Chances for UCI, Baylor, UCSB, UCSC, and UCB

TN resident
Only took ACT twice and got a 24
As a junior in HS, my cum GPA is a 4.15
9 APs
Extra Curriculars:
Volleyball for 2 years
Buttload if volunteer hours
National Honors Society
Part time job
Student Ambassador
FCCLA member
Biology excellence award
Bible club member
Habitat for humanity member
Youth minister at church
Psychology and Neuroscience Study at Harvard for the National Youth Leadership Conference
President and Founder of Girls Leadership Organization (GLO) = we have food and clothing drives for women’s shelters; it’s like a feminist club

I am also Armenian/Middle Eastern

ACT very low of all the UC’s on your list so concentrate on bumping up that score.
UC’s only use 10-11th grades for their GPA calculation. Honors points only for AP/IB or DE courses taken 10-11th. Also make sure you meet the a-g course requirements for the UC’s.

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

http://www.ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/

UC’s offer no financial aid to OOS students so expect to pay full fees at $60K/year. Fees are also increasing this Fall.

What act score should I aim for? And do you think that my EC’s are good enough?

For the UC’s, to be competitive you want to at or above the averages. This chart will show the averages from 206 to give you a target ACT. Your EC’s look fine but UC’s are very GPA focused. Test scores, essays and HS course also figure very highly in their application review. EC’s are next in their consideration.

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/uc-freshman-application-data.pdf

Your GPA is excellent and so are your courses, but there are some things you must work on if you want to get into these schools (especially UC’s since you are out of state). Here are some of my suggestions, all of which you have time for:

  1. Buy a prep book and STUDY for the ACT. Try taking the SAT as well. If you can, I would even suggest getting a tutor. A 24 ACT matched with a 4.15 GPA is never good… colleges will think your school is much too easy. That said, you have plenty of time and should definitely get started studying right away. (Also, I saw you ask what ACT score you should try to get. Don’t set a limit – while I would definitely recommend that you get up to a 28-30, don’t underestimate yourself. Who knows, if you study a lot, you might do even better! And the ACT might be the wrong test for you, so try out the SAT too!)

  2. Spend your time wisely this summer. You can look for an internship, lead a community project, etc. Anything that you enjoy, that fits in with your passion, and is something you can expand on and write about would be great.

  3. Expand on your volunteer hours. You say you have a lot (which is awesome!), but you must make sure that you express your dedication and explain the why behind it. Also, it is a lot better if you led a project and did 50 hours with that project as compared to doing 10 hours at a time with random projects (although if that is the case, you could use that to show your motivation to help others in many areas of life, being blind to peoples’ backgrounds and always wanting the best for them).

  4. Try to start a club up with the time that is left this year and really push it forward next year. This leadership, as well as the fact that you started something you are passionate about, would look great.

  5. Do not include “Psychology and Neuroscience Study at Harvard for the National Youth Leadership Conference” as a key point in your application. Sure, it might have been a great experience, and you might’ve been proud to have attended it (which are all great things), but colleges don’t see someone who attended these things as a leader; rather, they see someone who had the money and only did it for college (even though that’s not always true). This is my opinion, but I think it holds true for most top colleges: http://www.collegeconfidential.com/dean/is-national-young-leaders-conference-a-scam/.

Overall, I think your stats are strong. While the ACT score is certainly concerning, you have time to improve and if you do, I think your chances at these schools will increase greatly. It is hard to say your chances now – to be honest, it is pretty unlikely they would accept you with such a low test score, but I hope you follow my advice to make those schools, as well as others, much more likely to accept you. I wish you the best of luck, and if you could take a look at my chance me I’d really appreciate it! :slight_smile:

Make sure you take lots of APs during senior year and do well in all of them. ECs and gpa are good but your ACT score is a definite killer. Take it again and aim to get at least above a 30, preferably a 33 or greater. You might want to consider taking the SAT if you can’t bring the ACT score up.You’ll have a great shot if you improve the test score. Good luck!