Hi I’m a senior with an unweighted GPA of 3.65 and a weighted GPA of 4.3 based on what my Nevada records say. I’m also in the top 15% percentile of my class. I really want to get into the Film majors for screenwriting at these schools and was wondering what my chances were. I have an ACT of 25, and a SAT of 1250, and I’ve been on three different varsity sports a school year: softball, flag football and volleyball with tons of lists of awards like MVP, Most Improved and etc. I don’t know if this matters or not, but I do go to a career and technical academy magnet school where I had to apply to get in my freshmen year. Do I need to do more extracurriculars? Should I improve my SAT/ACT scores? (I’m also a quarter Samoan and a quarter Thai idk if that does anything) Thanks for reading!
Two very different and competitive schools.
UCLA is a state public school. So, there is no financial funding for non-residents-no scholarships, grants, nothing. Because affirmative action is against the law in California, they cannot use your ethnicity for admission. Unfortunately, your ACT and SAT won’t help you to get in.
USC is a private and very expensive school. They will take your ethnicity into account because they like a very diverse school. You should work on your SAT and ACT scores to have a chance.
Both will be high reaches for admission, since your unweighted GPA and test scores are in the bottom 25% of admits:
https://about.usc.edu/files/2017/10/USCFreshmanProfile.pdf
http://www.admission.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof17.htm
USC does lean on test scores more heavily in relation to GPA, so if you boost your test scores, you may have a slightly better chance at USC, but it would still be a reach.
UCLA offers no financial aid for out-of-state students. USC is private; use its net price calculator to estimate financial aid: http://esdweb.esd.usc.edu/npc/