I’m going to be a senior next year and am in HS in California, and I’ve been thinking a lot about where I’ll be applying next year. However, I do not want to “shoot too high”. So… please please please lend me some insight as to how I’m doing stats and standing wise. I have already done extensive research on my own on the websites of these colleges, but I think some insider advice would be super helpful. Thanks!
Do I have a shot at getting into?
UCB, UCLA, UCSB, UCD, or Claremont colleges? (Also applying to others, but these are the most competitive)
Possible majors: Biochemistry, Political Science, Health-related sciences
Cumulative GPA: 4.51
ACT: 31
ECs: 1. Soccer every year in HS + club soccer for 2 years; team captain for school soccer 2 years
2. Junior Class Vice President
3. ASB President (next year)
4. Future Physicians Club (sophomore - senior year and I will possible be an executive team leader of the club next year)
5. Tons of volunteer hours (200+ in high school; both school and community )
6. HOBY LA ambassador and junior staff member (it’s a leadership seminar held all over the world)
7. Worked at a dermatology and laser clinic for 6 months
Essay Topics:
planning on discussing my interest in health and fitness (and having one of my group exercise instructors write me a letter of rec.)
planning on writing about seeing my dad struggle with and overcome his alcoholism, and the perspective and new mindset I gained from witnessing it
ACT score a bit on the low side for the top UC’s (UCLA/UCB) along with the Claremont Colleges.
UC’s are very GPA focused but you also need competitive test scores, solid essays and EC’s. I think you have the EC’s covered but I would work on bumping up your test scores. What is your HS course rigor? You cannot go by your HS’s weighting system for GPA. The UC’s have their own weighting for the UC GPA calculation and privates are not so transparent.
Here are some admit rates for the UC’s based on UC GPA (capped weighted):
For the Claremont colleges, which college(s) are you interested in applying? Have you check the common datasets to see how you compare to the enrolled students based on GPA and test scores?
For Claremont McKenna, your ACT of 31 puts you at the 25th percentile.
@Gumbymom My UC GPA is above a 4.44, not exactly sure what it is though. I will have been enrolled in 7 APs, 5 honors, and 3 college courses by the time I’m done with HS. I’ve checked some common data sets but I can’t find the link to the sets for some UCs.
You can use this link to look up the Freshman profiles for all the UC’s. The data is from 2016 and the new updated profiles should be available in August. The GPA quoted is the capped weighted but this gives you an idea of acceptance rates/GPA ranges and test score ranges.