chance me?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey guys I’m a current junior in California
South Asian Male (Bangladesh)
First Generation
GPA: 3.85 weighted, I think like 3.5 unweighted
Class Rank:130/644 (highly competitive large school in city)
SAT: 1340 (720 math, will study more), taking it a second time in June so I will update then (studying a lot in reading/writing (today I did like 70 questions in reading and writing), aim to hit around high 1400’s low 1500’s)
AP courses so far:
-Physics 1
-US history
-Psychology
APs- Next Year
-Micro/Macro
-Government
-Calculus AB
The only reason why my GPA is low is because I had not the best start to high school. I have done a thread you can see here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1992142-what-do-college-admission-officers-look-at-when-reviewing-your-transcript-i-had-a-rough-start-to-hs-p1.html?new=1
READ ABOVE. IT EXPLAINS MY UPWARD TREND IN GPA
My intended major is really Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace engineering. (I have been considering History as well… and thinking about nursing)

Extracurricular/Awards/Acknowledgements
-Track Team (9,10,11)
-Cross country (11)
-Key Club (10,11)
-Pre-Med Club( 9,10,11)
-National Honor Society HS (10,11)
-50+ hours of Volunteer Work
-Math Tutor for Elementary-Middle school kids
-California Scholastic Federation Member
-Invited to represent my school at the 2017 National Student Leadership Conference (NSLC).
-2017 Nominee for Envision Career & Leadership Programs.
-Selected as a Delegate to represent my school and the state of California at the Congress Of Future Science and Technology Leaders. (kinda sketchy, but oh well)

Schools I am INTERESTED in: (not applying to all below, just what you guys think I should apply to)
UC Berkeley
UC Davis.
UC Irvine.
UCLA.
UC Merced.
UC Riverside.
UC San Diego.
UC Santa Barbara
UC Santa Cruz
San Diego State
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Feel free to add school as suggestions. (preferably public schools, but I’m generally open).
Questions? Ask below :slight_smile:

2

What is your CSU/UC GPA? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

The UC’s and all the Cal States except SLO use 10-11th grades for a-g course requirements for the GPA calculation.

SLO uses 9-11th grades but you can use the same GPA calculator. Since you are in-state you can look up which Honors/AP courses give you the extra honors points in the calculation:

https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/institution

SDSU admits by major and eligibility index. The eligibility index calculation is as follows:
(CSU/UC GPA x 800) + (SAT Math + CR). A target EI of 4100+ is competitive but not a guarantee.

For SLO, admission uses an MCA point system. Here is a link for an explanation on how to calculate your MCA points. An MCA score of 4700+ is good for SLO but again not a guarantee since ME and Aerospace are very competitive.

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/cal-poly-san-luis-obispo/1694769-confused-about-mca-score-p4.html

For the UC’s, the more competitive the major, the higher the stats are needed. An upward grade trend, high SAT scores, interesting EC’s and unique/outstanding essays will all contribute to your chances but your GPA may be an issue.

UC’s tend to be very GPA focused so based just on GPA, here are some admit rates for 2016:
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:

UCB: 14%
UCLA: 14%
UCSD: 44%
UCSB: 54%
UCD: 58%
UCI: 65%
UCSC: 85%
UCR: 94%
UCM: 96%

History could be an easier admit and Nursing an even more competitive admit than even Engineering. If you are leaning towards Nursing, you should consider applying to direct admit programs such as SDSU/UCI/UCLA/Cal State Fullerton, University of San Francisco, Azusa Pacific and Arizona State. The advantage of a direct admit program is that you will not have to reapply to a nursing program after 2 years like the 2+2 programs at many of the other Cal states: Long Beach, Sonoma, Dominguez Hills, Sacramento, San Francisco etc… Nursing programs are impacted through out California.

Best of luck.

3

@Gumbymom Thank you for your input.

4

@Gumbymom I used the rogerhub as you suggested, and here is what I received
Unweighted GPA: 3.54
Weighted GPA: 3.96
Weighted and Capped GPA: 3.88

5

Based on your current stats this is how I would formulate your list.

For Engineering:
Target schools would be UC Merced/Riverside/Santa Cruz/SDSU
Reach schools would be UC Davis/Santa Barbara/Irvine
High Reach schools would be SLO/UCSD/UCB/UCLA

I would add your local Cal State as a Safety and also add San Jose State, Long Beach state and Cal Poly Pomona.
Take a look at some privates such as USC (Reach), Santa Clara (Low Reach),

For Nursing:
Target schools would be Univ of San Francisco, Arizona State and Azusa Pacific
For SDSU and CSU Fullerton, an EI of 4500 would make you competitive
Reach schools would be UCLA/UCI

I would add some 2+2 programs such as Cal State Long Beach and San Jose.

For History, you could Reach a bit higher in schools.

Just remember that it is much easier to move down in majors than up, so if you are leaning towards Engineering, apply for Engineering.