Good GPA, Good SATs, no ECs - What are my chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Background: Male, Chinese, first-generation, junior attending a public high school in California</p>

<p>Major: undecided (considering Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Linguistics, International Relations, and English)</p>

<p>Colleges: I'm applying to UCSD and UCI, perhaps UCLA and UCB. I don't plan on going out of state for college.
Ideally, I would like to go to UCSD.</p>

<p>Weighted GPA: 4.071
Unweighted GPA: 3.929
Class Size: 500~ (somewhere around there, I'm not really sure)
Class Rank: My school stopped reporting class rank this year.</p>

<p>Courses taken:</p>

<p>Freshman Year:
Honors English: A-/A
Honors Geometry: A/A
Spanish Level 2: A/A
Biology: A/A
Health Education/Wood Shop: A/A
P.E. (non GPA): A/B</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
Honors Humanities (English + Art History, basically): A/A
AP European History: A-/A- (3 on AP exam)
Honors Algebra II: A/A
Spanish Level 3: A/A
Band: A/A
Marching PE (non GPA)/Art: A/A</p>

<p>Summer (at high school):
Chemistry: A/A</p>

<p>Junior Year:
AP English Language: B+/--
AP U.S. History: B/--
Honors Precalculus: A/--
Spanish Level 4: A/--
Band: A/--
Marching PE (non GPA)/Computer Class: A/--</p>

<p>Summer (at community college):
General Physics
Third Course in Spanish</p>

<p>Senior Year (they're switching to a trimester schedule next year):
AP Government
AP English Literature
AP Calculus AB
Band
Marching PE/Writing Seminar 1-2 (UC-G credit)</p>

<p>SAT I: first time: 2140 (CR - 770, Math - 660, Writing - 710), may retake in June.
SAT II: will take Math Level 2 and U.S. History in May, will take Spanish with Listening in November.</p>

<p>ECs:
-No clubs.
-No volunteer hours.
-Never employed.</p>

<p>So...what are my chances?
How much will not having any ECs hurt me?
Thanks in advance.</p>

2

<p>Being a California resident will help you but having no EC’s will not. Your GPA and SAT scores are really good. UCB and UCLA are a reach but I think you can get into the others. See the links below to see some average stats.
[■■■■■■■■■■■■■</a> - University of California: Irvine](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com/college.php?college=52#cstats]■■■■■■■■■■■■■”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com/college.php?college=52#cstats)
[■■■■■■■■■■■■■</a> - University of California: Santa Barbara](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com/college.php?college=51#cstats]■■■■■■■■■■■■■”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com/college.php?college=51#cstats)
[■■■■■■■■■■■■■</a> - University of California: Los Angeles](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com/college.php?college=29#cstats]■■■■■■■■■■■■■”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com/college.php?college=29#cstats)
[■■■■■■■■■■■■■</a> - University of Southern California](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com/college.php?college=31#cstats]■■■■■■■■■■■■■”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com/college.php?college=31#cstats)
[■■■■■■■■■■■■■</a> - University of California: San Diego](<a href=“http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com/college.php?college=44#cstats]■■■■■■■■■■■■■”>http://■■■■■■■■■■■■■.com/college.php?college=44#cstats)</p>

3

<p>UCB and UCLA are heavily influenced on ECs. They really care about leadership and getting involved in your school programs and sports, not just academics.</p>

<p>UCLA and UCB are low reach in my opinion, even with high SAT scores and GPA. Also they read your essays, unless you have a reason for not participating in ECs, ie: helping family business, disabled parents etc… you might have luck! </p>

<p>I would do community service hours and put them into your transcript ASAP. </p>

<p>Get around 200 hours to get the extra application points, and show how it impacted you in your essay. This might increase your chances, slim, but still an increase.</p>

<p>Being in ELC will most likely get you into UCSD. Since UCSD accepts a high percent of their ELC applicants. </p>

<p>UCI is a definite safety. </p>

<p>I would apply to all four schools. Write the essays when the topics are given out, and work extra hard on community service and ECs, even if it is a bit too late.</p>

4

<p>Yeah, I don’t have a valid excuse for not having ECs.
Unless shyness and an aversion to socializing are excuses.
They’re probably not.</p>

<p>Thanks for replying. =)</p>

5

<p>I think you have a pretty good chance at UCSD because I heard most state schools focus on raws scores more than EC’s, so I guess you are in. My not try USC? You never know…</p>

<p>Chance me? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/695607-wrong-me-fall-love-these-schools-chance-me-tell.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/695607-wrong-me-fall-love-these-schools-chance-me-tell.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Having no EC’s will hurt you… Find something you’re passionate about and get involved with it (summer’s a good time) it’s not too late and a couple of things would also help you write essays… with your other stats you should be in good shape then. Don’t go for a laundry list though, just a couple of things you like</p>

7

<p>I’m planning on tutoring or something like that over the summer in addition to taking classes at a community college.
Hopefully it’ll be enough.</p>

<p>Thanks for the comments. =)</p>

8

<p>Bump. 10char.</p>

9

<p>cnaut, those links are complete bs!</p>

<p>No way UCSB has average accepted SAT of 2200, that site is complete bull!</p>

<p>Collegeboard has UCSB SAT as 1610 - 1970 for middle 50%…</p>

10

<p>How do you do no EC’s? </p>

<p>Your probably in at Davis and Irvine for sure, SD possibly, anything below for sure. If you had EC’s you could have made a case for Cal and UCLA.</p>

11

<p>At least join one your senior year…better late than never…</p>

<p>It will hurt you for sure. One of my friends got accepted to UCB. She didn’t have much activities either. She was in one club with no leadership, so she put “church” as one of her activities. Well, it’s better than leaving it blank!!</p>

12

<p>i think you can get into UCSD. the other parts of your resume are really pretty impressive. but i agree…you need ECs! even if its just volunteering at the library/humane shelter/research dept at your local college/whatever…</p>

13

<p>Agree with the Legend. What do you do when you’re not at school, studying, or sleeping? think about how you spend your time, you may have more EC type things than you think.</p>

14

<p>Good chances at UCI and UCSD. I think you have to look at what “extracurriculars” are. Maybe you’re not the captain of a team or the president of your class, but I assume you have interests and things that you do in your free time. So, if you can build on that it will help to partially fill the void brought by your lack of EC’s. UCB and UCLA will be definite high reaches just because they are so extracurricular and hook-based and their scores are a little higher.</p>

<p>Care to chance back?: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/704776-chance-me-brown-small-new-england-lacs-others-interesting-essay.html#post1062427773[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/704776-chance-me-brown-small-new-england-lacs-others-interesting-essay.html#post1062427773&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

15

<p>I’m incredulous that you have no ECs.</p>

<p>Your chances at UCs are still pretty good, since they’re more numbers-oriented than most schools, and you’re in-state. I think you can get in all of them except UCLA, and maybe UCB.</p>

<p>You should probably do something over the summer anyways. Do you have no interests? No passions? You don’t have to be a social person to have ECs.</p>

16

<p>NO ECS!!!</p>

<p>Everyone has some EC… have you done NOTHING at your high school your entire time there?</p>

<p>Not to be mean, but there are plenty of people who have very very high(perfect or close to perfect UW GPAS) and 34+/2250+ test scores that still have loads of ECs. If you truly have no distinguishing ECs, your chances of getting into UCLA are quite low. However, if your not willing to get any ECs by the time of your seventh semester, you can always go to a mid tier state school. The tuition is a bargain, and you probably get a decent education. Remember, as the harvard rejection letters always say:</p>

<p>“Its not the college that the student goes to that makes the difference, but how the student takes advantage of the college experience makes most of the difference in future sucess”</p>

17

<p>i believe you a strong shot at ucsd. ucla and ucb are reaches. i’d recommend you go volunteer a couple of hours.</p>

18

<p>zephyr, “incredulous” about no ECs? Maybe legit activities done in free time should be more appreciated by high schools. There are so many things a kid can be involved in and passionate about that aren’t on the HS lists. I know of students with a long list of credentials yet are unethical young people. I won’t be sending my kids out to get hours in just so they can stuff their resumes.</p>