Good Grades, Weak/Unconventional ECs - Chance me on UCB & UCLA?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

IMPORTANT: I haven’t completed junior year, so some stuff here is assuming everything goes as planned!

Overall GPA - 4.341
Unweighted GPA- 3.98
UC GPA - 4.512
PSAT: 1440
SAT: 1490 (retaking)

AP Courses: Biology, AB Calc, BC Calc, Physics 1, Physics 2, English Language, Studio Art 1, Studio Art 2

AP tests: Bio (5), AB Calc (5)

ECs:
• (8-12) Powerlifting: you lift as much as you can in squat/deadlift/bench press. Free coaching from a world class athlete. No high school powerlifting team, just individual.
• (9-12) Journalism Backpage Editor & Cartoonist: I collab with the class on the backpage theme, draw a full color background, assemble pages, and draw panels for other editors’ pages
• Art/Animation on my own: Up to year-long projects
• 100 hrs of community service, but that’s required to graduate

Awards: Some GPA-related awards, National Powerlifting records

Top Colleges: UCB, UCLA
Major: Nutritional Science or Physics

Demographic info:
-upper middle class
-East Asian
-Female
-1st generation

So my school’s context is that we offer tons of AP courses and allow up to 8 classes a year. Like seriously, there are kids getting near a 4.8 GPA. I’m also aware that my ECs don’t show much “initiative” or social skills or school involvement, so I’m planning to start a collaborative art club next year, enter some art competitions, and do something really special with my next summer. I’m not too worried about my essays since I have an emotional connection to all my ECs and a worldly issue I’m passionate about resolving.

2

Welcome to CC @worldwidewebuser: You are a competitive applicant but so are the majority of applicants to these 2 schools. You do have some good EC’s especially the Powerlifting.

You list your UC GPA capped weighted which is on target for UCLA/UCB. What is your capped weighted?

You definitely have a chance but the UC’s can be very unpredictable. Make sure you have several Match and Safety schools on your list so you have options in the Spring.

Best of luck.

3

You’ll definitely need a 1500+ SAT score, but since you’re retaking that, it shouldn’t be a problem. I’m not sure how important it is to do AP Chemistry for a major like nutritional science, so that may or may not be an issue. ECs seem pretty solid. Good luck!

4

I think that any Chemistry course AP/Honors or Regular should be worth your time taking Senior year. If you look at the course requirements for Nutrition majors, you will have to take some amount of Chemistry. Having some Chemistry will help you be better prepared.

5

Ohhh, capped weighted is 4.47. Thank you, it’s such a relief to hear that. I’ve been stressing out all summer cause I’m not doing much.

6

Thank you! Yep I have that planned for senior year.

7

Capped weighted UC GPA limit is 4.40 so that calculation is not right but you are still competitive.

8

Since you’ve taken a few AP classes, your UC capped weighted is probably around 4.3 which is very strong. Your credentials are very strong for both places but keep in mind there are thousands of applicants with equal GPAs. You will want to get the SAT north of 1500 to be really competitive, although if you left it the way it is now you might still be ok. You’re interested in majors that I believe are not impacted, so that will definitely help as well (ie you’re not going into Engineering).