It is normally very hard to gain residency as a dependent-for-FA-purposes undergraduate student who did not graduate high school in California and whose parents do not live in California.
https://www.registrar.ucla.edu/Fees-Residence/Residence-Requirements
Even as a ward of the court, you will find it hard to establish residency. Somewhere in the fine print is note that explicitly says that applying for residency for academic purposes is not allowed.
Don’t worry about your SAT scores. You obviously could not afford a private tutor like so many upper middle class students get around Palo Alto. You bring much more to the table and it’s any school’s loss if they do not accept you.
OP, everybody is giving you advice and URM just happens to be a hook/advantage for you for the private schools. Nobody is giving you flak for it and you shouldn’t be so sensitive about it. Whether you mention it or not does not matter one way or the other.
Agree with the posters that say you will not be able to establish California residency. Don’t even think about gaming the system in that respect.
The UC supplemental information/additional references do not mean one thing or the other. They will randomly pick an application and ask for more information.
I mentioned not disclosing AP scores. You are within your right not to send them, but schools that don’t see scores will associate that with poor performance on the test.
first college update: waitlisted at Grinnell!
More college updates: accepted to The University of Chicago, denied from Bowdoin and Swarthmore College
Waitlisted at Pepperdine
congratulations on your successes so far! I think the variation is interesting- and a good reminder that stats are just one part of the story!
@sravrgs Congratulations!!
My prediction on UChicago came true. What other schools are you waiting on?
Wow congrats on Chicago that is amazing!!
I just got accepted to University of California Santa Barbara! I am waiting on a lot more more schools. But My gut has been right about all of my colleges- I predicted correctly for each decision, and a lot of it had to do with my supplemental essays! Thank for all the congratulations! I am waiting for UCLA, Stanford, Princeton… I applied to Berkley, 5 other ivies, and Duke (I applied to a TON of colleges)… but from the beginning based on how I felt about my essays, my prediction was getting into UCLA, Stanford, and UChicago, rejected from the others— hoping for Stanford!! But Thankful for Uchicago!
My supplemental essays for Bowdoin and Swarthmore were BAD. And I felt kinda uncomfortable with the Pepperdine prompts, being a small Christian Liberal arts school- it just wasn’t where I wanted to go and they could tell. Happy that they waitlisted me, I felt like that was fair! And for Grinnell, I applied through my Questi bridge application and never filled out the “why Grinnell essay”… I would have waitlisted me too lol
Have you heard anything about FA from UChicago? I’m hoping/thinking they will give you a great package (and no loans!)
Yeah i have a full ride bc my family makes under the amount needed to get free tuition + room and boared. Any idea if yall think im getting into Stanford?
Wow. I guess UChicago’s test optional policy really works for those who have a story to tell, just not a good SAT. I was skeptical about them doing it but hey, congrats!
For Stanford. They are not test optional. It may mean that they could use your scores as a filter before even looking at your application holistically. My gut tells me that admits with low scores are usually athletes but I its just a guess. I have a feeling that if you get past the scores “filter” at the outset you would get in, given the quality of your interview… if not, then you will be rejected. I don’t see a waitlist happening. But its only 10ish more days you can prove me wrong. 
My only advice is log off from CC, now that you have UChicago in the bag. Sit back and relax. Dont even bother thinking of Stanford until you get their admit/reject response.
Agree. If you got full ride from U of Chicago, I would sit back, relax, sip some fruity drink and not worry about Stanford.
Unless you absolutely hate the cold weather.
Anyway, congratulations!
I just got into UCLA!!! I got a scholarship of $25,000 as well! It is still too expensive compared to UChicago obviously, but this is really exciting! And Stanford does not filter out low SAT and GPA. I am friends with a ton of students at Stanford and they said that they know so many people with an SAT score of 1220 or even lower! I know that it is not a filter, soo. maybe my prediction of getting into all 3 schools is coming true!!!
And yeah my application for UChicago felt very strong! I wrote my creative essay using the prompt about the mantis shrimp who has 16 color receptors, and the prompt asked me “What does the mantis shrimp see that humans can not? What are we missing?”
I answered the question basically saying that we are missing essentially nothing!!! I will post a link to my youtube video where I read my Mantis Shrimp Essay- it was so fun!!
Incredible! UCLA, and Chicago! Honestly I’d pick either over Stanford unless Stanford gives you a major scholarship. A full ride to Chicago just cannot be beat.