Chances at UC's?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Major: mostly looking at Biotechnology, Bioengineering, or Genetics- matters on the college
Applying to UC Davis, UCSD, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona, Santa Clara University, University of the Pacific

GPA (10-12): Unweighted: 3.97, UC GPA- 4.32
SAT: 2060

ACT: 32
Rank: Don’t have ranking at our school but I know I’m in the top 5-10%

Sophomore classes: World Lit, Algebra 2/ Trignometry, World History, Chemistry Honors, Algebra Tutor, Spanish 3 (got a B first semester), PE dance (only had one AP that could be taken as a sophomore)
Junior Classes: US History, American Literature Honors, (History and Literature were taken together as a class called American Studies), Spanish 4 Honors, Pre Calculus Honors, AP Biology (3 on AP test), Ceramics
Senior classes: AP Literature, AP US Government, AP Calculus BC, Physics Honors, Journalism

Awards: CSF, two awards from the school as being the best student in the class
EC’s: Volunteering at my temple every Sunday for about 3 hours for the last 4 years (540 hours), Ro Khanna Campaign (80 hours), Tutoring- outside and inside of school, National Art Honor Society, IndoPak- schools Indian cultural club- I dance for this club and started last year, Volunteering for clubs on campus such as CSF and Interact, writing for the school’s newspaper

Work Experience:
Kumon Tutor during my sophomore year
Galileo Summer camp- summer before my senior year

2

UC Davis- Safety
UC Santa Barbara- Safety/Match
UC Irvine- Safety/Match
UC San Diego- Match/High Match
All the Cal should be safety
UC Berkeley- Low reach/reach

Good luck!

3

As a UCSD student, you should definitely look into UCSD, where lots of biotech companies are within 10 miles of campus. Definitely one of the best school sfor bioeng in the country.

4

@jason861101 Thanks a lot! I’m definitely looking into UCSD as one of my top choices!

5

I disagree with @jason861101. Mid-Level UCs can never be safeties for anyone. Also, UCD rejects candidates it deems to be overqualified. UCD places more emphasis on GPA than test scores, so you may be rejected/waitlisted because you look very overqualified. I know this may seem really hard to believe, but one valedictorian at my high school got into Stanford, but got waitlisted at Davis. Another valedictorian got into UCLA and Georgia Tech, but also got waitlisted by UCD. Furthermore, someone else I know with straight A’s, a 2400 SAT, multiple ECs, strong essays, etc., got into every UC (a full ride scholarship for UCSD) except for Davis.

At best, the mid-level UCs can be low matches, but nobody has the stats to call them safeties. (Even if one has perfect everything, he/she will probably be rejected/waitlisted at UCD for being overqualified.)

Cal Poly SLO also rejects/waitlists overqualified applicants. The last two people I discussed earlier did not get into SLO(don’t know if they were rejected or waitlisted).

UCI- Low Match
UCSB- Low Match
UCSD- Match
UCLA- High Match/Low Reach
UCB- High Match/Low Reach
UCD- Low Reach/Reach
Cal Poly SLO- Low Reach/Reach

That being said, I still think your stats look great, and I think you are very competitive for the UCs.

6

You look like a competitive applicant and have a good chance at all the UC’s. UCB and UCLA will be tough admits along with UCSD/SLO since engineering is impacted. I agree that none of the UC’s can be considered a safety but you should be accepted to several.
Good luck