<p>In my first three years of HS, I really slacked off.
Freshman year: 2.5 GPA
Sophmore year: 3.17 GPA
Junior year: 3.00 GPA
I spent a lot of time playing video games, and had the belief that as long as I could understand and absorb the curriculum, doing the HW was not needed. Never took any AP or honors classes. Thus yielded a rather low GPA throughout these years.</p>
<p>Only once I was near the end of my junior year did I realize the fault in my habits. I figured if I took the AP classes, and showed I was capable of participating in those classes, it would in someway help to override the bad beginning years, but now as I was beginning to look more at colleges, I'm learning how little colleges care about Senior year, only so much to make sure you pass it. If you were curious, my Senior year is as follows:</p>
<p>AP Govt./Econ
AP Calculus
World Literature
Advanced Marine Bio
Computers Lit 1&2</p>
<p>As of so far, my GPA is 4.25 weighted for this year, with the only B coming from AP Govt.
SAT I & II scores:</p>
<p>CR:640
Math:800
W:600</p>
<p>Math II:710
Physics: 680</p>
<p>My EC's are as follows:
Varsity Tennis 2 years(11th and 12th)
Candy Stripper (~100 hours, did this because I am interested in medical work as a career choice)
Food Pantry (~10 hours)
Hospice (~10 hours)</p>
<p>There's no one to blame for my poor grades in my early years other than myself, and now I'm paying the consequences. I'm just curious if I would have any chance at any of the UCs. I hear that the ease of getting a job after completing any sort of college is easier if the one you go to is more prestigious, and not to say you can't get a good education at the lower UCs like Merced(Quite the opposite, I'm sure), but I feel it would be wiser for my future employment to go to a CC for the first two years out of HS, and then transfer to a UC based on my grades at the CC. Thanks for any help.</p>
<p>You have above average scores for most of the UC’s. I mean, you know what your faults are so I dont think it would do any good to say “your gpa holds you down” cause obviously, you know that.
That being said,
your prob. in at merced, riverside, santa cruz.
Its a low reach for irvine, santa barbara, davis, but you might get into one of the 3 .</p>
<p>why not a small liberal arts school? look up the book colleges that change lives- You’ll definitely get into a few of those, and they are all top notch schools.</p>
<p>You will probably get into riverside, merced and santa cruz. Though, the middle tier ones like irvine and santa barbara are probably reaches…due to the gpa…
Have you considered applying to some of the better CSU’s? like CSU pomona? Maybe even slo? But slo is pretty much equivalent to Irvine, SB and Davis. Still apply to the middle tier UCs though, cause something awesome might happen.</p>
<p>Personally, the state schools in my opinion can’t compare to any of the UCs. I only give a slight thumbs up to Cal Poly SLO over schools like Merced and Riverside, but I feel UCSC is a much better school.</p>
<p>You will make UCM, R, and SC no doubt, but it will be very very tough for you to make it into any of the others. However, I would apply nontheless, even to the CSU’s if you feel that is the right direction for you.</p>
<p>The only reason I suggest against CC and transfer is the fact if you slacked off in High School, you’re probably going to slack off in CC where the material is just as challenging and there are definitely few students that will challenge or inspire you to make you want to work harder. Then once you transfer, you’re going to be pitted in a very tough situation where you are not up to par.</p>
<p>This is supposed to be a positive advice, so don’t take it the wrong way.</p>