CHANCE ME FOR UC's. I need to know if I'm wasting my time.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>here are my stats:
ACT: overall - 28. Reading - 30. Math - 29. Writing 31. English - 34. Science - 18. not much of a science person...
weighted GPA 3.82
classes for junior year:
AP Psychology, Precalculus, US History Honors, Regular English, Advanced Drama, Teacher's Assistant.
classes for Senior Year: AP Calculus AB, AP English, American Democracy, Physiology, Advanced Drama.
After school activities: 100+ hours of volunteer work at an elderly home.
award from my school for excellence in writing in English.
secretary of my school's literary magazine for the fourth year.
co-president of the school's jewish club for the second year.
also did a public speaking tournament thing in 10th grade.. called forensics. </p>

<p>i took summer classes at UC Berkeley's ATDP every year since I was in the 7th grade. Those count.. </p>

<p>I'm applying to:
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
SF State University
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
UC Irvine
University of Southern California.</p>

<p>Tell me what you think. Am I wasting my time applying to some of these? What do you think my chances are? Ugh.. I'm just feeling so insecure when I read other people's stats...</p>

2

<p>i am going to tell you the truth on what i think so please don't get offended or anything if i think that its a reach.
based on your gpa, i am pretty sure that ucb is going to be a very high reach while ucsd is a reach. the other schools i think you are set in :)</p>

3

<p>Hun, you are not wasting your time. </p>

<p>You have a shot at a bunch of these. </p>

<p>UC Berkeley: reach
UC Davis: match
UC San Diego: match
UC Santa Barbara: in
UC Santa Cruz: in
SF State University: in
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo: in
UC Irvine: in
University of Southern California: high reach</p>

4

<p>Okay, let me tell you a few things you don't know:</p>

<p>The UCs base their admissions almost exclusively on your grades in your sophomore and junior years (and senior year only if you aren't going directly into college after your high school graduation).</p>

<p>They exclude classes like health, PE (Physical Education), Student Government, Teacher's Assistant and the like in making a determination of the UC GPA that they use to determine who gets admitted.</p>

<p>To figure out how to compute this UC GPA, exclude the classes mentioned above, and then figure the GPA for your sophomore year (and if you're a senior now, compute this for both the sophomore and junior years) and add one grade point extra for each honors or AP or IB semester-long class you take (up to 8 semesters total). Then divide the number of grade points by the total number of semester-long courses you took. This is called the UC GPA. Once you get that, come back and we can give you an estimate on how you are doing.</p>

<p>Estimating your UC GPA, and based upon the courses and grades and test scores and ECs (extracurriculars) to date, I'd say you are a match to slight reach at UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine (borderline at all three--closer to a slight reach than a match, though), a match at UC Santa Cruz and UC Riverside, a 100% guaranteed to get into UC Merced, are a Slight Reach at UC San Diego and a Reach at USC, UCLA, and UC Berkeley. You are probably a match at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a safe match at San Francisco State. If you figure the UC GPA though, we can make a better estimate.</p>

<p>Also, based upon what you wrote, you should take the SAT and not just the ACT. The SAT has no science section--which is your weakest part on the ACT. I'm guessing you can get about a 2000 single-sitting score on the SAT, which would boost your chances at all the schools I've mentioned--but particularly at UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine. It could possibly even get you into UC San Diego and USC.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>