Thank you for anyone who takes time to read this huge block of text and respond. You honestly have no idea how much your response means to me. I would appreciate it a ton if you gave me your honest thoughts. Crazy how just a few minutes and a paragraph can influence someone.
Colleges I’m applying to, listed from most favored to least.
UCLA
UC San Diego
UC Berkeley
UC Davis
UC Irvine
Background Info:
In-state
Ethnicity: Korean
Income: Less than 50,000
Grades/Scores
GPA: *Note that only Sophomore and Junior year are considered for UC GPA. (Phew. My Freshman year was horrible).
Unweighted UC GPA: 4.0
Capped Weighted UC GPA: 4.32 *(Capped at 8 semesters of UC approved courses)
Uncapped Weighted UC GPA: 4.8 **(Remember that an uncapped weighted UC GPA can only be sent to UCLA and UCB)
SAT: (Critical Reading: 720 / Math: 780 / Writing: 730) 2230.
Subject Tests: World History - 770, Math II - 800, Korean - 800
Ranking: 40/538 This ranking is determined by using the general, total high school GPA. I’m only top 7% because my Freshman year was extremely bad, and my sophomore and junior year had to somehow make it up. Note that UCs have their own rankings based on the UC GPA system, which I do not have access to. This ranking is only for my high school and I don’t think UCs care.
AP Exams: Computer Science (5), AP Psychology (5), AP Language and Composition (5), AP Physics(3) Not submitting AP Physics.
Course Rigor
Sophomore Year:
Ath X-Country A,A
English A,A
H Alg II / Trig A,A
H Human Anatomy A,A
Modern Civ A,A
Spanish II C,B (Retook at Community College during Junior Year: REPLACED. A, A)
Summer: Community College-Introduction to Programming (First Attempt:(B)) (Retaken: (A) )
Junior Year:
AP Psychology A,A
H Pre-Calc A,A
AP Lang / Comp A,A
AP Computer Sci A,A
AP Physics 1 A,A
Student Service (Team Manager at Cross Country and Track / Field) A, A
Community College - US History A
Community College - Spanish 101 (A) (Replaced my low Sophomore grade in Spanish II. Replaced my low Freshman grade in Spanish I.)
Community College - Spanish 102 (A) (This is equivalent to Spanish III).
Community College - Introduction to Programming Retake: A
**All these community college classes are “equivalent” to two semesters of an AP course in High school according to my counselor, but they are all really just one semester. Although I did work hard, do not overestimate my work ethic during my Junior Year just because my list APPEARS long. Two of those Community College classes were retakes. Possible red flags about this is explained later.
Senior Year Course Load:
AP Calculus
AP Statistics
AP Physics C
AP Chemistry
AP Government
AP Literature
Three other Community College classes
Extracurricular
National Honor Society: Junior
California Scholarship Foundation: Sophomore, Junior
Animal Rights: Treasurer Sophomore, Vice-President Junior
Track/Field: Sophomore, Team Manager-Junior ( I didn’t run during Junior year to focus on studying. I wonder if UCs are aware of this…)
Cross Country: Sophomore, Team Manager-Junior ( I didn’t run during Junior year to focus on studying. I wonder if UCs are aware of this…)
COSMOS program at UCLA (Not anything impressive. It was more of a pay thing for experience)
Private Research at MIT (Not anything impressive. It was more of a pay thing for experience)
Jobs: None (Worked at my mom’s friend’s office. Paper work, nothing worth saying).
Awards
None (Small medals from Cross Country, Track and Field, but nothing worth saying).
Community Service:
200 hours in a local library
Reflection:
Negatives:
I have mediocre extracurricular, mediocre community service, and I am a typical student without a job and no significant awards. I keep thinking that I’m like the perfect example of a typical rejected computer science student. My grades are not bad, SAT not too bad, but not really impressive either. It might seem impressive, but you have to remember that I’m applying to one of the most competitive majors. Thinking in context with other computer science applicants, I personally think I’m very “average”. But my biggest concern isn’t actually my mediocre extracurricular… What REALLY worries me is my weak course rigor during my sophomore year… After all, GPA and course rigor is king with the UCs. I only took 2 honor classes and 0 AP classes during my sophomore year. A lot of my friends in my high school applying to UCs have 2 honors and 2 AP classes during sophomore year. Some of them are 1 year ahead of me in math classes too. I don’t know if the rigor of my Junior Year makes up either, because by that time, some students are taking AP Calculus instead of Honors Pre-calc, and AP Physics C instead of AP Physics 1.
By the time of application, many of my competitors will have 5-7 AP Exams completed. I am only submitting 3 AP Exam Scores…
About me retaking “Spanish 101” and “Intro to Programming” at a Community College - It is possible that the UCs will see this as a “grade grabber” and not consider it fair?
Positives:
Increasing trend-
Freshman year GPA: 3.33 Really bad course load
Sophomore year GPA: 4.5 bad course load
Junior year GPA: 5.0 Decent course load
Senior Year Course Load: Extremely heavy
Decent description of “well-rounded”
End Note: Thank you so much for spending 10 minutes of your life reading the summary of my 4 year high school life. All comments are appreciated. If you want to say something brutally honest, feel free to do it. Please don’t sugarcoat it. If you want to say my my course rigor sucked, please specify it!! Give me honest expectations of Matches and Reaches. Thanks again.