<p>Hello everyone this is actually my first thread here… came across the site when I was typing in random things dealing with UCI in the search engine.</p>
<p>So my target school is UCI but my grades and SAT are pretty much borderline (3.5/1820) and I was wondering how important extra curriculars are? Ex) I’ve played soccer for all 4 years of high school and been part of ASB for 2 years; will that make a huge impact or is it just to a certain extent?</p>
<p>UCs and most publics are very numbers based. I don’t think the difference will be very large.</p>
<p>Um, actually they are important. Several of the UCs are using holistic admission procedures now. Not sure about UCI specifically. If your stats are very high, (tip-top) you can probably get into most UCs without a lot of ECs, but for most people, they will help. Be sure to list any leadership positions you held in your extracurricular activities as well. Some schools award points for them. (again, not sure which ones.) I would think your high school counselor would be knowledgeable about what the different campuses are looking for. They each value things a little bit differently.</p>
<p>The only UCs using holistic admissions are UCB and UCLA, none of the other ones are.</p>
<p>Grades and SATs scores are more important, but the more ECs, the better. Also, the application essay can definitely help you out if you wrote a good one.</p>
<p>actually, three UC’s use “comprehensive review” (a more holistic selection process) for admission: Berkeley, UCLA and Irvine. All the others (unless it’s changed recently) use a point system.</p>
<p>[UCI</a> Comprehensive Review and Information on Appeals](<a href=“http://www.admissions.uci.edu/admissions_info/not_admitted.html]UCI”>http://www.admissions.uci.edu/admissions_info/not_admitted.html)</p>
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<p>It depends. The usual statement that the holistic selection schools tend to say is that they review applications on a “case by case” basis. Other than the schools listed above, it really is a points system, in which case, GPA and SAT scores are crucial.</p>
<p>I have a friend who got rejected from UCSD, and when she called about it, she was told that she was supposedly short on points. She had a lot of ECs though. From what I could tell, she had 4 yrs sports, 4 yrs with a volunteering club, 2 years of leadership positions in that same club, and probably more. Her SAT was around your score. Her GPA maybe have been around yours or lower… It’s been awhile.</p>
<p>Anyways, it really depends on what the school is looking for. I’m not quite sure what kind of students UCI is looking for though. But honest to say, if that’s all the ECs you did… I don’t think they’ll be impressed. (You have to realize that you look like several thousand other applicants. I hope you embellished your achievements in sports and ASB, a lot.)</p>
<p><em>Personally,</em> I think ECs are great, but only if your GPA and SAT are in the good to decent range. They don’t make up for any area. Your SAT and GPA are in the decent to good range for UCI, but I wouldn’t say the best. I know a couple of UCI students from my high school, and they had about similar ECs (except they were all officers of some club or something), and a similar range (or higher) with your SAT, but their GPAs were around the 3.7-4.0+ area. =/</p>