hi! So I’m an incoming senior and just wanted to get some outside opinions on my chances at Scripps, Pomona College, UCLA, UCB, UCSD, SDSU, University of San Fran, Cal Poly Slo, Stanford, Tufts
GPA: 4.52 weighted: 3.92 UW: 4.1
Class Rank: 14/907 (this rank doesn’t include last semesters grades which should make it increase)
ACT: taking in September
SAT: 1970 (taking in October & my practice tests are currently 2100+)
Essay: I’m a pretty strong writer. I plan on writing about how my fathers addictive and destructive personality has shaped me or on how my autistic brother has taught me patience & acceptance
Recommendations: The teacher recommendations should be pretty good, but the counselor one might be a bit typical.
AP: AP Euro (2, won’t report), AP Bio (4), AP Calc AB (5), AP Physics C (3: should I report?), AP Eng. Lang (4), APUSH (4), AP Comp Sci, AP Eng. lit (next year), AP Stats (next year), AP Psychology (next year), AP Gov (next year), AP Econ (next year)
EC’s:
-Secretary & Co-founder of foster friends (11, 12)
-CAST (11, 12 (treasurer))
-Red Cross (9, 10, 11, 12 (Historian))
-been playing the oboe for 7 years
-volunteer at library, fundraising walks
-babysit my siblings/ help care for my grandparents
-cross country (9, 10)
-track (9, 10)
-computer science club (co-founder 12)
Ethnicity: Hispanic/
Income: below $10,000 for house of 6
State: California
Let me know if I forgot anything and thank you ahead of time!
Oh & my persepctive majors are either biology, computer science, or psychology
Good chance for SDSU, SLO, USF!
I think you have a pretty good chance at all of them except Stanford.
Thank you @kaatherinee & @balrog29. Yeah Stanford is most definitely my biggest reach aha. I feel like I’ll just apply to see what happens
Personal statements are big, do you have an idea of what to write? Start early!!
University of San Francisco I think is grad school only?
Stanford-Reach
Pomona College-Reach
If you can get that SAT up to a 2100, I can see you getting into all of the other schools listed.
^^USF has undergrad programs. I’d highly recommend taking the ACT, I bet you’d do well on it. I personally liked it (and scored higher in comparison) way more than the SAT. Just something to think about rather than giving more money to College Board. USF, SDSU, Cal Poly SLO, UCSD, and possibly Scripps are going to be your matches. UCLA is a bit of a reach, while Berkeley will be a reach unless you get your test scores up. Pomona and Tufts are reaches, but Stanford is definitely your biggest reach. You’ll get some considerate financial aid too for most of the schools you get accepted to. Good luck!
Yeah you’re right, I thought she was talking about UCSF.
Have you ever thought about schools on the East Coast? Being Hispanic won’t help as much for schools in California as California has such a high Hispanic Population. Although they’re still reaches, the Ivies would give a bigger boost towards Hispanics than Stanford would.
Just something to consider if you ever happen to like Harvard better than Stanford for example and only want to apply to one.
@kaatherinee I put what I might write under essay in my post & thank you to everyone & your suggestions! @rdeng2614 i never thought about that! I will definitely start looking into some schools on the east coast
Scripps, Pomona College: low reach/reach. Both are very good LAC
UCLA, UCB: low reach/high match. VERY GOOD GPA
UCSD: high match
SDSU, University of San Fran, Cal Poly Slo: safety
Stanford: reach
Tufts: high match
For essay, I would focus on your Red Cross activities(since you did that for 4 years) and maybe incorporate your family experience.
I would also recommend applying to Questbridge College Match Program. QB seems like a perfect opportunity for you.
Lastly, put some schoools that give generous scholarship if admitted. I would include female colleges like Mount Holyoke, Wellesley, and also put schools that give very nice merit scholarship like U of Alabama, Howard University, etc.