chance me for Stanford, UCLA and Cal

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello everyone! I’m a current junior and just want to manage my expectations. Please don’t roast my stats <3

Mexican/Asian Male, Middle class, Gay (lol if that means anything)

Highly ranked public suburban school in California

GPA: UW: 4.00 W: 4.42

SAT: 1510 EBRW: 770 Math: 740

APs: Art History (4), US History, Spanish, Lang, Psych, Physics C, Calc AB, Lit

Plan on taking: Math Level 2 (Im not counting on doing well on this one), Chemistry and US History

ECs: - started my own nonprofit that provides completely free test prep, tutoring, and college guidance to students of lower economic standing (program has helped multiple students score above a 1500 and many score above a 1400). Expanded into multiple states, with about 8 programs throughout the nation. (since 10th grade)

  • started a business that creates apps and websites for various companies and projects (since 8th grade)
  • president of Mexican culture club
  • peer mentor for disabled and “at-risk” students
  • paid internship at Los Angles County Dept. of Youth Support

Planned major: political science

My absolute dream schools are Stanford, UCLA and Cal. I would love your suggestions of schools that might be in my reach. Thank you!

2

Georgetown and Tufts might be some targets worth looking at. Possibly some of the Claremont schools too, although they are slightly more conservative. If I were you, I might add an Ivy or 2 to my list (Columbia comes to mind).

URM with good grades/high test scores is a major hook. If you are interested in Georgetown, you will need 3 SAT subject tests.

George Washington would be a match and they have a good political science program.

3

Your a stellar candidate, by following the right steps

  1. Your SAT scores and grade point average will give you a big boost, because your considered a URM (Under-Represented Minority)
    You cross and surpass the threshold, and your a desirable candidate for selective schools. Top colleges are in the pursuit of DIVERSITY, and this is a MAJOR factor in admissions. Its called institutional needs, hence you have a MAJOR HOOK. Make sure to CHECK off the box that corresponds to your race. (In that case, because you say that your Mexican)

  2. Now, you need to focus on CRAFTING a very compelling application. Focus on writing unique essays that will differentiate, and finding teachers that will advocate for you. Your extracurricular needs a bit of work. Try to demonstrate passion in a certain area, and focus your entire application on that.

  3. Broaden your horizon of schools. There are many top-tier schools besides these three, and create a strong TARGET list of selective schools. I can GUARANTEE if you have a COMPELLING APPLICATION you will get into MANY.

  4. UCLA and CAL, you are a very strong candidate (you have the right hook combined w/STATS) Now, if you follow step 2 CAREFULLY, you will get in most likely with a lot of MERIT MONEY

  5. Stanford there is no guarantee. There are many URM candidates with the same STATS as yours, so competition can become brutal, unless your application is one-of-a-kind. In that case, yes, you have a very strong chance.

  6. Don’t forget to take two SAT 2s and aim for 750+.

  7. You’ll get into many uber selective schools if you strategically complete your application, and do well for the rest of JUNIOR YEAR and FIRST SEMESTER SENIOR YEAR.

  8. Good Luck!

4

The founding of a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged students looks to be another major hook. One that Ivies might look at favorably.

Princeton and Harvard might be realistic reaches for the OP as well. Granted any schools with single digit acceptance rates should not be considered as ‘realistic’ reaches, but there is something about the OP’s profile that makes him highly attractive to an HYP school.

High achieving URM should have quite a few acceptances to Top-20 schools next year.

5

@randomwaffleify I think your resume stands pretty good on its own at Ivy’s, without any minority angle. For political sciences, why not look at Princeton, Columbia, Yale and Georgetown. May want to start thinking about essays more on your experience with helping kids get better scores or at risk students.

6

Oh my, OP, you are getting some serious mis-information here:

=> by law, there is NO demographic hook at UCs. And your stats, while very strong, are not in the top 25% of the admitted class at UCLA, which is usually where merit aid kicks in. Of the 15,970 admits exactly 100 will be offered Regents merit scholarships (full tuition). Although achievement scholarships of $500-10,000 exist (for 4.1+ GPA, based on the UC GPA scale), the odds of you getting “a lot” of merit money are not high, no matter how wonderful your essays are.

=>No, for 2 reasons: 1) a “hook” is something that you have that the college wants. It can be diversity, it can be a talent, it can be stats, it can be mega-donor money- whatever, it’s something that they want. 2) literally thousands of HS students start charities (many of them to impress colleges) and the majority of them heavily underpinned by family resources (funding, help, logistics, driving places etc.). The fact of starting it won’t even slow the admissions reader down as they skim the application. What you have achieved- what you have taken away from the experience (aside from the clichés of feeling good about yourself and appreciating what you have) might.

Stanford is an extreme long reach, so treat it that way. For UCLA & Cal you need to calculate your UC GPA- and there are great stats to tell you how likely that is.Imo all the posts suggesting that you should be looking at “ivies” are not helpful: it’s easy to sell yourself on fancy names. It’s more important right now to work on your ‘Likely’ and ‘Match’ schools. Right now CC is flooded with people who are crushed because not only did they not get into their reaches, they didn’t get into their matches. Many people find it hard to grasp just how many smart, hard-working kids there are vying for the same spot.

If you want political science, the suggestions of Tufts, GW, Georgetown, American and Johns Hopkins are useful. UCSD has a really strong polisci program, and a good DC semester option. Claremont McKenna also has a good DC semester program.

Also, be sure that you know what your budget is!!

7

UC GPA calculator and post capped weighted, Unweighted and Fully weighted: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

8

Hello! Thanks for the reality slap lmao. My non-profit has expanded into 3 states and has helped hundred of kids since 2017 (plus I’ve spend weeks writing math books, sitting online with students etc). I didn’t start this whole thing just for college admissions and I really hope to let that show in my essays because I had a serious family problem that led me to create it. How do you recommend me to differentiate myself with this organization or should I be doing other ECs?

9

My primary point was that simply starting a non-profit to impress AdComms is not the ‘hook’ some people think that it is.

The secondary point was taking from a Dean of Admissions: the fact of having done something is not as interesting to AdComms as what you have done with that experience, and how you have translated that into your life going forward.

So, do what’s true to you! It sounds as if you have a good story.