Chances of getting into a UC?

State Forums
1

Hello everyone, so I’ve been on this site plenty of times looking for answers to my questions about colleges and stuff but I guess my real question which has never been answered is: Which UC College can I really get into? Any UC is my dream college since it is very reachable for me and I live in California so I think that is to my advantage here. A little back round information about me, I am a Sophomore in high school, I currently have a 3.50 GPA and I am pretty sure I can raise it to a 3.67 before the first semester ends. Next semester I am probably going to get a 3.80 (I’m aiming for a 4.00 but 3.80 is the more likely GPA I’m going to get) I’m taking all regular classes this year but next year, (junior) I’m planning on taking AP Bio, APUSH, and Honors English, Pre Calc and I’m not sure yet about my elective. Senior year I am aiming to take AP Chem, AP English and most likely a few more. The reason I haven’t found any answers to my questions is that I consider myself a “special case” for a high school student trying to get into a UC.

My freshman year was a disaster. I first started at a private high school. I played full seasons of football and basketball there. I ended the semester with a 3.1 GPA. I then transferred to a public high school and finished the second semester with a 2.33 GPA. When I transferred, the public school was way ahead of the private school in the textbook for literally every subject but honestly, if I studied hard during the second semester, I could’ve got a GPA way higher than 2.33 but at the time, I was in football and I was too arrogant to care about my grades. This year, (Sophomore) I quit football, realizing that my skill is not good enough to take it to next level. I consider myself doing OK in school but my friends and classmates around me have 4.00’s with at least a few honors and AP classes.

BTW, I know that Colleges will also look at your SAT/ACT scores and extra curriculars also but I just wonder if the improvement I made from freshman to sophomore is actually an eye opener for colleges and not just something that they just brush past when they view my application but will that be enough to get me into a UC?

Here are my current grades:
PE: A+
Animation: B-
Chem: A
Algebra 2: A-
English 10: B (Almost raised to an A)
Spanish 2: B

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UC’s do not use Freshman grades in their GPA calculation, only 10-11th grades: http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

UC’s will look at your Freshman grades to make sure passed any a-g course requirements. At the end of Junior year, you can calculate your UC GPA. 6 of the 9 campuses have average UC GPA’s above 4.0, so if you are in this range you stand a decent chance. Of course, you still need a competitive SAT/ACT, good EC’s and essays but GPA is very important to the UC’s. Yes, you can get into a UC, just keep working hard and come back next year with all your information.

Good Luck.