High GPA but Low SAT//Questions

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am a current high school senior. I’m from SoCal (specifically a suburb of LA). I have questions regarding the high GPA but low SAT I have. My GPA is 4.02 but my SAT is 1210 (I know, we’re not going to talk about it). I applied to a variety of schools so I’ll list them.

Early Action:
University of Oregon (Accepted)
University of San Francisco (Accepted)
UNC Chapel Hill (hear back January 15)

Regular:
UC Irvine
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
UC Los Angeles
University of San Diego
University of Texas at Austin
Georgetown
American University
San Diego State
Cal Poly Slo

A couple things:

  1. Yes, I’m not expecting to get into UCLA, UNC, or Georgetown at all.
  2. My questions mainly pertain to the UCs because I’ve heard a bunch of different things from person to person at my school. Except for UCLA, do I actually stand a chance at UCSD, UCSB, and UCI with the high GPA and low SAT? Are the PIQs actually taken into consideration? My activities were 4 years of volleyball (both at club and school), debate club officer, CSF Seal Bearer, Link Crew (basically a way for seniors to mentor freshmen), church volunteer work, and tutoring for ineligible athletes.
  3. I checked my UC account and it said I’m Top 8% at my school. I know that means K am admitted to at least 1 UC, but what does it really mean? I assume it means Irvine in my case lol.

Thanks all!

2

Forgot to add course load:

Freshman Year
Spanish 1 A A
Geometry A A
Bio (H) A B
Digital Media A A
English (H) A A

Sophomore Year
Spanish 2 A B
Algebra 2 B B
Chem (H) weighted A A
AP Euro A B
English (H) A A

Junior Year
Spanish 3 A A
Pre-Calc B B
Anatomy A A
APUSH A A
AP Lang A A

Senior Year
AP Spanish A ?
AP Stats A ?
AP Psych A ?
Economic A (first semester)
AP Gov (second semester)
English (regular) A ?

3

Paging @gumbymom ?

4

wdym?

5

One of the other posters here is an expert on the UC system. She’ll be able to answer your UC questions better than anyone. I was setting a notification for her to look here.

6

thank you!!

7

She will ask about this: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

8

Intended major?
SAT breakdown?
How many AP’s are offered at your HS?

9

Intended major is International Relations/Studies.
SAT: Reading 580, Math: 630
My school offers 14 APs, I’ve done 7 of them

10

First I will start with your last question regarding top 8% (actually 9%) which means you are ELC eligible. ELC Eligibility means if you are not accepted into your choice UC’s (the ones you applied), your application will be referred to the default campus which is UC Merced. You do not get to choose which UC if you are rejected from all that you have applied.

Now regarding your SAT score, based on last year’s Freshman profiles, your SAT score places below the 25th percentile at all the UC schools in which you have applied.

25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:

UCB: 1360-1540

UCLA: 1340-1540
UCSD: 1300-1520
UCSB: 1270-1500
UCD: 1220-1480
UCI: 1230-1490
UCSC: 1210-1450
UCR: 1130-1380
UCM: 1020-1280

However, UC’s tend to be more GPA focused than test focused so having a GPA above a 4.0 (if your GPA is the capped weighted UC GPA), then you are within range for the UCI/UCSD and UCSB.

UC’s consider your GPA, Test scores, PIQ’s and HS course rigor Very important while EC’s are considered important.

While your GPA is within range, none of these schools are a solid Match based on the admit data below so I would say you have a 50/50 chance at best for UCSB and UCI and a slightly lower for UCSD.

2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCB: 4.23
UCLA: 4.23
UCSD: 4.16
UCSB: 4.13
UCI: 4.13
UCD: 4.11
UCSC: 3.96
UCR: 3.81
UCM: 3.71

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 (capped weighted) and not major specific:

UCB: 12.6%
UCLA: 11.7%
UCSD: 38.7%
UCSB: 53.6%
UCD: 56.5%
UCI: 52.1%
UCSC: 75.7%
UCR: 90.1%
UCM: 96.1%

Both UCSD and UCI admit into the University first and then into the major, so it could be possible to get an acceptance to both these schools but not into your major or alternate major and you may get Undeclared.

UCSB does not admit by major into the College of Letters and Sciences, so you will be competing against prospective student in all majors within that college. UCSB also puts more emphasis on your EC’s and PIQ’s than UCSD and UCI.

Out of all the California schools on your list, I would say SDSU would be a Match, Cal Poly SLO a High Match (50/50), UCI/UCSB a High Match (50/50) and USD a High Match (50:50).

I am glad you already have some acceptances as backups and the UC’s can be very unpredictable so these are my opinions based on the statistical data presented. The other areas of your application and how you present yourself will all be up to admissions.

Best of luck.

11

Also UCSD would probably be a Low Reach and UCLA a Reach. If you are being recruited for Volleyball then that is a whole different situation.

12

Yeah no I’m #overit. Thank you though!!

13

Seems like you already have some good options that you’re accepted to, and you should have some more before you’re done. The road into the more competitive UC’s may be steep though.

Did you consider Occidental? https://www.oxy.edu/diplomacy-world-affairs They’re test-optional and their RD deadline isn’t until 1/15.

Another just-running-it-up-the-flagpole idea, since you’re an AP Spanish student interested in IR, is that St. Louis University (good match for your stats, and a Catholic university like several others on your list) has a program that allows you to spend two years at their Madrid campus and two in St. Louis - IR is one of the available majors. SLU’s admissions are rolling.

Good luck!