Do I even have a chance? Low ACT, decent GPA

<p>Any feedback would be appreciated about my chances of getting in and I am a rising senior. </p>

<p>Race: White
Gender: Male
OOS</p>

<p>Tests: ACT - 27 (E:26,M:32,R:25,S:25,W:10)</p>

<p>GPA and Course Load(through junior year):
Unweighted: 3.70
Weighted: 4.20
Some honors freshmen year
Mostly honors and AP sophomore year
Mostly honors and AP junior year
Some honors and mostly AP senior year
AP Psych - 5
AP Spanish - 5</p>

<p>Senior year schedule and grades(first semester):
3 AP's, 1 Honors
unweighted 3.8, weighted 4.4</p>

<p>Upward GPA trend:
First semester of freshmen year was a 3.9 weighted, last semester of junior year was 4.52</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
DECA - 11th,12th
JV Baseball - 9th, 10th
JV Hockey - 9th (captain), Varsity Hockey - 10th, 11th, 12th(captain)
JV Golf - 9th , Varsity Golf - 11th, 12th
Volunteer tutor for elementary school kids (mostly hispanic)
Volunteer in helping kids "Learn to Skate"
Hospital Volunteer
Managing a business since age 13
Violinist since age 10
Pianist since age 8</p>

<p>Work:
Office Assistant for a company in downtown Chicago (only for this summer and the past summer).</p>

<p>Additional Details:
School doesn't do class rank.
Excellent letters of recommendation.
Above average essays in my opinion.</p>

<ol>
<li>UC’s don’t accept letters of rec</li>
<li>Calculate your UC GPA. High schools and UC’s weigh your GPA differently.</li>
<li>It will be a reach.</li>
</ol>

<p>You have a decent chance to get in, but apply to safety schools, just in case. Remember that your personal statements will be super important, so spend time writing them.</p>

<p>As Radishrp said, you should calculate your UC GPA. Count only sophomore and junior year grades and cap your AP/honors at 8 classes.</p>

<p>In my opinion, school rank matters so much more than GPA. Your school may claim to not rank but I doubt that. Different schools may be grade-inflated or grade-deflated.</p>

<p>No. My school doesn’t rank but is pretty competitive. Last year about 15 kids went to Ivy schools. And also, will UCSD even look at my unweighted and weighted GPA or is it only UC GPA? Do they calculate it for me?</p>

<p>They will calculate it for you. You just enter in your grades.</p>

<p>Your school doesn’t seem too competitive if you scored a 27 ACT and was able to get a 4.5 GPA. Big differences in GPA and test scores like this will make schools wonder if it was easy or not, which is why class rank is so important. If your school doesn’t rank, then that’s that. </p>

<p>My school, getting a 32 on your ACT doesn’t even put you in the top 10%. A person with a 3.0-3.3 unweighted GPA at my school normally scores in the 26-29 zone. That’s what I call a competitive school.</p>

<p>“A person with a 3.0-3.3 unweighted GPA at my school normally scores in the 26-29 zone.” Does your school have a stat for how GPA correlates with ACT score? The average ACT score at my school for all students is a 27.2. Getting a good score on the ACT does not necessarily mean you are a smart person. In fact, plenty of people I know have higher than a 34 on the ACT but have a 3.4 unweighted GPA at my school. I just happen to be a VERY slow test taker, so I never can actually finish a single section on the ACT. Furthermore, a college/university is not going to “wonder” if the school was easy or not by comparing a students GPA to ACT. They already have information about the difficulty of different high schools.</p>

<p>Yes, you have a chance
I got 1780 on my SATs and I am now a UCSD freshman in an impacted major.
(Really need to work hard on your essay though, it’s really important especially when you stats don’t stand out)</p>

<p>I agree with chain ^, I got 1780 on my SATs as well and I’m a second year here at sd now. I feel that my personal statements made the hugest difference. My subpar SATs and grades wouldn’t have got me in</p>

<p>Which Major are you applying?</p>