Chance me!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

3.45 U/W, 3.86 W
Asian American in California
35 ACT, 35 on all sections except a 36 on science
SAT II Math: 800, SAT II Chem: 800, SAT II US H: 800
AP’s: cs(5), calc ab(5), chem(4), spanish lang(4), apush(5),
Senior year classes: ap bio, ap macro, ap gopo, ap stats

I go to a notoriously difficult high school in the bay area. When talking to my graduated friends, I notice my school has a little “boost”(example: 3.5 kids regularly get into Purdue CS).

EC’s:

Cello for the last 7 years, played in the schools orchestra
Speech and Debate officer
FBLA officer
I do volunteer work at a low income area elementary school and teach kids. I’ve been doing this for the last 4 years.

I worked in KFC last summer. I’m working at Kumon(tutoring service for those that don’t know) right now and I want to do some other tutoring jobs.

I want to go down a premed track so I preferably want in-state schools so I reduce the financial burden.

I’m aiming for Cal Poly Slo Biology or chemistry (can someone tell me which is easier to get into)
UCI Biomedical engineering or biology (or whatever major has a lot of premed overlap)
UCSB Biology or chemistry
UCR Bio
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Biological Sciences
UIUC Biology
SDSU biology
UCSC Biology
Tulane University bio
Case Western Reserve University (reach asff)

My stats and ec’s are cheeks compared to the rest of the lot on cc,but I think I have strong essays.

Assuming my essays are semi-strong, what other colleges do you guys think I should apply to? I would prefer public, in state(california) colleges but privates and out of states are cool too.

2

Consider U of Rochester too - it has many similarities to CWRU, and they love musicians and have tons of music opportunities because of Eastman. Great place for premed. Also Pitt, where you’d get Honors College for your ACT score.

If you want to save money and still get an excellent flagship-level STEM education, think about U of Utah through the WUE program… and also U of New Mexico, Washington State, and Colorado State. (Maybe replace UIUC which is going to be very expensive OOS.) http://wue.wiche.edu/search1.jsp

And if you’re going to try for UCI and UCSB, you might consider Davis too. I actually think it’s one of the best places to do premed in the UC system. And they have a very cool variety of bio-related majors, including a long list within the school of biological sciences https://biology.ucdavis.edu/undergrad, plus others like biotechnology in the ag school https://www.ucdavis.edu/majors/biotechnology and biochemical engineering in the engineering school https://www.ucdavis.edu/majors/biochemical-engineering

I’m a little confused that there isn’t a bigger spread between your unweighted and weighted GPA’s when you’ve taken as many AP’s as you have. What is your UC weighted/capped GPA? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

For Cal Poly, make 1000% sure that you include your middle school algebra, geometry, and Spanish. Many an applicant has lost an acceptance by failing to put these in - they are part of the course rigor algorithm.

3

Is your weighted GPA, your UC GPA? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

SLO uses 9-11th grades in the above GPA calculation and will consider the capped weighted GPA. As noted, make sure you include Middle school grades for Math and Foreign Languages.

Your GPA will have an impact on your chances. Depending upon what your SLO and UC GPA end up being, SLO could be a Reach. Chemistry’s projected acceptance rate of 15% and Biology at 10%.

SDSU and UCR look like solid Match schools. UCSC is a Match-High Match while the rest of the UC’s will be tough. Your ACT is very competitive, but UC’s tend to be more GPA focused than test focused.

The difficulty of your HS will be taken into consideration and some solid essays can help.

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific. Biology is capped and impacted at many of the UC campuses and Engineering is always competitive.

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%

Best of luck and make sure you have 1 safety on your list.

4

Thank you both for your input! My UC weighted is 3.87 and weighted and capped is 3.66. I don’t think I’ve taken that many honors/ap courses compared to the rest of CC, but I took the hardest classes my school had to offer besides calc bc and the honors literature class my junior year. Ap spanish lang i self studied(earned a 4 which is surprising considering I have never gotten an A in that class since 8th grade) but I took the honors class my junior year. Here are all my weighted courses(2 semesters each, all uc approved): APCS A, chemistry honors, precalculus honors, APUSH, ap calc ab, ap chemistry, spanish 4 honors. Again thank you both for your input it means a lot!