Chances and suggestions for improving them for USC, UCs.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! Please tell me where I stand with these colleges, and what I can do to improve these chances in the few months between now and college application season.

*Colleges:
USC
UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD
Vanderbilt University
Calpoly SLO( Mostly safety)

*Major: Business- Probably either accounting or finance (or both)
State: California
Chinese American Male
Income level: Single mother who doesn’t work, lower middle-middle class. Also, are foreign assets counted? (Houses that provide rent revenue), no childcare.
School: Small, (100 kids per grade) Jesuit Private School in Socal, has some connections to UCLA and USC

*GPA: School Cumulative: 4.29
UGPA Cumulative: 3.9
Uc Gpa capped(10th-11th): 4.33
Uc Gpa uncapped(10th-11th): 4.75

Freshman: 4.1
Sophomore: 4.3
Junior: 4.45

Upward Trend: Nothing other than turning some A- to A in between semesters.

*Courseload:
Took the most challenging courseload, max Ap classes as school allowed.
Freshman: 2 honors
Sophomore: 4 honors, 1 Ap
Junior: 1 honors, 3 Ap
Senior: 4 Ap, (1 of them is only half semester, the other semester is Honors Econ.)
*All honors/Ap is accredited by UC system.
4 years of Spanish, math, science, english, and social studies (not sure if important)
Highest math will be AP Calc AB

*Test Scores:
Old SAT 1st attempt: 1910 (630CR-660M-620W) 7 Essay
Old SAT 2nd attempt: 2150 (740CR-660M-750W) 8 Essay
Did not take new SAT or ACT, will not be retaking SAT (Besides subject tests)

SAT II Chemistry: 660 (Should I omit?)
SAT II US History: 780
SAT II Math Level 2: Going to take around september/october
*If my Math II score is 700+, I will use it in place of chemistry, but if its below should I just submit only my US History score?

Ap Euro: 4
APUSH: 5
Ap English: 5
Ap Chemistry: 3
*I think it qualifies for Ap Scholar award(Is this worth putting on App?)

*ECs:
4 years Varsity Tennis (Not captain, just member-no notable awards)
Piano (High School Orchestra 3 years), self-taught/lessons off and on, 3rd place from a small competition ( Like 9 people, worth mentioning?)
Community Service- About 60-70 hrs total, most notable one is teaching elementary schoolkids in rural China English.
Unpaid internship- Tutoring High school and college kids in China on the TOEFL.
2 years Mock Trial (witness)
2 years JSA (secretary, so not really a leadership position)
Summer Camp Helper (1 year) for kids with incarcerated parents

  • I am counting senior year into the years (ie, started doing JSA and Mock Trial Junior year) *I feel like I am lacking in leadership positions, and only doing 2 years in many of my ECs might seem like low commitment

*Essay: Good, tells a story but not mindblowingly amazing.

*Hooks:
Immigrant- 7 years old from China
Skipped 3rd grade( Although this doesnt seem to factor much, if at all)
Two divorces (Although this seems to be a taboo thing to write about, plus Im not too emotionally affected.)

Thank you for your time!

2

Note: SLO uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation. Also I would consider it a very solid Match school, not a safety unless you are a local applicant. First generation would be your only “hook”.

You have a good chance at all the UC’s and USC. You realize that UCSD and UCLA do not have business schools nor accounting/finance as majors?

Good Luck.

3

Not even first generation college student :/( do parents going to foreign colleges count?) And I will be applying to UCLA for business economics, and any suitable substitute at UCSD.

4

You are not a first generation applicant if ypur patents went to college anywhere.

5

Hooks can’t just be what you think they should be.

Hooks are very specific. It is what a university statistically needs or wants):

URM: African-American, Native American, Mexican-American, Pacific Islander (ex: Samoan, Guamanian, etc)
Legacy
Celebrities
Recruited athletes-Olympic caliber athletes
Donors who can donate buildings on campus. (Bill Gates and Steve Jobs types, Rockerfellers, etc)
First gen student (parents who have never attended any school after high school, and is meant to target those US students whose parents didn’t have means to send students to strong HS)

6

Bump