Chances for UC's (Thank you ACT!)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - GENERAL
1

<p>Sorry for the repost, but…</p>

<p>Hi,
I’m going to be a senior in a California high school, I plan to major either in computer science or electrical engineering, and I was wondering about my chances at these schools:
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Engineering)
Stanford (through Questbridge)</p>

<p>Asian American (Chinese) Male, lives with a single parent, low income (~10K)</p>

<p>Goes to a semi-competitive public high school (I think there were two people who went to Ivies this year)</p>

<p>UC GPA:3.95 (10th-11th grades, weighted [estimate])
10th-11th unweighted: 3.681
9th-11th unweighted:3.5625
Class rank: Around 120?/600 (our district doesn’t weigh GPA’s for class rank)</p>

<p>Grades:
9th Grade:
Algebra 1: A+/A+
Spanish 1: A/A-
Integrated Science(Forced to take this class due to the stupid school)A/B+
P.E(Just for reference): A/A
English 1 Honors: C+/B
Intro to Computer Science: B/C+</p>

<p>10th Grade:
Geometry: A/A-
Biology: A-/A-
AP World History: B/A
English 2 Honors: B+/A-
Spanish 2: A-/B+
P.E: A/A-</p>

<p>11th Grade:
Chemistry: A+/A
Algebra 2: A+/A
U.S History: A/A
A.P Computer Science A: B+/A-
A.P English Lang / Comp: B-/B
Spanish 3: B+/A-</p>

<p>Projected courses next year:
AP Physics B
AP Calculus AB (taking Pre-Calc over the summer)
AP Government/Regular Econ (One semester of each)
English 4
Choir 1</p>

<p>AP Scores:
AP World History: 5
AP Computer Science: Projected 4/5
AP English: Projected 3/4</p>

<p>SATs:
SAT Reasoning: 580 R/660 M/550 W 1790 Total (First time, will retake, hopefully will get at least a 2000+)</p>

<p>SAT Subject Test:
Chinese: 800
World History: 700
Biology M: 620</p>

<p>ACT:
Composite: 33
English: 33
Math: 35
Reading: 33
Science: 30
Essay: 11</p>

<p>Will take Math II and Chemistry October.</p>

<p>PSAT: 63 R/ 73 M/ 64 W 200 Total(96 percentile)</p>

<p>Award(s):
National Merit Commendation (If nothing goes haywire)</p>

<p>Spent 5 years in Taiwan at a regular public school (not an American school)</p>

<p>Extracirricular:
Chinese Club (one of the founders): 9th/10th grades
CSF: 11th grade
Key Club: 11th grade
Christian Club: 10th/11th grades
Church tutoring helper: 10th grade
Church worship team: 11th grade
NYLF Tech Forum: Summer after 10th grade
Piano (5 years, never had time to take CM examinations though)
Planning on co-founding a game developers club in school next year.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>How is your UC gpa so low compared to your grades? are you sure you calculated it correctly?
I'm not sure. SD seems to be a match as of right now just based on grades/scores. Cal and LA is reach considering your GPA (LA gpa this year is 4.3, Cal i think is 4.16).</p>

3

<p>
[QUOTE]
Cal and LA is reach considering your GPA (LA gpa this year is 4.3, Cal i think is 4.16).

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>you're going to call LA and Cal a reach because of the "AVERAGE" GPAs of the students they admitted? Ridiculous. I hope you understand how you calculate an average. Why didn't you call SD a reach? The average GPA was 4.06.</p>

<p>shortduderay:
Your ACT and SAT II scores are strong.. UC GPA is pretty high too. However, your EC's are lacking. Those kind of EC's are so common it dosen't make you stand out.</p>

<p>I think you're a shoe-in at all the UC's/CSU's except SD, LA, and Cal.</p>

4

<p>Then how much does factors such as low income and single parent affect my chances? Also, is there any suggestions to what ECs I can do to help my chances? Would getting a job or something help?</p>

<p>Also, I think my UC GPA will be a 4.0 after this summer (I took one community college course last summer, Introduction to Business, which I got a B in (but it's weighted), and I'm taking Precalculus Algebra and Trigonometry at my community college, which I plan to get A's in, which makes my total UC GPA 4.0.) My GPA is pretty low due to the lack of honors classes we have (all weighted classes are APs, and there wan't much I could choose this year)</p>

5

<p>I don't know if low income/single parent would help your case unless you write about the hardships (if you faced any) you had to deal with because of it, in the essay portion of the application.</p>

<p>If you can raise your GPA, that's great. It can only help you.</p>

<p>As for EC, things that make you stand out would include: captain of a sports team, involved in sports for 2+ years, editor-in-chief of school newspaper, student body leader, leader of meaningful clubs, president of nhs/csf, etc... It goes on but being a leader especially helps you out more, shows that you have leadership skills and are committed to your club/cause.</p>

6

<p>one thing.... community colleges classes don't go into your hs GPA ( the one they look at) and i doubt they would weight precalc, and trig because it is not college level courses
so your weighted GPA is still not going to get to 4.0</p>

<p>the single parents thing helps a lot with SD from what i heard, but I got to say, your unweighted GPA is kind of low for Cal and LA</p>

<p>but you'll never know till you apply because chances !=actual outcome</p>

7

<p>That very strong 33 ACT will probably save you.</p>

8

<p>Low income, single parent family and first generation attending college will definitely help you. Use it to your advantage.</p>

9

<p>Do AP scores help you at Cal and LA? Somewhere I heard it does, but I'm not sure. I got a 4 on AP English Language and a 4 on AP Computer Science A, so that should make me AP scholar.</p>

<p>rainynightstarz: I think the courses I'm taking over the summer are weighted, due to the fact that they are college courses. I think there are actual college students taking the course, and the class is a local community college course.</p>

<p>confident: My parents actually attended college.. O_o But my mom confessed to not paying to much attention to her college education, so that's probably why my family is low income. Hopefully that'll help me enough...</p>

10

<p>Technically, AP scores can't help you in the admissions process. In reality, I'm sure it does.</p>

<p>I'm sure colleges will find someone who got a B in AP Chemistry and a 5 on the AP exam much more qualified then someone who got an A in the same course with a 1 on the AP exam.</p>

11

<p>AP scores are only supposed to help you and not hurt your chances.</p>

12

<p>ucsd match
uci match and slight safety
cal & la reach</p>