I’m a junior in high school and i really want to get into a uc but i dont know what my chances are at the moment. I just want to know what people who got rejected/ accepted into a uc such as uc davis did in high school such as gpa, sat/act, volunteer work, and ec’s. Thanks!
UC’s are very GPA focused so you want to be at or above the average UC capped weighted GPA for any campuses of interest. Also major can have a significant impact on your chances, since the more competitive/impacted the major, the higher the stats will be needed.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
The UC’s review applications based on 14 area’s of criteria and each school will weight each area differently so there is no one size fits all. They are also looking for a well rounded diverse class of admits that “fits” their campus.
Since you are asking about Davis, here is their selection criteria and a link to the decision posts:
https://www.ucdavis.edu/admissions/undergraduate/freshman/selection-process
The best way to compare your chances is to look at the decision threads for each UC and see the information posted for the accepted/rejected and waitlisted posters.
You can also use the UC Freshman profile posted on the UC website for comparison. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/profiles/index.html
If you waded through the Class of 2022 thread for UC Davis, it seems as if the common thought was that for the people who got accepted in March, almost all had a UC GPA of 3.95 or above. UC GPA is your cumulative GPA of your 10th and 11th grade, with a cap of 8 semesters of honors or AP or dual enrollment classes. Once you go below 3.80 UC GPA for all the top UCs, it becomes extremely difficult to get in without some major hook.
That’s not to say though that everyone who was over 3.95 UC GPA got in…seems like some who were over didn’t get in also.
For midtier UC’s, UCD, UCI, UCSB, if you are applying for CS, engineering and the bio areas, you’ll need a little higher than the 3.95 GPA. You’ll need at least a 4.1 to 4.2+ GPA. On the a-g requirements, you should complete at least 1 additional year beyond the UC minimum of 3 years math and 2 years lab science. That would be 4 years math and 3 years lab science if you are going to apply under the mentioned STEM majors. As @Gumbymom stated, review the decision threads in this forum and the UC freshman profiles to get a good idea of the GPA’s and test scores or students admitted.
I got waitlisted to UC Davis: 4.08 UC GPA, 1490 highest SAT score, did volunteering at hospital and clubs, had few leadership in clubs (peer tutoring club, scioly), did swim, and did lots of tutoring and got paid. Also ChemE major.
I actually thought I had a good chance of getting into Davis, but I got waitlisted then rejected sadly.
Davis is a good school, and lot of my friends with both higher and lower stats got in.
What major are you?
I would aim for atleast 4.1/2+ and 1400+ for good chance, higher for engineering. Make sure you have solid EC’s and essays though, and honestly, volunteering isn’t super important, but have some, so you don’t seem lazy.
Anyways, with those stats I also got into UCR w/chancellors, UCSC, UCI w/CHP, UCSB/early accept, UCSD (for alt.major), and Cal, all for engineering except San Diego.
Best of luck