Applying to a few ucs: UCI, UCLA, UCR, UCSD
Chance me!
GPA: 4.3 weighted, 3.8 unweighted
SAT: First try: 1100…Taking next SAT in August of Senior year (hopefully 1300+)
Intended Majors: Communications, English, Literary Journalism, Marketing, Creative Writing (Humanities) etc.
First Choice School: UCI
Awards and Honors:
Principal’s Exemplary Honor Roll:
Maintained 3.5-4.0 Grade Point Average throughout semesters (9-11)
Community Service:
Beach Cleanup and Field Science
Participated in beach cleanups/Field Science events (11)
(15 hours)
Local library Summer Reading
(44 hours)
Extracurriculars:
President, Freedom Creative Writing Club (11)
President, Future American Leaders Club (9-11)
Vice President, Veteran Support Association (11)
Member, Key Club (9-11)
(22 hours)
Other:
First generation
Low income issues
Family issues/circumstances
UC’s only use 10-11th grades for the a-g course requirements for their GPA calculation. Here is the UC GPA calculator and all the UC’s use the capped weighted GPA. If you are a CA resident, then UC approved Honors, AP/IB or DE courses taken 10-11th grade will add extra honors points/semester with a cap of 8 semesters of these honors points.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
You will definitely have to bump up your SAT score to have a solid chance at these schools. First Generation/Low income will help your chances and you can discuss your Family issues in your personal insight essays.
I see no safety school and you really need to have at least 2 safety schools especially since the UC’s tend to be unpredictable when it comes to acceptances.
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:
UCB: 12.6%
UCLA: 11.7%
UCSD: 38.7%
UCSB: 53.6%
UCD: 56.5%
UCI: 52.1%
UCSC: 75.7%
UCR: 90.1%
UCM: 96.1%
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:
UCB: 1280-1490
UCLA: 1280-1500
UCSD: 1250-1470
UCSB: 1210- 1450
UCD: 1190-1430
UCI: 1190-1420
UCSC: 1170-1380
UCR: 1090-1310
UCM: 1020-1230
Since UCI is your target:
- IRVINE
*
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Very important: Academic GPA, Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Level of applicant's interest, Rigor of secondary school record, Standardized test scores, Talent/ability, Volunteer work, Work experience
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Important: Character/personal qualities, Class rank
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Considered: First generation college student, Geographical residence, State residency
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Note: Demonstrated record of academic preparation, educational engagement, talent and skills important.
- Freshman Selection:
UCI admits into the University first and then into the major. In the case that UCI is unable to accommodate all qualified applicants in their first-choice major, those students who indicate a valid alternate major may be offered admission in that major or Undeclared.
I attend a competitive high school in Irvine…Although my SAT score is in the 1100-1200 range…my gpa seems to be above average for some UCs. Most students consider UCR a safety school because almost 85% of applicants from my high school are offered admission to UCR and easier UCs. Also, I have participated in creative writing competitions in Princeton University and Columbia College Chicago…would this increase my chances as a candidate for UCs or specifically UCI?
As noted in the UCI application review information I posted, your writing competitions would go under talent/skills so yes these could help you.
The most recent data is for 2017 but here is a link for UC GPA capped weighted by major for admitted UCI applicants:
http://www.oir.uci.edu/files/adm/IA27-fall-fr-mean-hsgpa-by-major.pdf?R=254253
And SAT scores by major for UCI:
http://www.oir.uci.edu/files/adm/IA26-fall-fr-mean-sat-by-major.pdf?R=821306
My UC GPA is 4.2 according to the calculator. If I raise my SAT to 1350-1400 range…will UCI be considered my safety UC school? Do UCs look at AP scores in the admission process?
UCI still cannot be considered a safety school since their acceptance rate this year 28.8%. Safety school is a school where you have almost a 100% chance for an acceptance and is affordable.
Have you run the net price calculator on UCI and all the other schools of interest to see your cost estimates? I would use UC Riverside and/or Merced as a safety school and also consider one of the top ranked Cal states such as CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach or San Diego State.
My high school is ranked well, therefore, more than half of the applicants from my school are accepted to UCI regardless of their acceptance rate of 28 percent…however, more students tend to attend schools such as UCLA and Berkeley…My counselor has stated that with a combined package of high SAT scores (1300 +), a high GPA (4.3), well rounded extracurriculars and leadership positions, etc. practically guarantees admission to students from my high school…especially in my case…since I don’t come from a privileged background, therefore lacking access to resources that contribute to perfectly excelling in public high schools
UCI acceptance is very tricky since they had well over 100K applicants and rejected/waitlisted tons of kids with really high GPAs or really high test scores. With your UC GPA you’ll probably need to be 1300+ to have a coin flip’s chance and 1430+ to have a good shot. You can’t call UCI a safety school.
This link can be useful. It is admissions data by source HS for all the UC’s.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/admissions-source-school
2018 Admission Data for UC Irvine: 94,866 freshman applications, 27,334 admits, 28.8% acceptance rate
Not a safety.
Due to high competition in my high school, some students have been accepted to UCs with GPAs lower than 3.2 and SAT scores in the 1100-1200 range…please offer an explanation to how people can get accepted to UCs while I cant call uci a safety school because my scores aren’t high enough…when clearly they are perfect to gain admission…
Also…safety schools should not be defined as schools with a 100 percent acceptance rate…Having a 70-100 percent acceptance chance at any school would be realistically considered a safety school…There are limited numbers of schools with 100 percent acceptance rates…therefore, it would be illogical to say that safety schools must only be schools in which the applicant has a 100 percent chance in admission
@christinak1922 yes it’s definitey possible that people can get in with low SAT scores or low GPAs, but for every one that gets in with that low of a score or grade, probably nine others with similar scores don’t get in.
You should go thru the gigantic Class of 2022 UCI thread to get a sense of GPA and test scores who got accepted and who got waitlisted and who got rejected. Impacted majors also will play a big determining factor as to your admissions odds. As a data point, my kid had a 4.05 UC GPA with a 1540 SAT, CS major, and got waitlisted and ultimately rejected from this year’s application pool.
Wouldn’t applying as a humanities major with obvious interest in the field (as seen in my extracurriculars and talents) help me gain admission to UCI? I know that UCI is a school known for its STEM programs…so it is assumed that people applying to difficult majors like CS or Engineering would have a lower chance of admission due to the competition…I think it would be significantly different for a humanities major
@christinak1922:
Yes you can define a safety school with an acceptance rate of 70-100% but the basic premise is that you must have a very high chance of being admitted.
From the 94,866 applicants for 2018, I would say at least 50% were highly qualified but still only a little over half of those were admitted.
Applying for a less competitive major, will help your chances but there is no guarantee. A safety school is a guarantee.
Regarding your comment about students getting into UCI with a 3.2 GPA, most likely they were recruited athletes or has something else desirable for UCI.
This is from the 2017 common dataset for admitted and enrolled students using a UW GPA out 4.0:
Percent who had GPA of 3.75 and higher: 82.00%
Percent who had GPA between 3.50 and 3.74: 12.00%
Percent who had GPA between 3.25 and 3.49: 4.00%
Percent who had GPA between 3.00 and 3.24: 2.00%
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_irvine.pdf
My D19 is at a Irvine high school with similar GPA but a 1500 SAT. I would consider most of the UC’s still reaches fro her, just based on sheer numbers of top students applying. Your first generation will help, but if I were you (or your parent), I would seriously come up with a very focused plan this month to do whatever I could to up that SAT score. There are many self study resources and books and online tests. No need for expensive tutors. I think the SAT will hold you back if you can’t improve it. You are obviously an excellent student. The UC’s don’t have a lot to go by. They don’t use letters of rec or interviews so the other factors are even more important. Also really focus on those essays and show your passion. Try to find a reason in the essays that might show why the SAT’s are lower then others so that is taken into account. Good luck!
@19parent Would you consider my extracurriculars and leadership positions and my GPA competitive for UCs…Or would I need to improve them? I know my SAT score needs improvement. Btw I am interested in becoming a Humanities major.
You have very good EC’s and GPA, but based on the application review criteria for UCI and really all the UC’s, test scores are considered very important while EC’s are important. Put your time and energy into bumping up your test scores.
I am no expert, just a parent. I am just going off of what the colleges report. If you check the common data set of each of the campuses you are interested in (just google UCI common data set) scroll down to the stats on incoming freshman. They will list what students scores are at the 25% and 75% level. Work hard this month and see what you can get and take it from there. It is also great to have a goal, but there are a lot of excellent schools out there, especially in the humanities, where I am sure you would be very successful. Good Luck!
Thank you for the advice! I am also planning on applying to some other good schools including Chapman, Concordia Irvine, Cal Poly, etc. I am considering some liberal arts colleges too!
The only UCs that would be considered safeties for most applicants are UCR and UCM. Everything else is either a match or a reach, especially with the increasing competition from year to year. UCs do not admit by quotas of schools. I think you should be proud of your achievements so far and just bump that SAT up a little higher.
If you need help with certain parts of the SAT, feel free to PM me. I’m just a student like you, but I can share methods that will work if you choose to try them. I got a 1350 with little to no practice on my first attempt in March and my latest practice test score was a 1530 (under test environment simulation).