigor (total 17 semester ap classes)
ok essays and rec’s
EC: ok activities I think – track/field/cross country 3 years, ~100 hours community services, co-found/pres. club, co-pres another club, I probably missed a few other
Is UCLA (Biophysics) a reach or target school for his profile?
Your son has a strong profile but UCLA still should be considered a Reach school but Reachable.
The College of Letters and Sciences does not admit by major (Biophysics) vs. the College of Engineering (Bioengineering) does admit by major so more competitive.
2019 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:
UCLA: 35%
2020 UC capped weighted GPA averages along with 25th-75th percentile range:
I was going to post another chance for other UCs, but thought maybe a quick Q here may do (hopefully this is not bad form for doing so). He thinks that UCD, UCSC (and possibly UCI/UCSB) would be his safeties. Would that be a really bad assumptions, and that he should really apply to a few more safety school? He’s applying to bioengineering, biomedical engineering, or physics to those schools.
Actually it looks like a target/match school IMO. Doesn’t guarantee admission but still a match. I would actually be more surprised if he didn’t get in, provided he puts the effort into the application.
I realize most CA high schools won’t give a class ranking. But a top student should know if they are top 1%, 2%, 5% etc and can use the school’s own profile to validate that (adjusting for major and relative strength of ECs as appropriate). What’s important is that the UCs compare all applicants from a given school and most strong instate students apply.
So it’s pretty predictable that if (say) 10 are admitted to UCB/UCLA each year then a kid in the top 15 students will have a good shot, assuming they are applying for L&S and have above average ECs. Conversely a kid outside the top 20-25 is going to struggle.
Thank you @CU123. I’m hoping that as well. He put in good effort into the application.
@Twoin18 - The link you provided seems to indicate that he has a decent shot for UCLA. He thinks he’s in the top 10 academically (in some class top 1-2) but not necessarily in the same standing when everything else is considered. Hopefully by L&S not admitting to major that would improve his odd. We didn’t know about this when he chose biophysics at UCLA.
He is a highly qualified and competitive applicant but the UC’s tend to be unpredictable so I would only consider UCSC as a possible safety school. I tend to err on the side of caution since I have seen many high stat applicants get rejected or waitlisted from UCI/UCSB and UCD. These schools would be solid Match schools not Safeties but since no one including myself are not AO’s, only time will tell.
He thinks that UCD, UCSC (and possibly UCI/UCSB) would be his safeties. Would that be a really bad assumptions, and that he should really apply to a few more safety school?
A safety school is one you are certain to be admitted to, can afford, and would be at least willing to attend. While he seems like a strong candidate for admission to UC schools there are surprises so I don’t know if I would list most UCs as safeties.
In CA I would suggest your local CSU as a safety since most give preference to those in their local service area. He can also look at which ones do not use a local service area at https://www2.calstate.edu/apply/freshman/Documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf UCSC is probably a pretty safe school too, but he needs to understand the environment at Santa Cruz, which swings extremely left. If he’s not going to be comfortable with that then it isn’t a safety for him.
Thanks to all the insights. I agree that UCs admission seem to be unpredictable. UCSC is ok. While I’d prefer UCD over it, UCSC has good astrophysics program so it should be fine for him. Ultimately he’ll make his own choice when it comes to it.
As an example in my kids’ class there were four NMFs, one ended up at Berkeley for engineering, one was rejected for EECS at Berkeley but ended up as a Regents scholar at UCLA (both had perfect records and good ECs), one went to UCSD for CS and one to UCSB for math. Those outcomes weren’t very surprising given the uncertainty in engineering: the one at UCSD was great academically but had no ECs at all, while the one at UCSB had modest ECs and less than perfect grades (not in top 10), which meant even in math (an L&S course) that wasn’t enough.
But L&S admission was more straightforward and predictable, there were only three (all NM Commended) kids who got into both UCB and UCLA and they were all L&S kids (with perfect grades and strong ECs). This is in a school with about 10-12 students admitted per year to UCB and/or UCLA.
Son applied to mostly engineering, some L&S due to major (UCLA, and UCD I think). His school has about 30-40+ students admitted per year to UCB or UCLA, about 11% to close to 20% admit rate. So there’s hope
Agree with everything said here. He is certainly very qualified but with the move to test blindness it is tougher to predict since many students test low but get good grades. UCSC can prob be considered a safety in your sons case. UCD I would say no. They practice yield protection for high stat candidates. There’s a chance he is waitlisted there.
Son took sat one time and planned to retake but the pandemic happened. Should he submit score for schools (UC and private) if it’s 1490? 780math and 710 reading/writing Would that score hurt his chance for test optional/blind top tier schools?
Just a follow-up to close out this thread. My son received acceptance to all these school (as @CU123 predicted). He was invited to apply to UCLA Regents but didn’t get it, and we were pleasantly surprised that he got Regents for UCSD/UCD. He got into his OOS top choice GTech as well, and now is in a difficult position to choose among these good schools.
I think what stood out for him was probably the breadth of his essays.
Thanks for all the input. It has been a learning experience.
Congratulations on all of his acceptances! He has great options.
One of my children applied to L&S at some schools and COE at others. When it came time to decide, she decided that she would rather do engineering.
UCLA is a great school, friendly student body with a lot of spirit.
UCD with a $30K Regents scholarship is attractive but it sounds like he would like a more urban campus.
UCSD is an urban SoCal school but it doesn’t have the spirit and energy of UCLA.
Is he waiting to hear from Cal?
Thank you. I have similar school assessment as well. Last we visited these schools were back in '18 for our daughter. Of them all I like Davis the best for its small town feel, but neither of my kids like that vibe as much as the more lively UCLA. Don’t blame them.
He’s still waiting for Cal (long shot for such a competitive engineering program) and some private. We were telling him his luck was over with UCLA acceptance, and prep for rejection
Thanks for the call out, in my experience top students do tend to get into top schools especially the public ones. Unfortunately the forum here somewhat focuses on the high stats kid that didn’t get in to some particular school they targeted. Top 20 private schools are much more of a crap shoot just because they are so few slots for incoming freshman, and they save many of those slots for legacies, athletes, diversity applicants. Good luck to your son, my DD is headed to Johns Hopkins for grad school in biomedical engineering in the Fall.
