hello 
i made an account just for this bc i was curious to see if i had a good shot at cal or ucla lol
unweighted gpa: 4.0
capped/uc gpa: 4.46
weighted gpa: 4.62
class rank: 3/428
class schedules for 4 years of hs:
9th: honors bio, honors geometry, honors english, intro to art, mandarin 1
summer going into 10th: algebra 2
10th: AP stats, honors english, honors pre calculus, chemistry, AP world history, mandarin 2
11th: english 3, APUSH, AP Calculus BC, mandarin 3, AP european history, AP biology
12th: AP chem, AP comp sci A, AP physics c, english 4, AP gov, multivariable calculus (concurrent enrollment at a community college)
sat: 1550 (780 reading 770 math)
math 2 subject test: 800
biology (m): 750
extracurriculars: president and founder of the biology olympiad club (competes in USABO), science olympiad treasurer, 5 total positions in key club including vice president and executive assistant, paid math tutor at school, volunteer at a youth center near my house, and i work at kumon
i’m applying as a bio major in the college of letters and science. idk if this is important but i’m a low income, asian female with my parents working blue collar jobs
any advice helps
You should be able to get into at least one of the two.
GPA/SAT should make for a high match/match for both Cal and UCLA. The SES factor should make you eligible for aid, although UCs can’t take ethnicity into consideration.
If you are eligible for QuestBridge, consider applying to a Top-10 school as well. Those numbers are in-line with the Ivies/Rice/Vanderbilt.
You are probably in. Apply to safety schools just in case you don’t get in. Also, consider private schools since some will give you financial aid and/or merit money for your scholastic achievements.
Do keep in mind that both schools routinely reject students with perfect scores or grades. Both are interested in a student that wants to come to the school. Going to a HS that has a historical low yield rate to either UCB or UCLA will also hurt.
Both Berkeley’s and UCLA’s Common Data Sets state that “Level of Applicant’s Interest” is not considered. https://opa.berkeley.edu/campus-data/common-data-set
https://www.apb.ucla.edu/campus-statistics/common-data-set
I don’t believe HS yield factors into acceptance and I don’t believe either school “routinely” rejects students with perfect stats. I would be interested in where you found that information.
I personally know 3 people in the last 3 years who had been rejected or waitlisted from Berkeley with perfect ACT scores, although all were applying for EECS.
Both CC and Reddit admit threads for March show numerous people that got waitlisted or rejected with SAT scores above 1560, especially on the UCLA end.
Level of interest doesn’t necessarily mean “I want to go to such and such a school”. Saying something on your essays that you are a family-oriented person, as an example, might give the vibe that you want to stay close to home.
Assuming they did not apply in CS or EE, high school seniors in the recent years with 4.0 unweighted GPA, 1500+ SAT, good EC’s , just like OP, generally got into UCB or UCLA or both. OP should still apply to safety schools and consider top private schools since top private colleges will give out financial aid (OP is low income) and/or merit awards.
i calculated my uc gpa wrong it’s actually a 4.31 
and thanks for all your feedback everything helps!