Non-weighted GPA: 3.8
UC GPA: 4.31
SAT I: 1840
AP Scores
CAL AB: 3
European History:4
IB Scores
Music Comp: 3 ( Did not pass)
IB diploma candidate
In-State Student
Senior Course Load:
Biology IB HL2
Spanish IB SL
Math IB SL
History IB HL1
English IB HL2
Theory of Knowledge IB
Intended major? Do you plan to retake SAT or try ACT? EC’s? SAT subject tests?
Biology Major and SAT II for Biology
ECs:
JV tennis players 2 years
VP for UNICEF club
100+ volunteer hours for the LA County Health System
Staff writer for School news paper
Plan to retake SAT and aiming for 1400+ for new SAT
Score on Biology SAT II? Plan to take New SAT? Breakdown of current SAT score?
I haven’t taken the SAT II for bio yet. I plan to take it in November
Until you get your new SAT score, I will chance you based on your current stats. Great GPA but will need to raise your SAT score for a better chance at the Mid-Upper UC’s.
As a Biology major:
UCM: Safety
UCSC: Match
UCI: Match-High Match
UCD/UCSB: Low Reach
UCSD/UCB/UCLA: Reach
Biology is a Selective/Capped or Impacted major at UCI/UCD/UCSD/UCB/UCLA.
What SAT score would significantly raise my chances for UCI? 1400+?
Not sure what your current SAT Math + CR score is with the Old SAT, but I would aim for at least at 1350+ since you have a very competitive GPA and UC’s especially UCI like high GPA’s.
Actually, the main biology majors at UCB are effectively open majors (2.0 GPA needed) within the College of Letters and Science (to which all students enter as undeclared):
http://mcb.berkeley.edu/undergrad/major/major/declaring
http://ib.berkeley.edu/undergrad/major/declaring.php
For UCI, it looks like some biological science majors are impacted, but others are not, based on GPA requirements to change into them:
http://www.changeofmajor.uci.edu/CoM_BioSci.html
For UCSD, all biological science majors are impacted. Currently, admission to those majors for already-enrolled students is on a first come first served basis, but may change in the future.
https://biology.ucsd.edu/education/undergrad/admission/capped-major.html
Did not find any specific information for UCD or UCLA on a quick look.
Although higher is better, UCs do not seem to be especially test-score-sensitive, relative to how sensitive they are to HS GPA for frosh applicants.
@Caskey and @ucbalumnus:
For UCLA, I found a list of non-impacted majors so by process of elimination I put Biological Sciences on the list of impacted majors.
For UCB, that was an oops and the list for UCD was on their admission website where I got a link from another poster. I will post the link once I find it again.
@Gumbymom CR: 600 Math: 650
As stated by @ucbalumnus, GPA is more important than test scores at the UC’s, but if you are aiming for the top UC’s, bumping up your scores can only help your chances.
@Gumbymom Does class rank help boost my chances? I am rank 26 out of 697 (Top 4%)
Class rank as determined by your high school is not used or seen by UC admissions readers, but characteristics correlated with class rank (e.g. GPA, ELC status) do affect UC admissions. Note that ELC status is determined by comparing your GPA with the top 9% threshold GPA of a recent previous class of your high school (where all GPAs used are recalculated by UC).
As stated above ^^^^ Class rank not considered by UC’s except for ELC eligibilty, meaning if you are the top 9% of your HS, then you are guaranteed a spot at UC Merced if you are not accepted into your choice UC.