<p>Hello, I applied to 8 of the 9 undergraduate UC campuses (everywhere except Berkeley). UC Irvine is my top choice. I applied for the Public Health Sciences major and my alternate major is Social Sciences Undeclared. Do I have a good shot at UCI? Thank you very much! BTW if it helps in any way I already got into UC Riverside a few days ago.</p>
<p>UC GPA: 3.73
Unweighted GPA 3.52
ELC: No
AP's taken: 7 (Biology, US History, English Language, English Literature, Government, Economics, Calculus AB)
Scores for each AP Exam taken: AP Bio (2), AP US History (3), AP English Language (3)
SAT: 500 CR, 540 Math, 610 Writing = 1650
SATII: Biology E (540)
Awards: I won the Algebra 2 award at my school for having the best performance in Algebra 2 during my sophomore year. I was also nominated as the top 5 people in English 10 during my sophomore year as well.
Personal Statement: For the "Describe the world you come from" prompt, I talked about how I was not satisfied with my grades and strived to worked hard for the grades that I would be satisfied. I also talked about how my mother has multiple sclerosis which has inspired me to enter the field of medicine.
For the second prompt "Talk about any talent, personal achievement, etc." I talked about how I was captain of my basketball team in 8th grade, in which that year we had a winning record (the previous year we didn't win a game). That showed me that I can help people in general.
If there's anything else that is needed to know, please let me know. Please be honest. Thanks!</p>
<p>I think your chances of being accepted are pretty low to be honest. Did you apply to any schools that are easier to get into than UCI?</p>
<p>I applied to UCR and got in about a week ago. I’m really hoping for UC Irvine</p>
<p>Yeah, I hope you get in! I didn’t see what major you applied for when I first responded, so with that in mind (I assumed engineering… not sure why) you might have a decent shot at it. The stats supplied on the UC website are admitted students, not enrolled students, so even though you are below the averages they are still admitting plenty of students in that range.</p>
<p>Wait so you’re saying because I applied to Public Health Sciences that I might have a decent shot at UCI?</p>
<p>I’m going to say your chances for admission are extremely low…but I suppose weirder things have happened before. Of course, grades and test scores are just numbers…but nonetheless a huge factor they consider when making decisions. The UC in general tends to place more weight on GPA, and yours is really subaverage. For UCI in particular, a 4.0+ weighted GPA and an 1800+ SAT score seem to be the golden combo for admission, based on previous years. You seem to have a pretty average amount of AP courses for HS kids these days so that may help your cause a bit. Major is irrelevant for admission unless you are applying for Engineering, Nursing, Business Administration, Art, ect; basically anything that is more competitive/talent based. </p>
<p>On the personal statements, its a bit unfortunate that you decided to focus on grades when “describing your world.” I think they meant more like your interests, what drives you to do what you do…ect. I am also very sorry to hear about your mother’s health problems, but if I were an admissions officer, I would not admit you out of sympathy alone. Unless you’ve proven through your activities and volunteer work that you have a passion/interest for medicine, its just not a very convincing argument. As for the second prompt, I really just don’t see the connection between you playing basketball and helping "people in general."Okay, so you were the captain, and your team set new records. That a great accomplishment…for your team. Hopefully, you’ve discussed what you did personally that led to this accomplishment and demonstrate that your leadership made a difference. Otherwise, it may just come off as a lot of ego driven bluffing. I mean obviously I have not read your statements, nor am I an admissions officer but I’m just pointing out some possible pitfalls…incase you were hoping that your statements alone would merit admission.</p>
<p>With all of that said, sometimes, its just a really random process…so you shouldn’t give up hope necessarily. Just try not to feel too severely devastated or anything if a rejection is thrown your way. You are already guaranteed (short of you failing a class or something) a spot at a great school. TBH, you’re really luck to have gotten into to UCR especially since admission standards to that school have become increasingly stringent in the past few years. It’s still a very good school. Good luck! I hope that did not come off too harshly.</p>
<p>Thanks for the honesty…in my personal statement I mentioned that my mothers health problems and divorce caused me to not be as involved in the community as I would like to have been. I also believe that the UCI GPA is so high because of the people applying to SD, LA, and Cal they apply to Irvine as safeties, raising the GPA of the overall admitted people. I’m just hoping for the best</p>