First time post/ chance me/ I need advice not sure who else to talk to about this

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Before I try and attempt this, I would like to say that I’ve always been quite intreagued about this site but have stayed away from it because everyone seems to trump me in achievements and it’s quite intimidating for me to post, but alas, I really need some advice on how I should go about this application process. I’m not going to sugar coat it, I don’t consider myself a stellar applicant. Any advice is really appreciated and hopefully it’s a change of view for most of you who read stellar chance me biographies. With that out of the way here’s nothing.

Backround:
Ethnicity: Asian-American(half Korean half Chinese).
I come from a small private catholic school in California with about 87 kids in my upcoming graduating class.
Right now I have so much to decide a final major is really the last of my concern but I’m deciding between: English, computer science, or something else ( possibly considering something that ties in/ relates the medical field).

Alright so I guess now I have to post my grades, feel free to criticize and whatnot, I understand these aren’t the best and I’m trying my best to keep improving and apply myself harder.
Test Scores:
SAT(1600)- CR(660) MATH(620) (1280 total) (8|8|8 essay: if that matters, I heard essays don’t really matter anymore so go figure.) I understand it’s a really low SAT score for most competitive colleges, so I’m trying to study and hopefully I can hit the 1400s range for the next SAT in October.

Quick side note: Because I attend a Catholic school, religion is a mandatory class and we are given a letter grade, when I calculate my GPA, I’ll withdraw it from my total score, also my school uses a weighted scale with a max of 5. Oh, also fun note, I’ve been attending this school since 7th grade and I have a hard time with math, maybe it’s because all of our football coaches have to be teachers… And math seems to be the main category where they teach…rip.

2 semesters each year.

Freshman year:

Semester 1:
Biology- A
English 1(H)-B+
Geometry(H)-B+
P.E- A+… Go figure.
Spanish 2(H)- B-
Theology- B+(Really… How much must I know about Jesus)
World History(H)- C+, horrible teacher(football coach) and the class was actually taught as a AP class and apparently the year after I took it, it became an AP class.

Semester 2:
Biology- A-
English 1(H)- B+
Geometry(H)- B
P.E- I’m just gonna stop putting P.E in…
Spanish 2(H)-B+
Theology- A
World History(H)-B

Wow looking back at it… I sucked freshman year…
Summer school after freshman year I took Spanish 3(H): ( A- first semester, B+ second semester)

Sophomore year:
First semester:
AP Spanish-A-
Chemsitry(H)-B
English 2(H)-A-
JAVA programming(H)-A-
Theology-A
Algebra 2 trig(H)-B(by far my worst class experience, teacher was my football coach that year and I’m pretty sure he hated my guts because I sucked that year.)

Second semester:
AP Spanish-B+
Chemsitry(H)-B
English 2(H)-A
JAVA programming(H)-A+
Theology-A
Algebra 2 trig(H)-B

Junior year:

First semester:
Anatomy: A+
AP Bio: B+
AP Eng:B+( literally missed an A- because my partner in a project didn’t do his part and did it the night before by copying and pasting our outline for our final draft, again, go figure.)
AP U.S: B
Pre Cal(H): A-
Theology:A+

Second semester:
Anatomy: A(our original teacher left to go work at Duke, I was on her good side and her “favorite student” but not expecting much out of it lol)
AP Bio: A
AP Eng:A-
AP U.S:A-
Pre Cal(H):B+(missed an A- by .3% rip)
Theology:A+

Upcoming senior year load:
AP Eng lit
AP Calc AB
AP psych
AP gov/Econ (H)
World religion
Film studies
Going to try and see if I can take anymore sciences or fun classes this year later but that’s it right now.

AP scores(I’m submitting… If I’m missing any it’s cause… Yeah.)
AP US-4
AP ENG-4

Class rank and GPA(I’m going to calculate just my junior and sophomore grades… If that’s not the right way feel free to let me know):
16/87 I think… Our school uses our freshman gpa also so I feel screwed on class rank but there’s not much I can do so it’s what it is.
GPA(UW)-4.42(excluding religion and only sophomore and junior year grades and off of a 5 point scale)
GPA(W)- 3.51(wow I didn’t think it was that bad, kindove wished I just took non honors and had a higher weighted GPA)

Now I think I’m supposed to list extracurricular so here we go:
Clubs:
Bowling club(10-present)- vice president( not sure if this really counts for much but I love doing it).
Pre Med club (10-present)- founder and president of club.
Spanish club(10- present )
NHS(10- present)- have over 40+ hours in the first year, was given the MVP award(sounds corny I know) of NHS in my school, probably going to be president of the club senior year.
Sports:
Football(9-10)- suffered a terrible knee injury and said that’s it’s for football after junior year :confused:
Soccer(8-11)
Tennis(7-present)
Awards(if any):
CJSF(7- present)
Pretty barren for any signifigant awards… Can’t think of much in this area.
Leadership:
NHS
Ambassador at my school
Volunteer:
Hospital volunteering- 80+ hours
A lot of side volunteering with my school such as food drives, teaching kids in the bad parts of town, and helping the hospital and other local places with events.
Also have helped teach people Java and coding.
(Wish I could do a lot more this junior year also, but had to help my family move houses so I was busy with that)
I know I don’t have the greatest resume, but this year I’m trying my best to take any opportunity to nourish my education whether it be in computer science or English or what not.

Conclusion:
If you reached this point I want to sincerely thank you for reading up to this point, this took a good chunk of time trying to make this and I know I’m not the best student and it kills me but it’s what it is. I guess now all that’s left it to list off some schools that I want to apply to, but looking at it now I’m going to have a rough time applying…
Schools:
UCLA(reach right now with a low UW GPA and low SAT score right now)
Johns Hopkins( crap shoot but even if I bring my SAT score up I think I’m done)
USC( crap shoot again because I have a bad resume and grades I’m pretty sure)
UCSB
USD
SDSU
Santa Clara university
At this point I don’t even know where I should apply because i guess my best shot for most schools is if I write a killer essay.
Can’t think of more colleges right now because I’m focused on trying to improve my chances to get into any college haha.
Well that’s all I can think right now, any comments or suggestions are truly appreciated.
Side note: if anyone can try to answer these questions I’d appreciate it:

  1. if I raised my SAT score to anything around 1400s, will it help my chances drastically?
  2. because I have such a low UW GPA, is that going to be my undoing?
  3. does getting a 8|8|8 SAT essay count for really anything?

Thanks again for whoever took the time to read my situation,
A stressed out senior,

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can anyone chance me or give me some advice? I’m mainly concerned now about how my UW gpa is pretty low but my weighted GPA is a 4.42 with honors and AP classes.

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I’ll do the advice part. First stop being so hard on yourself. You are very good at identifying all the ways your profile is lacking compared to an ideal. It is healthy to be realistic because there are exceptional kids out there who will be applying to the same schools. Just don’t let that get in the way of you putting your best foot forward, showing yourself in the best light, and staying positive.

Second, you shouldn’t be applying to schools where you think a “killer essay” makes the difference. If your numbers aren’t in the top half of the range for that school’s accepted applicants, the essay makes no difference and you just wasted the app fee. The lower half is for athletes and other hooked kids. Some others might say as an Asian boy you can be in the lower range; I disagree.

As in state for the California schools you might need to look further down the list at some of the less high stats ones to make sure you have a place to go. Last year in state kids with awesome numbers were not getting in at places like Davis, Cal Poly SLO, and Irvine.

The one private that you have a decent shot at is Santa Clara where the essay and knowing Jesuit ideals is advantageous, but your family will be paying much more, as I’m sure you know.

In answer to your question, raising your SAT score certainly helps, doesn’t hurt, but cannot compensate for the GPA.

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What is your UC GPA? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

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@Oregon2016 First, thank you for taking the time for writing. I heard about how competitive UCs are getting nowadays and I’m going into the process hopeful but realistic. With that said, is it true that if I apply to UCs under certain majors such as Psych, I will have a “better” chance of getting in?( on the basis that I bring my test scores up to par to their 50-75%)

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@Gumbymom Hi thank you for talking your time to post, my UC GPA(if I did it right), is 3.82.(took out religion because I’m sure UCs don’t add that into their scoring?)

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@Frotts: You are a qualified applicant and competitive for a few schools on your list. UW GPA will be a problem for USC/JH and your EC’s are good but unfortunately slightly generic. Nothing really stands out for these competitive schools.

In regards to the UC’s, your UC GPA is below average for all but 3 of the UC’s: UCM/UCR/UCSC and all UC"s are very GPA focused. Your SAT is within range for most except UCLA/UCSD and UCB. That said, compelling essays could help your chances. Raising your SAT score could help but if you look at past UC results, GPA is king.

Regarding the question about picking certain majors for an easier admit, my advice is select the major you are most interested in pursuing especially CS. Since CS is very competitive for all the UC’s, if you do not get a direct admit, it may be difficult to switch into later.

Psych is usually in the College of Letters and Sciences and the majority of the UC’s do not admit by major in L&S, but Psych also happens to be very popular thus a competitive major and not an easy admit either but not as difficult as Engineering/CS/Biology.

So based on your stats and EC’s, I would chance you as follows:

UCLA/JH/USC: Reach
UCSB: Low Reach-Reach (Average UC GPA: 4.08)
SCU/USD: High Match
SDSU: Match

You need more match and at least one safety school. I would add a few of the following schools as Matches:
UCR/UCSC/CSULB/CSU Fullerton/Cal Poly Pomona/LMU and Pepperdine. For your safety, your local CSU or community college. Apply widely so you have several choices and Good Luck.

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@Gumbymom thank you so much for taking your time to help me out again. I know my ECs are pretty vanilla but I forgot to mention I did a internship with a startup app company (~50ish hours) over the summer but even then, that might sound pretty generic. In regards to GPA, I guess my best hope is that colleges will see my schedule and UW GPA and hopefully that will help explaining the low UC GPA. Once again, thank you for taking your time for chancing me, now I’m just going to focus on improving my SAT and getting solid essays prepared!

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Does your school have Naviance and do you have access to it? If so, take a look and see where kids with similar stats from your particular HS were accepted. If you are willing to move from the UCs (assuming you could afford to, or maybe you could get merit aid) you might want to take a look at some other Catholic or Jesuit colleges like U Seattle, U Portland, Gonzaga, U San Francisco, LMU, as well as other privates such as Chapman and Whittier. I’m listing mostly CA/west coast schools since that seems to be your preference based on most of your list. Also take a look at your local CSU.

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@MamaBear16 Hi, thanks for the response! My school does have Naviance, but when I compare to the stats that exist at my school, I’m not entirely sure they are accurate. For example, it shows that Brown’s needed ACT score would be 27, which I’m not entirely sure that’s accurate :stuck_out_tongue: I’m really opened minded when it comes to schools and I’m not completely tied to wanting to go through the UC system, and for me personally, the religious affiliation of schools won’t affect my decision to apply/attend. The main reason I haven’t looked at a lot of east coast schools, is because they all seem very competitive/ reaches for the ones I would atleast consider applying to.

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Normally I suggest Naviance too but at such a small high school the data (as with the 27 ACT to Brown) isn’t helpful.
I defer to @Gumbymom on numbers and process at the many Cali publics, but I’ll add that Humboldt State has a great reputation up here as it is in a setting that attracts pac northwest kids.

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I agree. Those Naviance numbers don’t seem accurate (the 27 for Brown for example). If you look at some other colleges, though, you might be able to see a clear pattern. Don’t pay attention to the outliers on the graph; they usually represent recruited athletes or other “hooked” applicants.

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@MamaBear16 most of the other competitive schools seem pretty fair in their SAT/ GPA ranges, however I’m pretty frustrated on how my school ranks students and I feel that if I would have gone to a public school, my class rank would have been a lot higher because even though my school is small, there are a lot of bright students. Additionally, there are a lot of students who say they have the extra luxury of being “first gen” or " a minority" (I only mention this because a lot of my friends who are in the top 10% are considered these, and joke about how it’s going to help them.)

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UCLA, jhu, usc are out of reach due to your GPA.
UCSB, UCD, cal poly slo, Santa Clara would be your reaches.
Sdsu, ucsc, URedlands, Chapman, LMU-LA, UPortland, Lewis&Clark would all be good matches.
Whittier, Sonoma, Humboldt, San Marcos, your local csu would be safeties.

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@MYOS1634 Ouch. Appreciate the time for writing a response nevertheless, but in regards to the school’s I originally considered reaches, will my UW GPA and class schedule not help my “low” W GPA? Because I’m sure if I just took the basic classes, I would have had a high W GPA and decent UW GPA. If I was to also raise my SAT score(let’s say 1400), would that open a lot more chances?

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What matters is neither your weighted nor uw GPA, but your UC GPA. The UC GPA counts how rigorous your curriculum was and what grades you got. And if that UC GPA is below 4.0, you can’t get into UCLA except for specific circumstances that don’t apply to you.
You’ll also have a csu GPA that you’d multiply x sat score for your eligibility index. Csu 's only use those.
For colleges that will use our essays, recommendations, and EC’s, look at the private schools listed on this page.

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@MYOS1634 Thanks for the response. In regards to the UC GPA, it seems kindove unfair that if I just dropped the harder classes where I recieved Bs, I could have taken non honors classes and recieved As while also still receiving the max amount(8) of provided honor/approved AP bonus that is given. For example, if I would have taken non honors trig and chemistry, I still would have recieved the UC bonus for the (8) honors classes. Sorry if I’m not making sense, it’s getting me confused.

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@Frotts: The Freshman admit rate for your UC GPA range of 3.82 for 2015 at UCLA was 14%. For UCSB, it was 49% but UCSB does put a greater emphasis on test scores/EC’s and essays than some other UC’s.

The admit rates do not take into account competitive majors which would have even lower admit rates.

What posters are trying to tell you is that you need to apply widely and have a good range of schools that match your stats. Also if you had taken “basic” classes instead of challenging classes and had gotten a higher GPA, your chances would still not be any better since most competitive schools want to see HS course rigor.

Your GPA is what it is, so you need to focus on the many good schools that you have a solid chance of being accepted. It perfectly fine to have a few reach schools on your list, but find some solid match and safety schools that you would be happy to attend.

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@Gumbymom Once again, thanks you for for responding. I know most posters are just being honest and have the best intentions to help, so I don’t want to come off as rude and defensive, because I know that I dug myself into this hole, and there’s no point in thinking about what ifs. In regards to looking in the future on applying, I’m not sure what route I want to take in all honesty, and at the end of the day I just want to attend a competitive- semi competitive school that will prepare me for my graduate field(whatever it may be). In regards to looking at schools not in the UC system, will my class rank and UW GPA hurt a lot of privates even if I fit their 50-75% stats for UW GPA and SAT scores( hoping to improve them regardless). Thanks again for all the advice I really appreciate it.

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Universities like UCLA or Berkeley, are elite schools - they expect course rigor and A’s. For UC’s course rigor is better because at least you have a good shot at UCSC, and you have UCD or UCSB are possible reaches, which you wouldn’t have otherwise.
For CSU’s it’ll help you and may even get you into honors colleges (like Chico’s or even SDSU 's).
For private universities, course rigor will also help you.
If you’d taken regular classes, you wouldn’t have had these chances.
Note that UC’s focus on grades during sophomore and junior year, and course rigor all four years.