If I work at it will UCSB accept me?

<p>Ok so I'm new to this whole forum thing so please excuse any errors I present... </p>

<p>Basically, UCSB is my absolute dream school, I seriously can not picture myself going anywhere else. I'm an incoming sophomore in high school, unfortunately I am OOS:( and I'll present my stats now I guess...</p>

<p>Ok so I have a 3.0 unweighted GPA, BUT, I have always been a straight a student, I had medical issues during freshmen year that caused my grades to plummet. So I calculated what my GPA would be senior year if I managed to get straight A's for the rest of high school, and it would be a 3.75, so I guess base your answers off of that.</p>

<p>I have 173 volunteer hours, and I have no problem obtaining more if need be.</p>

<p>As mentioned above, I have some medical issues, so unfortunately I am not allowed to join any sports... I really do need EC's though so I may join a club this year(if that counts as an EC?) </p>

<p>Obviously I haven't taken SAT/ACT so I don't have any scores to present.. I guess my main question is do I even have a chance? (Remember I'm only a sophomore so if I sound totally stupid or like I have no idea what I'm talking about I apologize.)</p>

<p>UC schools don’t take 9th grade into account when figuring GPA.</p>

<p>Since this is an advice forum, here is advice. Forget about UCSB OOS. It is not worth the over $50K/year they charge. For much less you can go to a large state school where you live and have enough money left over to take fantastic beach vacations each summer; probably have more fun, too, since you’ll not be doing homework or going to class. For CA residents the UC system is a good deal, for OOS it is not. But if your parents have lots of extra money or you’re willing to tie yourself up in debt to attend, as a CA taxpayer let me thank you in advance for your gift to our university system.</p>

<p>

yeah I just figured that out yesterday:) best news I’ve found out in months haha</p>

<p>

I know I sound stupid but yes, I am willing to go into that deep and dark hole of debt… It’s kind of a personal thing but yeah it’s worth it for me:)</p>

<p>Its one thing if the folks have a spare $200K laying around and want to indulge you with it. Wealthy people spend their money on all kinds of things. Quite another if you need to go into debt to do it. </p>

<p>You are 16 years old. IMHO you are making a poor decision that will haunt you literally for decades to come. It may be easy to write checks that won’t come due for years, but I think you will be singing a different tune when you finally have to pay the piper. Take a look at [Project</a> on Student Debt: Home](<a href=“http://projectonstudentdebt.org/]Project”>http://projectonstudentdebt.org/) and especially the recent stories under the “voices” tab, although I think little is going to sway you at this point. </p>

<p>One other thing to consider. Are your parents willing to take out loans and cosign on yours? CA gives nothing but loans to pay for the OOS tuition part of your bill. As a student there are limits of about $5K/year for what you can borrow on your own signature. Anything above that requires a cosigner or must be loaned to your parents.</p>

<p>

yeah I’m out of luck on that one…</p>

<p>

not sure if they would… I just don’t know, most of this stuff is so new to me and shocking. Maybe I could transfer?</p>