I am an incoming senior at a high school in California. My high school years have not been great; personal challenges have negatively impacted my GPA and it does not reflect my actual intelligence. My freshman year GPA is absolutely horrible but I do have an upward trend.
After my sophomore year, I transferred to another school but this new school was brand new and did not have any courses recognized by the University of California system. I did not know this when I enrolled and have reenrolled in my old school for my senior year.
As my junior courses are not A-G recognized (my school was accredited by WASC, if it matters), I will not meet the UC/CSU requirements and my UC GPA would not be competitive even if I tested out of the requirements.
Can any of you give me good schools that you think I’d have a chance in? I’d prefer West Coast schools but please give me any other schools in the US if you think I’d have a chance. I’m interested in majoring in International Relations or Political Science.
Here are my stats:
UW GPA: 2.97
Academic GPA: 3.32
ACT Comp: 28
Registered Native American
Freshman Year GPA:
Sem 1: 2.17
Sem 2: 2.50
PE: B/A
Journalism: A/A
Biology: D/C
English: A/B
Geometry: D/D
Spanish 1: D/D
Sophmore Year GPA:
Sem 1: 2.83
Sem 2: 2.83
AP Euro: A/B
Chemistry: C/C
Geometry: B/B
PE: D/D
Pre-AP English: B/A
Journalism: A/A
Junior Year GPA:
Sem 1: 4.0
Sem 2: 3.86
AP US History: A/A
Algebra II: A/B
Spanish 1: A/A
AP English: A/A
AP Microeconomics/Psychology: A/A
I’m aware of the option for local community colleges; however, I’d like to attend an actual university if possible.
Your junior year high school is in California but not listed at https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/all ?
You may want to ask the UC and CSU admission offices directly about your junior year high school.
However, it looks like you could fulfill a-g requirements even if your junior year high school courses do not count:
- AP US history: did you get a 3 or higher on the AP exam?
- Algebra II: will you take precalculus/trigonometry or statistics as a senior? (such courses will validate algebra 2)
- Spanish 1: will you take Spanish 2 as a senior? (you need at least level 2 anyway, unless you have provable proficiency in some other language through testing)
- AP English: did you get a 3 or higher on the AP exam?
- AP microeconomics, AP psychology: did you get a 3 or higher on the AP exams?
It looks like an issue for a-g requirements for CSU that you have is that you have only one semester of biological science (due to the D in one semester of biology). You need to repeat that semester with a C or higher or take some other year of biological science course as a senior. There is also no year long art course listed, so you need to take such a course as a senior.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/csu-uc-a-g-comparison-matrix.pdf
http://www.calstate.edu/sas/onestopkiosk/documents/AdmissionHandbook.pdf
If you do fulfill the a-g requirements, you should be able to get into many CSUs and possibly UC Merced if your UC/CSU-weighted GPA is >= 3.0.
University of Minnesota - Morris has free tuition (but not room, board, books, etc.) for Native Americans, according to http://onestop.morris.umn.edu/aid/scholarshipswaivers/americanindiantuition/ .
My liberal arts college, Reed, takes chances on people who have unusual academic records like yours (having seen the results of those ‘risks’), and is very generous in terms of financial aid. You just need to be able to tell your story well, and you will need to have good test scores that correspond to your junior year performance (you may want to bump that ACT score to at least a 31).
Have you looked up your HS on this website to make sure your courses are not UC approved?
https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/all
Have you spoken with your family about how much money will be available to pay for your education? If you visit the Financial Aid Forum you can read up on that topic. There may be additional aid money available to you: http://www.finaid.org/otheraid/natamind.phtml
If you are attending a CA high school that is accredited, it is highly likely your academic courses are A-G qualified
If you don’t meet the A-G course requirements, CSUs and UCs are out. See what you can do to meet them all this year (including Spanish and visual/performing arts).
If you meet them and have a 2.9 UW, 3.3 W and 28 ACT - you might make UCM. The others are pretty unlikely.
As for CSUs, Sac State is in the shadow of the state capitol and has a solid Poly Sci program. Sonoma would be another option.
Get to the bottom of your a-g situation while you can still do something about it.
Good luck
Thanks for the responses. After researching more, I’ve discovered that I’ll meet the A-G requirements through either AP tests or course validation. I’m thankful for that; the only problem will be my UC GPA. While I’ll meet the A-G requirements, my UC GPA will remain as it was my sophomore year (which is 3.3) and not take my junior year grade into account.
I have a meeting schedule with my schools guidance counselor for Monday and we will talk about my options. With my meeting the A-G requirements, most of the CSUs remain an option. I’ll look into that.
I have two more questions regarding UC admission, though. I have been looking at the different ways to fulfill a-g requirements and one of them was the ‘’admission by examination’’: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/examination/ Does anyone know more about this? The page doesn’t give much detail.
My second question is this: Do the UC admission staff see my grades even if they aren’t a-g? Simply put, will I have the opportunity to input my junior year grades along with the rest of the non ‘’a-g’’ courses? I spoke to someone at the UC San Diego admission office but they weren’t that much interested in speaking to me and kept saying that the school practiced holistic admissions and would determine my GPA using even the non a-g courses. That would go against everything that I’ve learned about their process but perhaps I haven’t been understanding it all.
PS:
@International95 : Thanks for providing the link! I’m planning on retaking the ACT in Sept. and I’m going to try to get it up – I think 30-32 is fairly possible from 28. Considering Reed doesn’t charge an application fee, I don’t see any negatives to applying anyways!
Also, I apologize for the title of this post. I had originally put ‘‘for near 3.0 student’’ but decided to just put the real GPA. I apparently forgot to take away the ‘‘near’’.
Not to throw a wet blanket on your future plans but, with a 3.3 UC GPA UCSD is highly unlikely, even with a near perfect ACT/SAT. As you can see from the link 84 of the nearly 25k admits had a GPA of 3.3 or less - pretty long odds, you’ve got to admit.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_san_diego.pdf
As competitive as things have become, unless you are ELC, even Merced may be a reach for you.
Not sure what you are trying to hide but, eventually, they see your full transcript -so they know what you got in PE and if you re-took any courses. As you fill out the application, you list the courses you took and semester grades. All schools recalculate your GPA.
It worked for 84 people last year so, I encourage you to apply to your dream school. Shoot, throw an ap at Stanford if you want. Just understand, it is REALLY unlikely and have a viable plan B.
You mention privates - UoP, Saint Mary’s, Loyola Marymont and University of San Diego are reachable with a solid ACT/SAT. They are unlikely to provide much tuition assistance though. If $60k a year is over your budget and you really want to head straight to a 4 year school, CSUs like Sonoma, Chico, Sac, SJSU and Cal Poly Pomona, Fullerton and perhaps Long Beach should be on your radar. Each is a good school with its own trade-offs but, with tuition around $7k a year, they are a compelling value.
Good luck.
@HeyItsNick: Admission by examination is very rare so I would not get my hopes up on using this to fulfill your a-g course requirements. I believe you need to contact each school of interest to see if it is at all possible.
All grades 9-11th need to be filled out in the UC/CSU application.
PE classes do not count and you need to have 1 year of a visual/performing Art requirement also.
CSU’s only use CSU/UC GPA and your SAT Math+CR or ACT composite scores for determining admissions. They calculate your eligiblility index: (CSU GPA x800) + (SAT Math+CR) or (CSU GPA x200) + (ACT composite x10)
What are your SAT/ACT scores? Each CSU (except SLO) will rank applicants for each major based on the EI and admit from highest to all spots are filled.
SJSU publishes their EI thresholds for each major every year. Here is the link to see how you measure up:
http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-10079.12651.html
Other than UCM, probably most of the UC’s are out of reach. EC’s and essays do contribute to your overall application so there is always a chance. Your best chances would be at the many CSU’s as noted by @NCalRent in above post and they are excellent schools for the value.
@NCalRent : I have looked at each of the freshman profiles for each UC and I understand that it will be challenging to get into UCM let alone any of the higher ranked UCs. With that in mind, I think that I’m just going to apply to the UC’s that I want to attend so I can never question myself in the future with the ‘’what-if?’’.
Just to be clear on my question, I was not trying to figure a way to hide anything. I was asking if I would be able to input my junior year grades. Apparently, I will be able to do that. I’ve never seen the UC application so I didn’t know.
I will continue to look into the CSUs and consider my options including private colleges. My plan B is community college and I’m okay with that. I understand that my options are severely limited because of my own actions. If I had looked at a-g course lists before I moved, I would have known that my new school wasn’t a-g approved. It’s irritating considering I did very well and passed all my AP exams but it is my fault after all is said and done.
Thanks for taking the time to write and give me some advice, I appreciate it.
@Gumbymom : Thanks for the information on admission by examination. I’ll contact the individual campuses and also ask my counselor to see if she has any experience with it. To be honest, I don’t really have high hopes in gaining admission to any of the UC’s but I want to thoroughly investigate all possible options just so I don’t ever question myself in the future.
I’m seriously considering the CSUs, as well. My ACT is 28 and my EI is 944. Thanks for the link at SJSU. I’m planning on doing some visits to the CSUs just to see which ones that I like. I’ll keep all the schools that you’re suggested in mind!
Thank you for taking the time to share your advice with me. I really do appreciate it.