Chance me for Colleges! Class of 2019 and have no idea what I'm doing

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello everyone! So I wouldn’t normally ask for these kinds of things but if you look at my stats and application summary I think you might see why.

Prospective Major: Eh to be honest I’m not sure. I’m leaning to applied math in all honesty but premed or any biological field would be fair game as well.

Grades: Okay so here’s where it gets a bit tricky. My special circumstances during my sophomore year (see below) have impacted my GPA and it’s definitely not where I want it to be. The rest of the stats are below. Will this hinder my chances in applying to a good college? Thank you!

Freshman Year: [All As] UW: 4.0/W: 4.14
PE
Biology
Honors Global Studies
Honors English
Spanish II
Honors Precalculus
Orchestra

Sophomore Year: UW: 3.57/W: 4.00
[1st Semester]
Symphony Orchestra - A
AP Biology - B+
AP World- B+
AP Calculus BC - B+
Spanish 3 - A
Marketing - A
Honors Soph English - B+

[2nd Semester]
Symphony Orchestra - A
AP Biology - A
AP World- A
AP Calculus BC - A
Spanish 3 - B+
Marketing - A
Honors Soph English - B+

Junior Year: UW: 4.0/W: 4.83 [actually not sure about weighted because I’m not sure if multivar is weighted or not]
AP Chemistry - A
AP Psychology - A
AP Statistics - A
AP Lang - A
AP Spanish - A
Multivariable Calculus - A

AP Chemistry - A
AP Psychology - A
AP Statistics - A
AP Lang - A
AP Spanish - A
Multivariable Calculus - A
Overall UC GPA UW: 3.79/W: 4.36/Weighted and capped is like 4.12 or something like that

Don’t know if this is relevant or not lol but I’m planning on taking Linear Algebra and Differential Calculus at my local community college and getting that over with.

Standardized Test Scores:

ACT: 35 [Essay: 11]
PSAT: 1500

SAT Subject Tests
Math II: 800
Chemistry: 800
Korean with Listening: 730 [I AM NOT KOREAN I AM INDIAN]

Extracurriculars:

I started a nonprofit that distributes feminine hygiene products to battered women’s shelter (there’s a real need for it). I have a leadership position in a couple clubs at school, mainly DECA and am the president of 2 nonprofits RSVP Speech which teaches speaking skills to elementary and middle schoolers and Investing in Her Future which is aimed at promoting financial literacy among girls. I also volunteer as an assistant at a memory care center with the nurses (blood pressures and blood work and such). I’ve also made a procedure for a cheap edible vaccine and am currently looking for a lab to help me create it. I’m hoping to snag a summer research internship under a professor at Stanford or something this year we’ll see lol.

Honors/Awards:

Not much besides DECA haha I did go to ICDC though let’s see if I’ll win something this year

SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCE: Ah, the fun part where I get to explain those plentiful B’s dotting my transcript sophomore year. Okay, basically I have Hypothyroidism that I left untreated until it became severe and because of that and all the illnesses I was getting due to stress, I missed about 2 months of school. If that wasn’t enough, I had developed anxiety and clinical depression the second semester of my freshman year after my grandmother died and some other crazier personal reasons I would rather not mention but basically it lead to me overeating and eating unhealthily and I was already highly susceptible to diabetes but surprise! I developed type 2 diabetes. I guess the anxiety lw prevented me from going to school as well because my panic attacks were super bad back then and they were triggered by large crowds. Developed social anxiety and became distant from friends. On top of all that there was a senior that started spreading rumors about me for ‘slacking off’ on officer work (for DECA and it’s a big deal at my school) because I wasn’t at school much (joke’s on him, he never did anything and all the work I did was coordinated behind the scenes with other higher-ranking officers) Basically, it sucked lol but I did improve I guess?

I would like a Top 30 college but honestly I don’t how realistic I’m being, but here’s a list I guess. Oh and I’m from California.

Safeties!
University of Santa Clara
San Jose State University

Here are some of the colleges I’m really hoping I could get into:
UCLA ****************
UC Berkely
UCSD
UC Davis
Emory

Some colleges I would like to but might not be able to get into:
UPenn
UChicago
Rice
John Hopkins
Ivy Leagues (why not lol)

Honestly, I just want to get into UCLA for now but the stats were dreadful this year. If I have a horrible record and absolutely can’t make it into any of these schools, let me know. I’ll change my list lmao. Thanks everyone.

2

ACT and PSAT are amazing, great job.
Your safeties are exactly what they seem, safe and obvious admissions for you.
I think you could get into UCLa, UCSD, Davis, and Rice
Emory is a maybe. JonHop is a low reach and the rest are high reaches.

3

Haha thanks! But aren’t they high reaches for everyone :slight_smile: I guess it calms me down a bit knowing I have a shot at some of the colleges I am hopeful for. And specifically for my major too right?

4

Calculate your UC GPA and post your capped weighted and fully weighted UC GPA: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

5

they are already in the post :slight_smile: but Overall UC GPA UW: 3.79/W: 4.36/Weighted and capped is like 4.12

6

I suggest adding more of mid- tiered UCs (UCI/UCSB?) and as safety low-tiered UCs. UCLA maybe somewhat of a reach (but not out of reach with a good essay. I suggest you to not write about multiple heath issues. The first Health issue is enough, otherwise, the whole thing may sound fake).

7

Okay I guess that makes sense haha even though it’s all true I see why admissions officers might think that. Are my chances to any of the other schools unreasonable, even with the explained grades and accelerated courses (esp math)? Just trying to put myself into perspective :slight_smile:

8

Be aware that Santa Clara asks for demonstrated interest and apparently practices its share of yield protection. It doesn’t like to be thought of as a safety.

9

I will only post statistics since EC’s and essays are very subjective. I do agree with @uclaparent9 that you should add more UC’s to the list, along with another CSU safety since I believe SCU will be more of a Match and not a safety. UC’s are very GPA focused so although your test scores are outstanding, they have waitlisted and rejected many applicants with similar stats.

Definitely address your health issues in one of the essays. Best of luck

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

UCB: 12.6%
UCLA: 11.7%
UCSD: 38.7%
UCSB: 53.6%
UCD: 56.5%
UCI: 52.1%
UCSC: 75.7%
UCR: 90.1%
UCM: 96.1%

25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:

UCB: 1280-1490

UCLA: 1280-1500
UCSD: 1250-1470
UCSB: 1210- 1450
UCD: 1190-1430
UCI: 1190-1420
UCSC: 1170-1380
UCR: 1090-1310
UCM: 1020-1230

25th - 75th percentiles for ACT:
UCB: 30-34
UCLA: 30-34
UCSD: 29-34
UCSB: 28-33
UCD: 26-32
UCI: 26-32
UCSC: 26-31
UCR: 23-30
UCM: 20-27

10

Actually I think your chances are better for privates where scores play major role than top UCs where GPA has more dominance! So you may (surprisingly) do well with some of the privates in the bottom of your list considering your good scores (especially, if you can get good grades in the advanced math classes you are planning to take). Add USC to your list!

11

Excellent applicants are being turned away from UCLA with credentials like yourself. 116, 000 people applied this year for only 6000 spots. 20-30 % of those spots will go to non residents or internationals.

Safety Uc’s? Not sure that exists anymore. I would suggest applying to top 100 tier 1 schools out of state. Your scores will now doubt get you large scholarship money which could make it worthwhile to attend.

12

If you apply to business, CS, engineering or any other major that leads to a great jobs you be competing with thousands of people just like you!!!

13

I don’t see safety school in your list. Safety = 100% gurantee you get in. Davis might be a safety by theybhave rejected people like yourself.

Oregon, Hawaii, Nevada , Oregon State ASU, UNLV, WA State would be just near 100% acceptance. Apply to one of those as a safety.

14

:slight_smile: that’s good to hear. Ya after that year happened it felt like all hope had crumbled and the many years I had worked for went to waste, but thankfully if I can use my hardships as a hook (and the fact that I am Sri Lankan and Indian maybe) it will be worthwhile. Also unfortunately GPA plays a lot of significance for the UCs, even though I feel its clear in my transcript that I was never a slacker but, sometimes that’s life right? :slight_smile:

15

Haha that’s true I guess. But my intended major is Applied Math or something premed/bio :slight_smile:

16

I think if that ends up being the case for me, I’ll just do 2 year community college and transfer from there in all honesty

17

You wrote:

“…I feel its clear in my transcript that I was never a slacker…“

I think it is very clear that you were not a slacker and that (relatively) bad year was just an exception! That is why I believe you have a better chance than your GPA may suggest.