Chance me for: UCLA, UCB, NYU, UPenn, USC, BU, Northeastern, UCSD, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UCSB?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

As stated in the title, schools I am applying to are: UCLA, UCB, NYU, UPenn, USC, BU, Northeastern, UCSD, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and UCSB!

Background info:
I am currently a senior going to school in CA. I am 3/4 Vietnamese and 1/4 Caucasian. Upper middle class.
My GPA is lower because of some difficulties I had sophomore year with my Pre Calculus honors class and struggles with my mental health. Junior year I picked myself up and got almost straight As except for 1 class. A few weeks ago I moved 6 hours away from my old high school to SoCal due to my parent’s job situation, so I am a new student at my current high school.

Stats:

GPA- 3.61 UW, 3.88 UC Capped, 3.96 Weighted

ACT- (1 sitting)
Composite: 36
English- 36, Math- 34, Reading- 36, Science- 36
Essay scores haven’t come out yet (Sept 2018 ACT) but I believe I did 10+

SAT- (1 sitting)
1440
720 English, 720 Math
Essay: 23

SAT Subject:
Math II- 750
Biology (E)- 730

PSAT:
1490: 740 English, 750 Math
Index was 223- Qualified as National Merit Semifinalist (CA)

APS:
Sophomore Year: AP Bio (4)
Junior Year: AP Lang (4), AP Calc AB (5), AP Environmental Science (3)
Senior Year: Taking AP Gov and AP Stats

Extracurriculars:

7 years of outside of school choir, 1 year of Bel Canto intermediate division HS choir
3 years of ASB Leadership: served as class secretary for all 3 years
3 years of playing Field Hockey: captain of JV my sophomore year and varsity midfielder my junior year
3 years of Journalism: staff writer my sophomore year, editor of the front page junior year on nationally ranked HS newspaper. My new school’s newspaper is less prestigious, and I applied ASAP on the first week of school (still later than everyone else) so I am a staff writer my senior year.
-Worked for a year at a thrift store called Plato’s Closet, where we recycle old clothes and sell them for cheap
-Currently working as a teacher assistant at Kumon

  • Served as a Girl Scout from 1st grade to 10th grade
  • Participated in National Honor society, environmental club, and mental health awareness club

Chance away :smiley:

2

and for recs: I think they’ll be okay but not the best, because my teachers from my old schoolhave to mail my recs directly to schools and I feel like I’ll be less prioritized than other students for that reason : (

3

UC’s tend to be very GPA focused but since you state you had some health issues in HS, then you might want address this in your personal insight essay to help explain your grades. You have a very competitive ACT and competitive SAT which does show you are a qualified and capable applicant.

Overall you are a solid applicant for the UC’s so your best chances would probably be at UCI/UCD and UCSB. UCLA/UCB should be considered Reach schools and UCSD is still possible depending upon major.

Just some statistical data for admitted 2017 Freshman (2018 data not available as of yet):

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%

You need at least 2 safety schools on your list so you might want include UC Riverside and Santa Cruz or some of the top Cal States such as Cal Poly Pomona/SLO (depending upon major), SDSU or CSULB.