How Am I Doing?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I just recently joined this website and I wanted opinions/advice from people on how I am doing in high school and how I could improve on what I have done so far.

I am a junior from high school in California and here are my stats:

4.2 weighted GPA (3.8 UW)
Class Rank: Top 9% (66/769)

ACT 30
Taking SAT in August

Finishing High School with 12 AP Classes
(Have Finished)
-Human Geo (3)
-Calculus AB/BC (waiting)
-Biology (didn’t take the exam)
-Span Lang (5)
-US History (waiting)
-Chemistry (waiting)
(For 12th Grade):
-Art History
-Economics (micro/macro)
-Government
-Span Literature
-English Literature

Subject Tests:
Taken Chemistry and US History

Will Take:
Spanish
Literature
Math II
Italian

Extracurriculars/Clubs

MECHA (Latino): 3 years and Counting
Chess Club: 2 years
Politics Club: 2 years
Special Olympics Volunteer 25+ hours
Docent for 11th Grade LA Field Trip
Organized Campaign of Awareness for Mentally/Physically Disabled Individuals at School

Other:

I plan on applying to an internship for the summer in an economics related field
I am currently learning Italian and plan on learning Quechua (native language in Peru)
My father is an accountant and will teach me QuickBooks as well as other financial/accounting programs

Personal Information:
I am 16 year Latino male
My Parents are both immigrants and are from Peru
My parents divorced in 2015 and I only live with my father now
Household Income is below $50,000
I plan on majoring in Economics/Business

I will apply to:
UCLA
USC
UC-Berkeley
UCI
UC-Davis
Dartmouth
Cornell
Stanford, Princeton, Colombia (yes I know they are a reach and basically impossible for me but I still want to try)
Chicago Univ.

Questions I have for those who answer:
-Am I doing okay so far?
-Any advice to improve on what I have?
-Chances to get into the colleges I have listed?
-Advice on going farther into economics at an earlier age?

Disclaimer: I understand that this list of accomplishments are relatively short, I haven’t found much I have been interested in in terms of clubs and sports. I am just a naïve 16 year old seeking advice from others. Any help or information you could give to me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

2

Is your Weighted GPA, also your UC GPA? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Post Capped/Weighted and Fully Weighted UC GPA.

3

Yes it is as well.

4

You need to bump your ACT score to at least a 32+ for the best chances at those top schools or aim for a 1450+ on the SAT.

UCD and UCI are within Reach. The rest are tough admits. Your list is Reach heavy with no safeties so try to find a few more Match schools and 1-2 safety schools. Once you have those schools defined, then you can apply to as many Reach schools as want.

I see nothing in your EC’s that makes you stand out from the rest of the competitive students applying to the top schools. There is no magic formula to get into these schools and there is no specific EC that will give that extra bump. Do what interests you and do not something just because you think it looks good for college.

5

Thank you, I appreciate the time you took to respond to me.

6

Your stats are great, but I don’ think that UCI or UC-Davis quite count as a safety. Also, with your household income you need to make sure that you have a financial safety. I am not familiar with the UC’s record for financial aid for in-state students (we live in the northeast).

I think that you need to add a couple of true safeties (you know you will get in, you can afford it, and you are willing to go there). Otherwise I think that you are doing very well. Do some SAT preparation between now and August. Good luck!

7

Thank you for your advice sir, I will look into more safeties to fall back on.

8

If you can get your ACT up to 33 or your SAT to 1500 then I think UCLA or USC would become matches. I agree, however, that your list is too top heavy. UC Berkeley, UChicago, Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, Cornell and Princeton are all reaches (for anyone) and 7 reaches is A LOT. Do you think maybe you could cut two of them off the list? Also UC Irvine and UC Davis are quite competitive now so I would consider them low matches. For true safety schools I would recommend a CSU, UC Merced or UArizona - offers reduced tuition for CA residents.

9

You need a good SAT score to make it a reality

10

@novox some thoughts.

Hope you’ve had a good sit down with your Dad and got a realistic take on what you can/should afford, then go spend a minute with the Fin Aid calculators for a few of the schools you’re looking at (Dad can give you the rough numbers - would be great to do it with him if he’s comfortable.) I would first get a really realistic picture of what you can and can’t afford. No sense chasing schools that you can’t pay for.

I’m always concerned when I look at a list like yours (all top UC’s, Ivies, Stanford and Chicago.) It doesn’t suggest you’ve spent much time really considering the type/location/size/vibe of school you want to attend. I don’t know how much you have visited these schools or spent time with them on-line, but Dartmouth couldn’t be more different from USC/UCLA. Davis couldn’t be more different from Columbia.

My advice is to 1st identify they type of school/education/experience you want - then get a range of schools that fit the most important criteria. That way you won’t be stuck in Hannover New Hampshire when you really wanted to be in downtown LA, or stuck at a big rural CA university when you really wanted to be in downtown Chicago.

I’d focus on what you want out of a school. The application process for schools like Stanford and Columbia are labor intensive. Stanford requires I think 5 unique essays. I think Columbia will require it’s own. You will probably have to write a “why XX school” for almost every non-UC school you apply to. Do you really want to waste your time writing 5 Stanford essays knowing you have about a 2% chance of getting in? Or would you rather put that time into a killer Cal or USC essay, where you might have a better shot? Also do you want to waste your time (and you or your Dad’s money) on applications schools you don’t really want to attend?

The only thing the non-UC schools you picked have in common is prestige. Columbia, USC, UCLA, Cal, UCI and Chicago are very urban. Princeton, Stanford are small-town-ish near big urban centers. Cornell and Davis are big Uni’s but fairly Rural/big small-town. Dartmouth is small rural (more like an LAC really).

I know kids that have transferred out of a few of those schools because they are a bad fit. Don’t make that mistake.

Identify what you like about the schools (outside of prestige.) Make a list of what is important to you. populate it with reach, match and safety schools that you want to attend AND can afford.

Sorry for the long post, but you are about to invest 4 years of your life and 10s of thousands (minimum) of your and/or your Dad’s money. You should start your econ education right now and do your research, analysis and due diligence. Make sure you get the best ROI for your time and money.

Hope that helps!

11

I agree with @CaliDad2020. I always laugh when I see articles about teens getting into all 8 ivies as they couldn’t possibly be happy at all of them.

12

Looking at your ACTs and academics, you need to raise your ACT score to at least a 32. EC’s are ubiquitous much like other applicants.

The Ivies, UChicago, UCB, UCLA, and USC are definitely reaches. The others, I’m not so sure about. However, I’m going to ask you this: what do you want to get out of going to college? Obviously, you’d like to get into economics. I worry that you don’t have enough safety schools. Look for some schools in the area that offer an economics major (I’d imagine there are plenty since you live in Cali). If you have a Naviance account, use that to compare yourself against past applicants. Where do you stand? What do you have to improve upon?

Ultimately, you shouldn’t apply to the top-tier schools if all you’re doing is just applying for the name. I almost made that mistake too. Look for the school that you know you can definitely fit in. Let’s say you do get into UChicago or Columbia, how would you feel being so far from home? Could you handle it?

I don’t mean to be a buzzkill, but you are about to undertake an incredible journey that will take up at least the next four years of your life. Don’t drown yourself at a top-tier school and blow thousands of dollars if you know you can’t handle it. Take some time this summer and do some searching into the schools you want to apply for as well as safety schools. If you have the time in the fall, I highly suggest you go visit some of the schools you’d like to go to. Ask yourself if this is where you want to be. If you do choose to go forward with this, find something that makes you stand apart from the crowds of other applicants. If you can clearly point this out to the admissions offices in the form of recommendations or an essay, I say you have a better chance.

I hope this helped and best of luck!

13

You have a great start and great potential. I would advise that you do a search for schools that have need blind admissions. And then do some thinking about the kind of college experience that would support you on our journey. For example, would you mind a school with a cold, dark winter? Or a school that is centered in a small town with very little cultural diversity? Do you want to get to know your professors, or do you want to be part of a large school student body where most classes have over 200 students? There is a “best fit” for you. And that school will see in you the qualities that are a great fit for them.