not trying to discourage you or anything, but most of the schools on your list are not exactly target schools. Most of them are reach schools esp. with your gpa. I recently got my last acceptance letter and got declined to 2 of your schools with a 4.0 gpa with similar sat/act score. A lot of friends got denied to PSU as well with 4.0 gpas.I’d definetely reconsider your list and get some actual safety schools as well as more target schools.
OP, your planned course schedule for the rest of high school does not meet the UC’s Visual and Performing Arts requirement. I’m not sure what it takes to get that waived, or even if it can be waived, but that’s yet another reason not to bother applying to Cal.
@infusing, you are correct, those of them are reach schools. Wake forest is my only match, and gmu will be my safety
@slitheytove I am not interested in visual arts.
Doesn’t matter, it is a requirement for admission. Waiving is not an option.
If you do not meet the UC appoved Art requirement then your application will not be considered. If there are no apppropriate classes at your HS, you can take a class at your local CC during the summer. If you have no interest in an Art class, then do not apply to a UC as suggested by @skieurope.
OP, you should also note that the minimum GPA for UC’s so-called A-G requirements for an out of state applicant is 3.4. Your freshman and senior year grades aren’t counted. Average admitted UC GPA for Berkeley OOS admits last year was 3.9.
There are a lot of rules about calculating the UC GPA. If you’re still interested in pursuing Cal, you should research this in more detail.
I think it’s a big waste of everyone’s time here to comment on a sophomore’s dreamy plans based on a theoretical future GPA and scores. OP, come back to CC after you’ve completed your junior year and have actual grades and scores in hand. Then you’ll be able to get some really useful advice.
Hi everyone,
I have made some drastic changes to my list of colleges. (I am applying to around 10-12) Let me know what you guys think! Keep in mind that the only reason I am doing this is to make sure that I have a realistic goal/dream, and to motivate me to increase my GPA to 3.9-4.0, because I will need at least a final GPA of 3.5 UW, not including electives/gym.
Vandy (Possibly ED)
WUSTL
Williams
Midd
Bowdoin
Carleton
Wesleyan
Colgate
Vassar
US California
Notre Dame (EA)
UMich (EA)
Boston College (EA)
Boston Uni
George Mason U
-please don’t post any rude comments 
Thank you!
and if any of you guys think any of these schools is still way out of reach with a 3.5 UW, please lmk.
The list is better, but please keep in mind that the LACs are very picky, ie small entering freshman class and tend to reject many students.
@DrGoogle when you mean picky do you mean that they care about factors outside of schools more than universities do? (aka more holistic)
Practically every one of those schools has an average GPA north of 3.7.
No, they are unpredictable. Of course they always claim to be holistic so may not care about GPA as much, may not care about SAT as much.
What about U of Arizona, Arizona State, Tulane, Loyola Maryland, Loyola New Orleans, Ohio Wesleyan, Bucknell, Temple, or Providence College? They’re all at or below 3.5 average. Including a couple of them, and dropping a few of the reach-ier ones, would help round out your list.
But do apply to as many EA as possible, rolling admission is also great.
“Holistic” is not a code word for “GPA & scores don’t matter”. If a school’s average GPA & scores are high, that mean that while the school also looks at ECs/talents/leadership/sob-stories, it is drawing from a very strong applicant pool.
The kids who get cut some slack are development cases, URMs, famous families, recruited athletes. If a school needs an elite figure skater, then you might get lucky. But there are no guarantees w that. GMTson1 has a classmate who is an elite athlete, recruited, & a top student from one of the top boarding schools, but still rejected from Stanford ED.
@NavalTradition there are sooo many colleges to consider haha! the majority of the ones you listed are oos public, so I don’t think I would want to pay a whole bunch for average schools. I did look at tulane, but it is hard to consider it since theres no skating in NO.
But I do think my ECs are better than most (not to brag), so in some of the schools I listed with an avg gpa of 3.7, a .2 difference does not matter too much to me as long as I take SATs as many times as I can to get a near perfect score.
@GMTplus7 yes, I do know what holistic means. I am saying that holistic schools tend to consider EC’s and essays more than schools that only look at numbers. For example, NYU is definitely holistic compared to UVA or WM. Thanks for the tips
If you’d be happy with GMU (since it’s your safety) then apply away. But make sure that is the case.