<p>My last chances thread got deleted because I posted a link, so here goes.</p>
<p>UCLA, UCSB, UCSD, UCSC, UCM, Pomona, Claremont McKenna, San Diego State, Cal Poly SLO</p>
<ul>
<li>~3.8 UC GPA</li>
<li>1480 SAT I (780M 700V)</li>
<li>SAT IIs: BioE-620 Writing-650 MathIC-720 (Will retake all in December)</li>
<li>Barely ranked in top 25%- Ranking system is nonweighted</li>
<li>150+ Hours community service- American Cancer Society & Elementary school</li>
<li>Swimming- 2 Years Varsity, 2 Years JV, 2 years summer rec. team</li>
<li>Water Polo- 2 Years Varsity</li>
<li>Cross Country - 1 Year JV</li>
<li>Active in Young Life (youth Christian program)</li>
<li>Honors & Awards: Honor Guard, Invited & Attended the American Legion's California Environmental Leadership Conference</li>
</ul>
<p>Edit: I guess I should mention that I'm going to put somewhere on the application that I've overcome adversity (hate to use that corny phrase) because my dad died a few days into my sophomore year.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for the encouragement. Before I posted this I had almost ruled UCLA out. I'm still not confident about my lower rank, but thanks for the boost.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but I have to give you a more realistic view. You and I are pretty much in the same boat (I have 3.7 UC GPA, 1500 SAT, higher SAT2s) and UCLA and Berkeley are definately NOT matches. Sorry but that's just the reality, Pomona (My ED) and Claremont McKenna are in no way matches either. Pomona is harder to get into than Berkeley (as rated by the Princeton Review, Pomona 13th toughest, Berkeley 16th). I'd say your list of schools is great (very similar to mine, I've got a few more private schools), I'm sure you'll get into at least a few of your reaches. So without further prevarication your list looks something like this</p>
<p>A lot will come down to your essays, they'll be your edge over other applicants. I'm sorry to hear about your dad, you certainley did overcome adversity. Good Luck.</p>
<p>Wouldn't you think CMC would be more comparable to UCSD as a match/reach? Luckily all of my reaches are schools that I could live without. It's good to see people here at CC with similar stats, but usually people with my SAT I scores have higher SAT IIs like yourself. Thanks for the input.</p>
<p>Claremont McKenna is definately a reach, they have an average SAT of 1400 and GPA of 3.9, so it's definately harder than UCSD. Also for the public schools it depends a lot upon what major you are applying to, ie Cal Poly's architecture and engineering majors are definately harder to get into than say food science. Hope this helps, oh and a big thing for CMC, if you're really interested in it, is leadership, so if you can show that you are leader of your peers then your chances will get significantley better.</p>