Chances at a University of California [ UCs ].....

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am a 16 year old Asian-American male high school student; CLASS OF 2006 taking the NEW SAT test out of 2400! I came from a public "ghetto" school in Los Angeles where the Academic Peformance Index(API) is a 4 on a scale of 10. I am a 3 year basketball and 4 volleyball team(Captain). Our volleyball team is in Division 3 & 4 and my freshmen year, we went all the way to CIF Finals and unfourantely lost in the final game of a tiebreaking series (4 games to 3 ) I am not the nerdy kind (lack of honors) but I'm really bright. I slump during my sophmore year due to life challenges and personal family problems. My uncle died in a car accident and my dad had cancer. He is undergoing chemotheraphy as of right now. I am the 1st generation to attend college. My Asian parents were immigrants but moved and settle in America for 14 years ago. I was born here in the States in Los Angeles 1988. I just finish my junior year on a high note while looking forward for junior year summer break/senior 1st semester.</p>

<p>I'm looking to apply to: **
University of California, Berekerly (hard skool)
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, San Diego
University of California, Irvine
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Davis
University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Riverside
University of California, Merced
Cal Polytechnic of Pomona
Cal Polytechnic San Luis Obispo**</p>

<p>What are my chances? What are my backups? What are my reach schools? </p>

<p>My class schedules</p>

<p>Freshmen Year - 3.5 GPA</p>

<p>Biology1 A|A
Spanish1 C|A<br>
English1 A|B
Career Pathways/Health&Safety A|A
Algebra 1 A|C
Volleyball Theorey A|A PASS
Debate B(1 semester)</p>

<p>Sophmore Year - 2.9 GPA</p>

<p>Chemistry Honors C|C
Geometry C|C
Avid Grad 10 Elective B(1 semester)<br>
World History B|A
Conflict Resolution PASS
English 2nd yr B|C
Volleyball Theorey A|A PASS</p>

<p>Junior Year - 3.7 GPA</p>

<p>Spanish 2nd yr C|C
Film Production & Fine Arts A|A
Avid Grad 11 Elective B|A
Algebra 2 B|A
English 3yr A|A
US History A|A
Volleyball Theorey A|A PASS</p>

<p>Upcoming SENIOR year schedule</p>

<p>1Trignometry
2English 4yr
3AP Government/Econmics
4AP Physics
5Conclict Resolution
6Avid Grad 12 Elective </p>

<p>ExtraC/Involvement</p>

<p>School Volleyball Team 4 YEARS 80 hours+/month
School Baksetball Team 3 YEARS
Key Club 2 YEARS
Chess Club 2 YEARS
Peer Resource/Conflict 3 YEARS
Avid 3 YEARS
Freshmen Class Council </p>

<hr>

<p>UC GPA: 3.10-3.40
UCExamination
SAT1 Reasoning 1590/2400 (1st time)
SAT2 Subject BIO 500/800 (1st time)</p>

<h2>SAT2 Subject USHISTORY 550/800 (1st time)</h2>

<p>**
What are my chances? What are my backups? What are my reach schools? Give me some advices and tips to improve....** Holla back!</p>

2

<p>CPP: safety
UCB: big reach
UCLA: reach
UCSD: reach
UCI: match?</p>

<p>Tips to improve: From your post, I see English is not your first language. This is a little bit of a problem, seeing that you were born here. Consider practicing your English over the summer. Since the essay must be written in English, you will want to improve your grammar skills a bit.</p>

3

<p>mrxalleycat:</p>

<p>UCLA/UCB: Super Reach
UCSD: Reach
UCD/UCSB/UCI: Slight Reach
UCSC/UCR/UCM: Match
Cal Poly SLO/Pomona: Slight Reach</p>

4

<p>UCB/UCLA/UCSD:Reach
UCD/UCSB/UCI:Slight Reach
UCM/UCR/UCSC:Match</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
Tips to improve: From your post, I see English is not your first language. This is a little bit of a problem, seeing that you were born here. Consider practicing your English over the summer. Since the essay must be written in English, you will want to improve your grammar skills a bit.

[/quote]

**? His English is *perfect.</p>

6

<p>mrxalleycat: You should definitley consider UCSC. While it may not have the reputation of UCLA or UCB, it is a very solid school that, I believe, you will have no problem being accepted to. UCSC boasts one of the better science departments of any of the UC's and is especially notworthy in its astonomy and chemistry departments. Plus.... it's in a VERY beutiful location. GO TO UCSC!</p>

7

<p>Thank you bondsfan! I am considering UCSC in my mind due to the fact that UCLA and UCB might not fit my type. UCLA and UCB are the two school I might not consider applying to because of the competition and high GPA inflation.
Another concern I have is the social aspect as well. Being the only asian at a school feels discomforting. I want to attend a school that I can "fit in" with the crowd along with a high percentage of azn students.</p>

8

<p>"***? His English is perfect."</p>

<p>"I just finish my junior year..." should be "I just finished..."</p>

<p>"I slump during my sophmore year..." should be "I slumped during my sophomore year..."</p>

<p>English was technically not my first language, and it definitely wasn't my parents, so I can recognize characteristic grammatical errors. In Vietnamese, there is no conjugation of verbs, and I believe there is a similar situation in the other Oriental languages; as a result, forgetting to conjugate a verb is an extremely common error for Asians.</p>

<p>Edit: Similarly, there is no difference between the singular and the plural form of a noun (at least in Vietnamese), so we tend to forget to add the 's'.</p>

9

<p>
[quote]
I am a 3 year basketball

[/quote]
</p>

<p>^^lol...anyways, write about all the hardships you and your family had to overcome. That is a great essay topic(don't focus on only Cancer, caz thats pretty generic among essays these days)</p>

10

<p>you're saying your UC GPA is 3.10-3.40?
isn't your UC GPA really just 3.16?
10th-11th grades are the only ones that count, and AVID and volleyball don't count. but yeah, I think UCSC is your best bet.</p>

11

<p>What the heck is "Volleyball Theory"?</p>

12

<p>why didn't you take spanish 2 after spanish 1?</p>

13

<p>I think AVID falls into one of the electives for "A-G" course list and I took it in 10th and 11th grade.</p>

14

<p>My counselor did not give me that class in my sophmore class schedule because the school made an error. I eventually took & passed it in my junior year. </p>

<p>I heard UC's(nation's BEST public school system) are becoming harder and harder to get into. You need like a minimum GPA of 3.0 am I correct? Whew! I hope I can get into UC's with a 3.3 gpa or into any UC .....</p>

15

<p>the minimum is 2.something</p>

<p>However, it will be hard to get in with a low GPA unless you're really special in some other aspects [aka high SAT]</p>

16

<p>Avid only counts as an elective in 12th grade.</p>

17

<p>Perhaps I over-estimate the UC schools, but I don't think you have a good chance at any of them. Only 2 APs, both in your senior year, no honors, weak ECs, one leadership position, plenty of C's, 500s on SATIIs, and an a 1590/2400??? Try raising that up by about...300 points. Also, you realize UCLA, UCB, and UCSD applicants all have a GPA of around 4.0w?</p>

18

<p>I would say reach for UCLA, UCB, UCSB, UCSD, UCD (depends on major) and MAYBE UCI.</p>

<p>Match for the rest (I dont know that much besides those schools
)</p>

19

<p>Sophmore Year - 2.9 GPA
..........that hurts. the SAT I...the SAT II....</p>

<p>um, dunno much about lower UCs, but I'd say...that you have very few back-ups. Perhaps you should consider Cal-State Long Beach of Fullerton.</p>

<p>Big Reach:
University of California, Berekerly
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, San Diego</p>

<p>Reach:
University of California, Davis
University of California, Irvine (I know someone who got rejected this year with 6 APs, a 3.2 UW, in sports, etc. from good school district)</p>

<p>Smaller Reach:
University of California, Santa Barbara
University of California, Santa Cruz</p>

<p>Reach-Match
University of California, Riverside
University of California, Merced (they rejected 1000+ people this year)
Cal Polytechnic of Pomona
Cal Polytechnic San Luis Obispo</p>

<p>Match:
CSFullerton</p>

20

<p>Yeah, I agree with the above, execpt SB would be a bigger reach than Davis and Irvine (~52% admission rate this year compared to the ~60% admission rate for Davis and Irvine) and Cal Poly would probably be a reacha s well.</p>

<p>You should consider some Cal State schools for safeties.</p>