I am currently a sophomore who lives in California
Ethnicity-Chinese-American
Unweighted GPA-4.00
Weighted and Capped UC GPA- 4.38
Freshman Year
Summer Biology AA
Alg 2 w/ Trig AA
English AA
Chemistry Honors AA
Chinese 2 AA
Intro to Com Sci AA
Intro to Model UN/Geography A-/A
Frosh Basketball AA
Sophomore Year
Summer World History A
English A
Precalc A
Chinese 3
AP Com Sci Principles A
AP Environmental Science A
AP Chemistry A
Basketball JV/Track and Field A
Predicted Junior Classes
AP Chinese or Chinese 4
APUSH or regular USH
AP Bio
AP Calc BC
English
AP Com Sci Java
Track and Field
Senior Year
Human Centered Design
AP Stats
AP Chinese? If taken junior year, may do multi variable or AP pysch
AP Physics
English
Track and Field
Test Scores
Haven’t taken or studied for any tests but I have taken a few practice tests
I am studying for these tests over the summer
PSAT- 1410
Practice ACT- 31 and 29
Extracurriculars
Pretty worried about these because I do not do too much outside of school
My City’s Mayor’s Youth Council
National Honors Society
Track and Field/Basketball
Volunteer Coach at YMCA
Boy Scout but not very active (Star Scout)
What do you want to major in? What do you want to do for a career? It’s a little early to tell whether you’ll get in or not, I would recommend to just keep taking competitive classes, study for ACT, make sure you use your summer time to pursue interests, etc.
Hello, if I wanted to major in the medical field, would volunteering at a pet shelter help? Most hospitals near me no longer accept volunteers at this time of the year, so I am lost in terms of what to do as my extracurriculars. Any help would be appreciated
I would suggest taking APUSH instead of regular US History - it will get you out of the American Institutions requirement. If you can take one of the AP English classes, those are looked at as better than some of the other APs such as APES. Your unweighted GPA (if you can maintain a 4.0) will give you a boost at UCLA per their stats.
I’m not an AO, but it looks like you’re avoiding AP Literature and/or AP Language and Composition. So, I’d recommend taking one if not both and omit one of the sciences, if necessary.
Cannot chance you based on only Sophomore grades and practice SAT/ACT test results. You are on the right track with your grades and hopefully test scores. Definitely recommend UPUSH and either AP Lit or AP Lang. You can only get AP credit for one of these classes.
So keep up the good work and come back at the end of Junior year.
Even with top grades and test scores, neither school is a guarantee so make sure you apply widely and have 1-2 safety schools on your list.
@shushiritto: See Below so unless you get a 5 on the English Lit, taking both Lit and Language only opts you out of English 1A at UCB.
For UCB:
English
Literature: Score of 4 earns 4 units toward breadth requirement (equivalent to English 1A); score of 5 earns 5.3 units toward breadth requirement (equivalent to English 1A-1B).
Language: Score of 4 or 5 earns 4 units toward breadth requirement (equivalent to English 1A).
For UCLA:
English
Either test: Score of 3 satisfies Entry-Level Writing requirement; score of 4 or 5 satisfies Entry-Level Writing requirement and earns credit for English Composition 3 (Writing 1).
@kjake2000: For UCLA/UCB, essays would be weighted more than EC’s but overall UCB seems to be more holistic in their admission reviews so some unique or dedicated EC’s could set you apart from the rest of the competitive applicants. GPA and test scores are still #1 for the UC’s.