Hi, I’m a student who’s adopted, Asian, female, and from low-income background ($5759 per year).
These are my stats:
GPA: 4.0 (UW), 4.67 (W).
Rank: 1/589 (both weighted and unweighted)
SAT: 1510 (superscore), 1490 (one-sitting)
ACT: 35 (superscore), 34 (one-sitting)
AP Exams: 5’s- AP Calc AB, AP lang, AP World history
4’s: APUSH, APES
3’s: AP chem, AP Music Theory
SAT subject tests: Korean w/ listening (800)
Math lvl 2 (780)
world history (720)
Extra Curricular: 1. My school’s adv. string orchestra (all 4 years): concert master for the past 3 yrs.
2. My school’s beg. orchestra (10,11,12): string section coach/advisor
3. National Honor Society (all 4): president for the past two
4. California scholarship federation (10,11,12): V.P for the past 2
5. Tutor for my school’s math and history dept. (10,11,12)
6. Pacific American Volunteer Association (6 years): captain of my school’s chapter
7. All county honor orchestra (all 4 yrs): 2nd chair last yr
8. All city honor orchestra (all 4): second chair for the past 2 years
9. Local Youth Symphony (10,11,12): third chair for the past two years
10. Scripps College Academy (10,11,12): participated in their summer residential and a 6 months long
science research with the faculty. Regularly attends their workshops as one of their 50 scholars chosen
for this year.
Personal struggles: Was adopted by current parents in 9th grade. suffered scoliosis for the half of my life (still going on), school bullying (sexual harassment and rumors). --consider all of these as my essay materials.
Awards: Presidential Volunteer Service award (9th)
Questbridge College Prep Scholar (11th)
AP Scholar w/ distinction (12th)
Questbridge National College Match Finalist (12th)
Planning to apply as mathematics major. What are my chances?
UC freshman admission rates for 2017 by GPA (UC-recalculated weighted-capped) from https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary :
Campus 4.20- 3.80- 3.40- 3.00-
higher 4.19 3.79 3.39
UCB 43% 13% 2% 1%
UCLA 47% 12% 2% 1%
UCSD 84% 39% 7% 1%
UCSB 82% 45% 10% 1%
UCI 94% 52% 11% 3%
UCD 90% 56% 17% 4%
UCSC 93% 76% 44% 14%
UCR 98% 90% 63% 23%
UCM 98% 96% 89% 57%
Calculate your UC-recalculated weighted-capped GPA at https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ , although if you have been taking lots of AP courses, your result is probably in the 4.20-higher range (first column). Math is in the UCB College of Letters and Science, the largest division, so admission there should be similar to the overall (unlike the UCB College of Engineering, where admission is more difficult).
This assumes that you are a California resident and therefore eligible for in-state tuition and financial aid. If not, UCB is a high reach because you would need a Regents or Chancellor’s scholarship to make it affordable.
The rest of your list consists of reach-for-everyone schools.
If you are a California resident, add other UCs as match and likely schools. If not, choose appropriate other match and likely or safety schools to avoid being shut out.
You are a very competitive candidate. You have obviously succeeded greatly notwithstanding significant adversity. I suspect you will find success with one of the schools you ask about, but encourage you to build out a balanced list of schools. Also, my sense is that LACs on average lack the same level of diversity as many larger top flight universities, so consider LACs as your story may resonate even more with them. Best of luck!
What APs are you taking this year?
AP Gov, AP Micro, AP Calc BC, AP French, AP Lit, and AP Art history
You have a pretty good chance at UCB, did you get any notice of ELC given you’re 1’st in your HS, which should guarantee you admission into a UC? The other schools are really going to be tough to gauge as you’re probably not applying ED to any one of them (assuming since you’re interested in Berkeley and Stanford). Your best bet is to use low SES, and struggles and not be compared to other Asians with similar stats. Female stem will help at Brown, Duke, Penn, not sure on Stanford. Good luck!
I remember signing some kind of a form saying like top 9% whatever but it was from UCI specifically so i’m not sure if this is ELC?
Note that ELC does not assure admission to any specific UC, just a UC that has space available. In practice, this means Merced.