Chance Me for UC's and CSU's Please!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! Thanks for taking the time to look at my post. I am applying to UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, CSU Long Beach, SDSU, and Cal Poly. If you can, please give me your opinion on my chances :))

Objective:
ACT: Composite (32)
Reading-36, English-35, Science-30, Math-28
SAT II: Planning on taking Bio E/M, hoping for above a 700 :slight_smile:
Capped Weighted UC GPA: 4.07 (I know it’s low. I had straight A’s up until the death of a close friend in school my junior year. I explained this in my application and how it affected my school work).
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School does not rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): APES-4, APLAC-5, AP French-3
Senior Year Course Load: AP Statistics, AP Biology, English IV-Writing, AP Government and Politics, Philosophy, Art 2/3
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-4 years varsity softball (captain)
-MVP of softball league 2019
-1st team all league 2019
-3rd team all CCS 2019
-4 years travel softball
-1 year JV and 3 years varsity volleyball- (Most Improved for 2 years but not sure if this matters)
-environmental club for 3 years with leadership in activities
-secretary of the volleyball club

Job/Work Experience: babysitting/pet sitting for past 5 years

Volunteer/Community service: (100+ hours)
-Summer internship with the Bureau of Land Management on a national monument. Monitored goat grazing, performed seed collection, learned how to use GIS systems, lots of restoration and erosion monitoring.
-Have assisted the medical doctor on the sidelines and in the training room for a less privileged neighboring school’s football team for the past two years
-I mentor a freshman and we do weekly hitting lessons

Essays (rating 1-10, details): 8- I think they are pretty solid. Talked about my fish tank hobby of 6 years & creating a small business by selling aquatic snails nationwide, facing hardships and the journey to overcoming them,

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Biology, Marine Biology
State (if domestic applicant): CA
School Type: Small-Medium Public (850 kids)
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Low (25k)
ELC Eligibility: Haven’t submitted apps yet
First Generation: Yes

2

Sorry about your lost of your friend. And yes, personally I think you have pretty high chance of getting in, especially if you chose an unpopular major(maybe)

3

I will post general admission stats for the UC’s. Biology will be a more competitive major than Marine Biology but it does depend upon how each admits.

2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCSD: 34%
UCSB: 38%
UCD: 41%
UCI: 38%
UCSC: 70%
UCR: 84%
UCM: 95%

2019 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCSD: 4.23
UCSB: 4.16
UCI: 4.13
UCD: 4.13
UCSC: 3.96
UCR: 3.90
UCM: 3.73

25th - 75th percentiles for ACT composite + language arts;
UCSD: 26-34
UCSB: 26-34
UCD: 24-33
UCI: 24-34
UCSC: 24-32
UCR: 21-30
UCM: 18-26

UC admission by major criteria:
UCD:
Admission decisions are made based upon the qualifications of the applicant pool and the number of available spaces within each academic area:
• College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences admits by college
• College of Biological Sciences admits by college
• College of Letters and Science admits by division within the college
• (Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies; Mathematics and Physical Sciences; Social Sciences)
• College of Engineering admits by academic department
Students applying as “undeclared” or “undeclared/exploratory” are considered within the college/division to which they applied.

Applicants are encouraged to list an alternate major, but not in the
same area as the primary major (e.g., Computer Science Engineering with alternate Computer Science in the College of L&S). Occasionally, we admit to the alternate major.

UCSD:
The campus does not admit students on the basis of academic major or choice of UC San Diego undergraduate college. Alternate majors are considered and capped majors are highly competitive. Also note: Capped majors require additional pre-req courses and specific GPA to be able to qualify if changing majors. Also if applying to a capped major, select an non-capped major as an alternate.

UCSB:
College of Letters and Sciences: Choice of major is not considered in selection to the College of Letters and Science. The exceptions to this rule are dance and music performance majors. Both majors require applicants to complete an audition in late January or early February.

SDSU and CSULB admit by eligibility index and major. These schools look like solid Match schools for you.

For Cal Poly SLO, they admit by MCA points and use 9-11th grades instead of 10-11th grades as the rest of the CSU’s. They also CAP the extra Honors points in the GPA calculation at 8 semesters taken 10-11th grades.

Here is the MCA point calculator: http://mca.netlify.com/

Projected acceptance rate for Marine Sciences is around 14% and Biology is 9%. Neither is an easy admit.

Best of luck and make sure you include a Safety school.

4

Thank you for looking at my post Gumbymom. What schools were you talking about when you said the “projected acceptance rate for marine biology is around 14%”?

Also my MCA is 4700.

And specifically, what do you think my chances are at UCSB? It is my top school and I’ve been wanting to go there for a while.

5

The projected acceptance rates for Biology and Marine Sciences is for Cal Poly SLO.

For UCSB, I would say a 50:50 chance based on academics. ACT is on target, GPA slightly below the average but an upward is great. Compelling personal insight essays and your EC’s could tip the scales. As long as you are happy attending any schools on your list, you are set and best of luck.