Chances for UCs + 2 Questions

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>UCGPA = 3.65 (only 1 honors class in Junior year)
SAT Reasoning = Test 1: 1760 Test 2: 2100
SAT Subject Tests = 790 Bio/700 Amer. Hist</p>

<p>ECs
Campaign Volunteer Work (48th Congrressional District)
Link Crew
Sentinel Award
Earth Resource Foundation Club
About 80-ish hours of community service total</p>

<p>Senior Course List
AP Bio
AP Chem
AP Poli. Sci
Pre-Calc
World Literature
Anatomy and Physiology</p>

<p>Hardship Situation - My father passed away before Junior year started. A cascade of events happened subsequently, forcing my family out of our home and depriving us of most of our possessions. (cars, furniture, etc.) This devastated me, and I was barely able to keep my GPA up for the first semester of my Junior year (it also accounted for the low 1st reasoning test score). </p>

<p>Do you think the adcoms will understand this, and overlook the low GPA I received that semester?</p>

<p>Also, should my course load for senior year be more rigorous?</p>

2

<p>yeah i think so…you should probably write about overcoming that obstacle/hardship</p>

<p>i think for UC’s, you’re basically a match, with maybe a slight reach-reach for berkely or UCLA
your senior courseload looks fine too</p>

<p>try to work on those EC’s a little more</p>

3

<p>Sat scores are fine, however your GPA is a bit on the low side… especially if you’re aiming for the higher tier UC’s (LA, SD, Cal).</p>

<p>Yes, I think the adcoms will understand your past situation.</p>

4

<p>What was your sophomore UC GPA? I want to know, because I am interested in how much your situation has affected your GPA, because that GPA is really low. Considering that a lot of the kids at my schools have easily above 4.0 UC GPAs, you either did really badly, or are calculating it wrong. I know that you only took one honors course by junior year, but I don’t think that should affect the GPA a lot if you took a lot sophomore year. Which brings me to say that the lack of challenging courses is going to hurt you. A lot. I think Cal, SD, LA are all reaches, and as for the others, it would take closer scrutiny of your application to determine.</p>

5

<p>I’m guessing that PBailey is the one calculating it wrong, or else doesn’t understand that the UC GPA is capped at 8 honors/AP/IB courses. If you only took 1 honors course so far, then 3.65 is actually a very good UC GPA.</p>

<p>I agree that the lack of a heavy courseload will hurt you at the upper UCs (UC Berkeley and UCLA). However, the obstacle you overcame with your father’s death should be weighted in as well–and your excellent single sitting SAT score of 2100 the second time around, plus your excellent SAT II scores should really help.</p>

<p>I’m guessing that your chances are as follows:</p>

<p>UC Berkeley and UCLA–Reach
UC San Diego–Match to Slight Reach (toughtest to say, probably more slight reach, but they might give you a break considering the circumstances and the test scores)
UC Davis/UC Irvine/UC Santa Barbara–easily a match at all three
UC Santa Cruz/UC Riverside–safe matches
UC Merced–100% guaranteed</p>

<p>Good luck to you, and my condolences on your father’s passing.</p>

6

<p>Mintyone - you have a strong UC gpa (most likely properly calculated) and are an excellent UC candidate. Good luck.</p>

<p>PBailey. I agree with Calcruzer - you are probably calculating your UC gpa wrong. Your statement about “a lot of honors” classes sophomore year is incorrect. No more that two AP or UC-APPROVED honors classes may be given extra weight for sophomore year. And Calcruzer, the 8 extra points is the correct number of extra points available, but it is 8 SEMESTER points, not year-long, so the AP/honors extra weight is actually capped at 4 year-long courses. Here are the official details: </p>

<p>Quote from the UC website: “Honors Courses: The University assigns extra points for up to eight semesters of University-certified honors-level and Advanced Placement courses taken in the last three years of high school: A=5 points, B=4 points, C=3 points. No more than two yearlong UC-approved honors level courses taken in the 10th grade may be given extra points. A grade of D in an honors or advanced placement course does not earn extra points.” Source: <a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/scholarship_reqs.html[/url]”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/paths_to_adm/freshman/scholarship_reqs.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>PBailey, it sounds as though your high school may be engaging in grade inflation by designating nearly every college-prep class as “honors.” The UC does not count courses as honors unless the course appears on the Doorways UC-approved course list as eligible for extra weight - regardless of how your high school calculates it. You have to check the Doorways course list to see if your “honors” courses are UC-approved for honors. Find your high school here: <a href=“https://doorways.ucop.edu/list/servl...6-04DBCECCBB7E[/url]”>https://doorways.ucop.edu/list/servl...6-04DBCECCBB7E&lt;/a&gt; The honors course must appear on the list - it will have the name your school gives it - but then there is a notation whether the UC considers it honors.</p>

7

<p>^: I have checked my school there. ALL our honors courses are approved, and they are quite rigorous. The difference between normal and honors courses is huge at my school.
Link here: <a href=“https://doorways.ucop.edu/list/pages/flowcourselist/Results.jsf?_flowExecutionKey=_c122D89E3-6DFF-DC1B-6CE6-8A6C445AC226_kE168577A-57C0-2452-9E10-2ED1151C7936[/url]”>https://doorways.ucop.edu/list/pages/flowcourselist/Results.jsf?_flowExecutionKey=_c122D89E3-6DFF-DC1B-6CE6-8A6C445AC226_kE168577A-57C0-2452-9E10-2ED1151C7936&lt;/a&gt;
In fact, my school limits students to taking three AP/honors courses a year (a petition is needed for more, and nobody can take five), so I highly doubt that my high school is engaging in grade inflation by arbitrarily designating classes as “honors” as there simply would be no point, and the honors courses are so challenging as to warrant the administration’s limiting of honors courses.</p>

<p>I still stand by my opinion that the OP’s UC GPA is quite low for a lot of the UCs. Note that I never said anything about the SAT score. The SAT score is great.</p>

<p>I was wondering what the OP’s sophomore GPA was, because if it was pretty high before the drop, then that gives us context of how much the drop was. Note that besides the obvious top three, I reserved judgment pending more info.</p>

<p>Here is a good link about GPA and SAT scores by UC: [UC</a> Admissions Statistics](<a href=“http://www.ophs.opusd.k12.ca.us/uc_admissions_statistics.htm]UC”>http://www.ophs.opusd.k12.ca.us/uc_admissions_statistics.htm)</p>

<p>and obviously, the more detailed freshman profiles: [University</a> of California - Admissions](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles.html]University”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles.html)</p>

<p>Note that UCLA has a 4.34, Cal has 4.18…UCSC has 3.69…even the “worst” UC, UCM has 3.51.</p>

<p>I personally have a 4.12 sophomore UC GPA, and yes, only counting two honors courses. I’m not even in the top quintile at my school for GPA!</p>

<p>Now, without knowing how high the OP’s GPA was before the drop, how can I predict his chances?</p>

<p>Furthermore, when I say weak UC GPA, I mean not just the number of As, but the number of weighted classes too. Hence, while Calcruzer is indeed correct in that “If you only took 1 honors course so far, then 3.65 is actually a very good UC GPA.”, that is irrelevant to my point. My point is that taking the GPA, and comparing it to other applicants, it is very low. Considering it places the OP in around the third to last UC/7th “best” UC, I find it amusing that the GPA is considered “strong” and “very good”.</p>

<p>Am I saying that the adcoms will ignore the OP’s circumstances? No, it will definitely help mitigate the GPA, but my opinion still stands: that GPA is the weakest aspect of the OP’s profile.</p>

<p>Anyway, would love more info about the OP!</p>

<p>P.S. Thanks for informing me about how only two courses from sophomore year count! It doesn’t really pertain to me, but it’s great to know.</p>

8

<p>The GPAs listed for admitted students at the “less competetive” UCs (not UCB, UCLA or UCSD) are a little bit deceiving, because so many of the top applicants who ultimately end up at one of the top three use several of the others as safeties. One that you mention, UCSC for example, has an average GPA of 3.7 for Fall 2008: [University</a> of California - Admissions](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles/camp_profiles_ucsc.html]University”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles/camp_profiles_ucsc.html) But if you look further, you will see that they admit 72.8% of applicants and of those in the op’s GPA range, they admit 80.6% <a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles/ucsc_chart.pdf[/url]”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles/ucsc_chart.pdf&lt;/a&gt; which is a higher rate than the overall acceptance rate. Assuming the op has all the required A-G courses, with that GPA and those test scores, the op has an excellent chance at six of the UCs. (btw, thanks to KyleDavid80 who is the one that pointed out this little gpa quirk to me.) So at UCB, UCLA and UCSD, you would probably need to have a gpa near the stated average range, but not at the others.</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the replies so far! They really help put things into perspective.</p>

<p>PBailey, I did not take any honors courses in my sophomore year. </p>

<p>Here is more info:
Sophomore year GPA: 3.57
Junior (1st semester): 3.33
Junior (2nd semester): 4.125</p>

<p>In this context, it doesn’t seem too bad, but I had to switch out of 2 of my honors courses (out of 3) to prevent the drop from being too drastic. </p>

<p>By summer, I took a college class and a summer school course to raise my GPA. My counselor mentioned that these grades could be calculated into my junior year, so I tacked them on the second semester.</p>

<p>Edit:
Thanks for pointing that out alamemom! (I’m certain that I have exceeded the requirements for the A-G courses)</p>

10

<p>Which of the UCs are you considering?</p>

<p>No problem! You are in good shape for admission to lots of excellent schools!</p>

11

<p>@alamemom: Oh, I see. I forgot that those profiles were for accepted students, not matriculating. My bad!</p>

<p>Then while I stand by my previous estimation of “reach” at the top three (even SD, because your test scores place you at around 50%, while your GPA places you at significantly lower, though due to your situation and your significantly improved GPA, could be a high match), I can now predict match to safety (obviously due to your fulfilling eligibility reqs) at most of the other UCs.</p>