chances of getting into ucsc, ucr, cal poly

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I just finished my junior year, and I’m worried about getting into these colleges. I attend a competitive high school in california, which is known for being very hard. Here are my grades by semester:

freshman semester 1-
biology: B
college/career: A
english 1: B
geometry: B
world history: B
Band 2: A
pe: A
3.29

s2-
biology: A
english 1: A
geometry: B
world history: A
band 2: A
symphonic band: A
pe: A
3.83

summer:
health: A

soph s1-
algebra 2: A
chem: C
chinese 1: F
english 2: A
symphonic band: A
jazz band: A
pe: A
3.17

s2-
algebra 2: B
chem: B
english 2: A
symphonic band: B
AP human geo: C
student aide: A
swimming: A
3.29

junior s1:
chinese 1: A
AP environmental science: A
AP psych: B
novel: A
pre calc: C
us history: B
symphonic band: A
3.43

s2-
chinese 1: C
AP environmental science: A
AP psych: A
expository writing: A
pre calc: C
us history: A
symphonic band: A
3.43

community college:

chinese 1a: A
basics of cell culture (biotechnology): B
college success: A

senior year planned courses:
AP chemistry
AP calc ab
AP econ
AP english lang/ comp
american democracy
chinese 2
symphonic band

UC gpa: 3.59

sat
(old): 1740
(new): 1200

act: 25 (will retake)

ap scores-
human geo: 2 lol
apes: 4 (not sure)
psych: 2 (not sure)

ECs:
band: (9-12), all city band 3 years + solo ensemble festival, planning to do all state
track: (10-11) (1 frosh soph, 1 varsity)
dragon boat: 12
shield & scroll honor society: (11-12)
csf: 12
pact4college: VP, 12
media club: (10-12), secretary
business club: (10-12), secretary
global glimpse: s’16 traveler
religious volunteering: 300 hours
summer internship: s’15, s’16

intended major: environmental science

I’m worried about the Cs I’ve gotten soph- junior year. I know 5 Cs is a lot. In addition, I’m confused about my situation with chinese. After failing chinese 1a at my high school, I took a chinese 1a course at community college, and earned an A. The next semester, I repeated chinese 1a back at my high school, then got an A. The next semester, I got a C. I do not know whether colleges will only calculate the A i received from retaking the course, or if they will average the A i got with the original F I got (the community college course level chinese is not the equivalent to high school chinese.)

Thanks, sorry for any confusion

2

Cal poly SLO or Pomona?
If you did not repeat the exact same class, both grades will be included into your UC GPA but getting a passing grade in a higher level course should definitely help. For CSU’s, you only need to report the repeat grade. For UC’s you need to report both the F and A.

3

SLO

4

SLO uses 9-11th a-g course grades in their GPA calculation so you would need to recalculate your CSU GPA using 9th grades.

UC GPA is below the averages for all the schools on your list. Test scores on are on target for UCR, but below average for UCSC and SLO.

Environmental Science is not as competitive as many other majors, but your C’s will definitely have an impact. You need some solid safety schools on your list. Some suggestions would Northern Arizona University (WUE school with good Environmental Science major) and Cal State Channel Islands.

UCR: Match
UCSC/SLO: High Match