I am a Senior in a California High School
UC/CSU GPA: 3.88
Weighted GPA: 3.96
SAT: 1400
ACT:31
Ton of good Ec’s
EI Score: 4504 or for ACT 1086
These Colleges are mainly reaches so I understand my chances may be low or hopefully good.
UCSB
SDSU
UCLA
Cal Poly
Any tips or chance helps would be amazing!
Hard to say without Extra curricular
Intended major?
HS course rigor?
Below a 4.0 UC GPA will be a tough admit for UCSB and UCLA especially. UC’s tend to be very GPA focused so lower GPA cannot be made up with higher test scores unless there are extenuating circumstances. Also your personal insight essays and EC’s will all be considered in your admissions decision.
Your EI makes SDSU a Match. Cal Poly Pomona a Safety and Cal Poly SLO a Low Reach but it all depends upon what major you are applying.
My intended major for cal poly slo is business administration and I didn’t have to write any essays or anything with that major in mind do you think I have a good chance. HS course rigor is pretty high with 6 APs and 4 Honors in STEM (AP Calc AB, AP Physics, AP Bio)and Writing classes(APUSH,AP Lang,APHUG)@Gumbymom
SLO uses 9-11th grades for their GPA calculation with a cap of 8 semesters of UC approved Honors/AP/IB or DE courses taken 10-11th so plug in your 9th-11th grades in the UC calculator to get your CP GPA.
They also do not use Eligibility index for admissions but an MCA point score which also includes hours of EC’s and work experience related to your major.
Here is the information regarding the MCA calculation:
Academic MCA:
The maximum GPA they will use is 4.2, even though you can have a higher calculated CP GPA. A 4.2 is worth 2250 MCA points. Thus, multiply your CP GPA by 535.7 and you’ll get your MCA points for GPA.
The next biggest thing is test scores. The odd thing, likely because they wanted it to total a nice round number, is that the max score is 1650, even though the max SAT score is 1600. Multiply the total of your best SAT CR and your best SAT math by 1.03125 to get your MCA test points. If you took the ACT, they convert and vice versa.
The third largest section is the class rigor score, worth 750 points. In this section you get zero points for meeting the minimum admission requirements and adders for more than the minimum. The bonuses in order of power are (min semesters/max total semesters/bonus per extra semester/total possible bonus): math 6/10/125/500, lab science 4/8/50/200, English 8/10/50/100, foreign language 4/8/25/100, visual performance 2/4/25/50, no bonus points for social sciences or electives. As with GPA, you can actually score higher than the maximum, but 750 is the most they will count.
Finally, work and ECs, worth 350 points. Work (hours per week/bonus): 0/0, 1-5/20, 6-10/40, 11-15/60, 16-20/80, 21+/100, add 50 points if work is major related. ECs (hours per week/bonus): 0/0, 1-5/30, 6-10/60, 11-15/90, 16-20/120, 21+/150, add 60 points for leadership role.
There are also other Non-Academic Bonus Points:
CA vet/701, Hayden Partner School/700, faculty/staff dependent/700, service area of CP/500, either parent with some or no HS, but who DIDN’T GRADUATE FROM HS/300 (per parent).
Lastly,
Cal Poly ACT/SAT Concordance Chart in case you took ACT (use only Math and English and figure out the two equivalent SAT scores)
ACT CR M
36 800 800
35 770 790
34 760 780
33 750 760
32 720 730
31 700 700
30 680 680
29 650 660
28 630 640
27 610 620
26 590 600
25 570 580
24 550 560
23 540 540
22 520 520
21 500 500
20 490 480
19 470 460
18 450 440
17 440 410
16 420 390
15 400 360
14 380 330
13 360 300
12 330 280
11 300 260
Here’s how it works. Cal Poly does TWO “READINGS” one of academic only and one after adding additional non-academic bonus adders. The reason I put readings in quotes is that they don’t actually READ them. A computer tallies points and then ranks students.
This is the stats for 2018 Freshman for the Business school. You are on target for with your test scores and within range with your GPA.
Average CP GPA: 4.12 ACT: 30 Target: 1410
I would say you have a good chance at SLO.
Thank you so much for the detailed response @Gumbymom ! That’s crazy how much information gets turned into a number to rank you against other applicants.
And all decided by a computer.