I come from an extremely competitive high school where everyone aims to be the very best and takes like a gazillion AP classes and does almost every extracurricular possible. Compared to everyone else I am very average (or possibly even below) and my GPA has suffered during my sophomore year. (Not sure if every school is like this but at my school, a B+ or a B- is equivalent to a B GPA wise so if for example, I have straight A-'s I still have a 4.0) Is it too late to do something about it? I want to get into at least a UC (I live in California) and my intended major is somewhere in the science/medical field.
Freshman Year Grades: (First and Second Semester)
Biology Honors: B, B+
English Honors: B, A-
Geometry: A- , A
Ceramics: A, A
PE (this is not very important at my school): A, A
Chinese 1: B- , B
World History Honors: A, A
Sophomore Year Grades: (First and Second Semester)
PE: A, A
Chemistry Honors: A- , A-
English 2 Honors: B, A-
Chinese 2: B- , A-
Algebra 2: B, B
AP Human Geography: A- , A-
These grades are considered average-low at my school and I am not involved in any extracurriculars (besides the fact that I am loosely affiliated with some clubs but that means nothing) and that I play the piano leisurely. I am planning on volunteering at a hospital and doing a couple other volunteering opportunities but is it too late to be doing that in my junior year? I truly just want to get into any UC and after seeing so many other people achieving things that are above and beyond anything I could do, I doubt that I could but is there any chance? Thanks!
Also I haven’t taken my SAT yet but I got a 1180 on my PSAT which is not the best score
Don’t say “at least a UC” please.
And I’m assuming you don’t mean Merced or Riverside?
If you’re serious about the medical field there’s an early insurance program if you apply to UC Riverside and they have medical pathways.
For UCs they only use 10-11 grades to calculate your UC gpa https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Here’s the freshman profiles for fall 2017.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/profiles/index.html
I don’t think it’s too late. Your grades are pretty good, you can get in many places including UCs (heck, I did with my 3.5w GPA).
There are a lot of schools out there. You can get in somewhere.
Chin up. I go to an extremely competitive school in CA. 3 kids w/Perfect SAT scores. etc. Don’t blame your school for being competitive. You can succeed if you really wanted to. I had worse grades in my first semester of freshman year (2.6 WGPA) and slightly worse GPA than your sophomore year. (3.4/3.6). But I kept on trying. By the end of my junior year, I had a 4.33 GPA. My UC GPA was 3.875. (Not great for UC’s BTW). And my SAT was 1340 (also not great for UC’s).
But I was consistently doing better each year and my essays were perfect.
I showed potential.
I got accepted to UCSB, UCR, and UCI.
Waitlisted at UCSD.
Rejected from UCLA (expected lmao)
I’m going to UCI majoring in Cognitive Science with Pre-Med track
I see some similarities between you and me. Take AP’s next year and get A’s in them.
Your PSAT is different from me. I had a 1280 sophomore year.
If there’s one piece of advice I would give you, it would be this: READ.
Read everything. From a book assigned, to a book of your choosing. Something you’re interested in, etc. Since last summer, I’ve been reading one book per week. From non-fiction books like “Being Mortal” to books like “The Da Vinci Code”. Reading makes you a better writer and will help you mature as a person.