Chances: Wisconsin, Washington, Texas, UCI, UCSB

<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.34
Weighted GPA: 3.88
SAT: 2030 (M: 680, V: 670, W: 680)
SAT II US History: 740
SAT II Literature: 580</p>

<p>European History AP: 4
US History AP: 4</p>

<p>School doesn't rank classes.</p>

<p>Varsity Cross Country
Around 90 community service hours</p>

<p>University of Wisconsin-Madison (top choice)
University of Texas-Austin
University of Washington
UC Irvine
UC Santa Barbara</p>

<p>I'd appreciate any input, on the negative/constructive side if anything. GPA is low, not sure if emphasizing my HS's competitiveness would help.</p>

<p>You didn't mention your state of residence (which makes a gigantic difference for the UCs and for Texas) and you didn't compute your UC GPA (if you need help, post your grades and we'll compute it for you--be sure to indicate which classes are honors and which aren't).</p>

<p>As far as the others:</p>

<p>Wisconsin - Madison - slight reach
Washington - Match</p>

<p>California resident. As far as my UC GPA, I'd have to go back and look at my transcript. I know the highest possible is 4.4, but I don't know which Honor's/AP courses are weighted off the top of my head.</p>

<p>Also, my grades fell off a bit after my first semester of sophmore year. I know UC's don't like that, but does anybody know how much Wisconsin takes grade patterns into account?</p>

<p>Well, your weighted GPA gets capped when you compute the UC GPA.</p>

<p>Thus, your UC GPA is probably around 3.65.</p>

<p>Based upon this and what else you have posted here:</p>

<p>Univ of Texas at Austin (OOS)--Slight Reach
UC Irvine/UC Santa Barbara--Match to Slight Reach (closer to slight reach, but only by a tiny bit)</p>

<p>Look, your SATs are really good, but the grades are the issue. Try to make up for this by stressing leadership positions/activities in high school, and your strong interest in a particular major </p>

<p>Also, in your case, the essay may make a difference--so work on speaking from your heart (no lists of accomplishments, but rather speak to what makes you unique and how you hope to carry over your interests to your college years).</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>Wisconsin is not so big on grade trend, but they are big on essays compared to other schools--so write a good one. I know somebody with only a 3.4 weighted GPA who got in when he wrote an absolutely wonderful essay---but that was a longshot--and he knew he needed the essay to be outstanding to have any kind of chance. (The sad ending to this tale is that he decided he couldn't afford to go there after all--and it was his first choice school and he was an in-state student.)</p>

<p>Assuming you have some sort of extracurriculars other than sports: </p>

<p>University of Wisconsin-Madison Match
University of Texas-Austin Slight reach
University of Washington Match
UC Irvine Safety
UC Santa Barbara Match</p>

<p>Interesting comment above from atrophicwhisperer considering the average UC GPA of admittees at UC Irvine is 3.93 and at UC Santa Barbara is 3.90. (and the SATs are only 11 points apart for the two schools--1829 at UC Irvine and 1840 at UCSB)</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=4850149%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=4850149&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Check out chart 2 on page 1 for GPA, check out chart 4 (the last one) on page 2 for SAT I test scores.</p>

<p>Maybe I was thinking Irvine and Santa Barbara were Davis and Riverside? I know that two of the UC schools have average GPA's of around 3.5. Either way, they're not Berkeley or UCLA.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input. I'm an editor for my school newspaper as well, which helps with leadership and could help me focus my personal statement on pursuing a career in journalism.</p>

<p>Here's the link I meant to post. Excuse my earlier mistake.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2007/freshman_admit_profile_2007.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.ucop.edu/news/factsheets/2007/freshman_admit_profile_2007.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>As I said above,
Check out chart 2 on page 1 for GPA, check out chart 4 (the last one) on page 2 for SAT I test scores</p>

<p>Thanks again, and I'd rather hear constructive, honest responses than just what I want to hear. As for Wisconsin, I've seen probability graphs but the #'s are pretty general. Is there anybody who applied to Wisconsin/Texas (either accepted or rejected) with similar stats? I go to one of the top public schools in CA and looking at scattergrams of past classes from my school, I like my chances at UCI/UCSB/Washington. But I don't have much of an idea about Texas/Wisconsin, and the graphs only reveal so much.</p>

<p>Anybody else?</p>

<p>BTW, does anybody know if Wisconsin/Texas take the combined scores for the SAT or single sitting? It's only a difference between a 2030 and a 2050, but I'm still curious.</p>

<p>J Webb, my daughter is also applying to Texas and Seattle as an out of stater - and UCSB, which is out of state for her.</p>

<p>I hope really manages to get four applications (those three plus our own Ohio State) done this month. I think it looks harder to apply to multiple public schools than to multiple private schools; there is so little overlap in the applications and essays.</p>