Chance Me -- UCLA Integrative Biology and Physiology -- Class of 2024

Hi, I am a rising senior currently attending the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science, a boarding school program for juniors and seniors in Denton, TX. I have a class size of approximately 200 students and there is no concept of ranking.

Test Scores:
ACT: 33 (Math: 32, Science: 30, Reading: 33, English: 35) (Just re-took it in July and hoping for a better score)
SAT: 1450 (Math: 750, Verbal: 700) (Superscore: 1450 (Math: 760, Verbal: 700) (Also working on this atm, will be taking the August exam)
PSAT: 1490 (Math: 750, Verbal: 740) , Index: 223/228 (Probably National Merit if I get my SAT score up, lol)
SAT Subject Tests: Biology: 760, Math: 710 (Probably going to either re-submit this or only submit Biology since I believe ACT w/writing makes up for lack of subject tests)
GPA (at the moment): 3.96/4.0 (No such thing as weighted at my school since we take college level courses)
Advanced Courses Taken (At former high school): IB DL SL Year I Physics, IB DP SL Year I Mathematics, and Computer Science I (Only Higher Level Courses Offered at Former School for 10th graders)
Courses Taken/Will Take at Current School: BIOL I, BIOL II (Equivalent of AP Biology + More), CHEM I, CHEM II (Equivalent of AP Chem + More), MicroEcon, Calculus I, Calculus II, Organic Chemistry I, Organic Chemistry II, Physics I (Mechanics), Physics II (Electricity + Magnetism), History I, History II, Political Science I, Research
AP Tests: None, my school only offered IB higher level courses as stated above. Though I am wondering whether I should take these tests next year even though I know it won’t really make a difference to my app, so is it worth it?

ExtraCurriculars:
(Both till present and into Senior Year also note most of the extra-curricular activities which say 9th and 10th and don’t show continuity are probably like that because I couldn’t participate in those activities in my new school or chose to do something else since I had more opportunities in 11th and 12th grade):

Varsity Cross Country (9th): Position: Individual Contributor, Description: Ran Varsity cross country with many other juniors and seniors. Won 16th out of 200 at one race and Top 25 at another race.
Varsity Tennis (9th, 10th, 11th, 12th): Position: Captain (11th, 12th) At former high school was top three on varsity team. After coming to the academy and being chosen as one of the four juniors to be represented at annual tournament, won first and at the end of junior year, chosen as captain for senior year.
Class Office (9th and 10th): Positions: Vice President (9th grade), President (10th grade)
Piano: (9th, 10th, 11th, 12th): Position: None, Have been playing for awhile though no competitions attended so I am not sure if that deems this extra-curr. useless.
Research: (11th and 12th): Was a part of 2 labs on the UNT campus: one focused more on animal physiology and the second one focused on biochemistry of a blood disease: VWD. Hoping to get a publication in the first one as the project is almost finished.
Model United Nations (9th and 10th) : Positions: Developmental Team Lead for Middle School Model United Nations (9th and 10th), Head Delegate (For Club Participants in My Grade) (10th), MWS-MUN (A Model United Nations conference held by a group of students by our school) Technology and Communications Director (10th)
FTC Robotics (10th): Position: Software Team Lead, My friend started the club in 10th grade and it was something I always wanted to join. Thus, I joined the club.
TAMS Academic Society (12th): Position: Biology Committee Head; The role of this position is to help guide juniors through the BIOL I and BIOL II course and serve as the main tutor. I will be holding review sessions before every exam and information sessions on events like USABO.
IEEE (12th): Position: Professional Outreach Manager. As you can probably see, I have always had an interest in both biology and computer science/engineering. At the same time, through positions like class office, like communicating and setting up events.

Awards/Honors:

  1. Blox-Mob-App-A-Thon Best Design Award 1st Place (9th Grade):
  2. All State Student Athlete (9th, 10th grade):
  3. Inducted into NHS (10th grade)
  4. Magna Cum Laude (9th, 10th grade)
  5. Language Arts Student of the Year (9th grade)
  6. BUMUN (Baylor Model United Nations) Position Paper Honorable Mention (9th grade)
  7. Lake Travis Youth Entrepreneurship Hackathon First Place (10th grade)
  8. President’s List (11th grade): Awarded for maintaining a 4.0/4.0 GPA while taking at least 12 credit hours worth of courses
  9. TAMS Summer Research Scholarship (11th grade): $4000 stipend awarded for continuity of and outstanding research at the University of North Texas.
  10. EarthxHack DFW 2019 Finalist, Top 5 Teams out of 50+ teams (11th grade)
  11. Youngest Presenter at the International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis (12th): Presented a novel research poster regarding platelets at a medical and research conference that is held in Melbourne, Australia.
  12. Top Poster Prize awarded at International Society of Thrombosis and Hemostasis (12th grade)
  13. Awaiting a Co-Authorship on a Publication for an Animal Physiology Research Project which assesses the affects of crude oil on the respiratory system of quails (11th, 12th)

Volunteer Work:

  1. SICMUN Model United Nations Conference – Director of Technology (10th grade)
  2. GEMUN (Global Elementary Model United Nations Conference) Information Center Manager (9th, 10th grade)
  3. Texas Veg Fest (9th grade)
  4. Baylor Scott and White Shadowing (11th grade)
  5. Aspire Mentorship Mentor (11th, 12th)
  6. TAMS Medical Society Outreach Volunteer (11th, 12th)

Projects:

  1. TAMS Sports Club Website (11th-Present): Used programming and design skills to develop and maintain the TAMS Sports Club Website based on the directions of the Sports Club executive board.
  2. TopSoil (11th-Present): The goal of our software is to create an algorithm which optimizes water usage based on a variety of regional topological factors.
  3. Tech Odds Ends Website (9th-Present): Self-created website made in Bootstrap that was used to deploy several test projects for clients.
  4. Personal Project (Clubtastic v1.0) (9th, 10th): Used a newly released Javascript framework from FaceBook called React Native to build a mobile iOS and Android application which functions as a Club Info. Hub.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.

You look like a very qualified applicant but can your family afford to pay $65K/year for you to attend UCLA?

The UC’s only use 10-11th grades for their GPA calculation and get get 1 extra Honors point for any AP/IB class (by semester) taken during the time.

Here is the UC GPA calculator and please post your UW UC GPA, Capped Weighted UC GPA and Fully Weighted UC GPA.

UCLA will mainly focus on your UW and Fully Weighted UC GPA, however the UC admit rates are published based on the Capped Weighted and not major specific.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCLA: 9%
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:
UCLA: 41%
2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCLA: 4.23

2018 Data:
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:

UCLA: 1340-1540

Best of luck.

Hi, thanks for your response. I did not know the UC schools only take my 10th and 11th grade GPA into consideration. In that case, I would have a 4.0/4.0. Well, actually I would have to add on the points for the IB classes. Also, I never realized it would cost $65k because Google would quote $40k but I guess that’s the calculated cost with financial aid for out of state students?

OOS students should expect little to no financial aid for UCLA. https://www.admission.ucla.edu/prospect/budget.htm