Chances at in-state colleges

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Okay so I am a high school sophomore. My current GPA is a 3.73 unweighted and a 3.78 weighted as of freshman year and first semester this year. My SAT score is a 1350 with a 650 on the Math and 750 on Reading/Writing.
I live in Irvine, CA.
I am a red cross blood drive volunteer and I have 35 hours of volunteering so far this school year.
I want to stay at home and save money.
Here are my questions:

  1. What are my chances of getting in to UC Irvine, UC Riverside, USC, and any CSUs?
  2. What do I need to change to improve my chances?
    3)What SAT score should I aim for?
  3. What classes would you reccomend?
    5)What counts as an extracirricular?
2
  1. You are in at most CSUs, Irvine is a maybe. Riverside solid chance. USC is an extreme reach.
  2. SAT is fine except for USC, improve that GPA as much as possible
  3. Maybe 1400?
  4. Depends on your interests and prospective major. 5 . Tbh I would not worry about ECs, they are sort of unnecessary if you arent applying to a top 50 uni.
3

@fairline You are a sophomore - I think you are doing great! Your SAT math score will probably rise naturally as you get more math courses completed and you can also do some free prep on Khan Academy. Keep doing what you’re doing, take challenging courses, etc.

4

Impossible to chance you until end of Junior year since the UC’s and CSU’s use 10-11th grades only in their GPA calculation. Exception is Cal Poly SLO which uses 9-11th grades.

Here is the UC GPA calculator so you can plug in your grades. All the CSU’s and UC’s will use the UC capped weighted again except for SLO which includes your 9th grades. UCLA/UCB will also consider your uncapped weighted UC GPA.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Also look up your HS’s UC approved Honors classes that give you the extra honors points in the calculation.

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

You are on the right track but this year’s admissions have been very competitive, so your intended major will make a significant difference on your chances.

CSU’s do not consider EC’s in their admission decisions but UC’s do consider your EC’s and essays. UCB also may ask for Letters of Recommendation in their application review.

CSU’s admit by major and eligibility index (CSU/UC Capped weighted GPA x800) + (SAT Math + EBRW). Each CSU has a EI threshold depending upon if you are local or non-local. Many have different EI threshold’s for each major such as SJSU which does publish their EI’s each year. The rest of CSU’s do not publish this information by major, but expect highly competitive/impacted majors to have higher EI’s.

Do your best, research your options in the next 2 years and make sure you enjoy HS.

5

@EmpireFrontier Thank you so much! Irvine or Riverside would for the best as they are nearby. USC is a huge maybe for me becuase the tuition is really far out of my range. I’m aiming to be a physics and/or chemistry major. Although, many have recommended that I look into social science.
@mamaedefamilia Thanks, I certainly hope I’m doing alright.
@Gumbymom Thank you! I will definitely use the calculator.