So I am currently a senior who moved to California from India. I started high school in US as a Junior.
My 11th grade course work were CP English, CP Spanish 1, Honors Trig/Math Analysis, CP US History, AP Biology, CP Psychology (I know that these are really bad classes to take as a junior). I got A’s in all my classes. I also had to take Design Craft and World History during the summer. I got A’s in that too. My Senior Year coursework is AP Chemistry, AP Calculus, AP Psychology, AP US Govt./Macro, CP Spanish 2 and CP English. I will try my best to get A’s in these classes.I am interested to major in Biology.
My UC GPA is 4.13
SAT score-2150 (Math-740, Writing-710, Reading-700)
Going to take SAT Math 2 and Biology E/M in November and hope to score above 700
AP Biology score- 5
I think I have decent essays talking about my struggle moving to a different country as well as taking care of and being the head of my family when my father used to go back to India every 2 months.
EC- I do not have any good EC’s because it took me a year to adjust to the new system. But I still managed to try my best and have 15 hours of community service and 15 hours as a volunteer for poll worker. I am also attending clubs like Red Cross and Medical Club this year and will have good opportunities for community service.
Financially my family earns around 50k a year so I will qualify for need based scholarship ( I am a legal US resident)
With a 2150 SAT and a 4.13 UC GPA, I believe:
UCI - match (your SAT is way above UCI’s SAT score average of 1730 and its SAT score 75% rank of 1900)
UCD - match (again, your SAT is above average for UCD, which has an SAT score average of 1805 and a 75% rank score of 2120)
UCSB - high match
UCSD - high match/low reach because acceptance is competitive at UCSD
UCs do not emphasize test scores as much as they do GPA. Given that the OP’s GPA is in the range of 53-56% admission rate to UCD and UCI in 2015, it would be risky to say that they are “match”, rather than “high match” at best. The OP may want to add UCSC, UCR, and/or UCM.
I know that my gpa is average for the colleges I want to go to. But I think I would rather go to cal state universities or community college and save money rather than going to UCSC, UCR and UCM. So just tell me if I have a shot at the UCs I have listed.
Agree with @ucbalumnus that UC’s are very GPA focused and for some of the campuses even with a 4.0+ GPA and very good test scores there is no guarantee of an acceptance especially for Biology which is a capped major or impacted major.