Its a reach for me to get in here... tell me my chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
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<p>im a junior in highschool. resident of california.</p>

<p>weighted total gpa: 3.35/3.44 (depending on what i get in bio)
sat:2100
ECs:swimmer, (on the swim team for 2 years, injured for a third year), coach for 3 years(2 years volunteer), community service 100 hours,</p>

<p>4 aps junior year: calc ab, computer science, ap psychology, ap biology</p>

<p>i think im really screwed... my sophmore year consisted of a 2.8 first semester and a 3.3 second semester which averaged out to a 3.05 total for my sophmore year...</p>

<p>im projected to get a 3.67 for my junior year so my total highschool gpa(sophmore and junior) would be about a 3.35...
IF however, i can pull off an A in bio, would have a 3.83 for my junior year... which would make my TOTAL GPA a 3.44.</p>

<p>i have some problems at home and adhd which i will mention in my essay...</p>

<p>please tell me my chances of getting into all the ucs.. except for riverside and merced.</p>

<p>im taking my sat subject tests soon.</p>

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<p>You’re calculating your UC GPA right? As in 10th and 11th with up to 8 extra points for AP’s/honors added</p>

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<p>oops… i dont know how to calculate my uc gpa. its probably alot higher than the ones i posted though</p>

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<p>College look at people with low GPAs then high GPAs as students with motivation to succeed. They understand that students may had slacked off during there freshmam/sophomore year, as long as you show progress, they would look at it with a good thing. If you have a story behind your low GPA, express in you essays, that would give the UC admission people a justification for your low GPA as well as a sign that you can handle stressful conditions and progress from it.</p>

<p>Your SATs are fantastic! I would try to focus into one year, Swimming for example, and join competition if your injury is healed up, that would give more depth for your application. </p>

<p>UCLA and UCB will most likely be low reaches, depending on how fantastic or excellent your essays are written.</p>

<p>UCSB, UCI, UCD are most likely safety.</p>

<p>UCSD is maybe a reach.</p>

<p>Also, if your in ELC, Eligibility in Local Context, meaning if your in your top 4% of your class, you kind of get priority admission. UCSD accepts a lot of ELC as well as some other UCs, but it changes everywhere. UCLA and UCB are tougher to get into every year with each new pool of applicants offering more and more ECs, involvement, and just a whole new group of very high achieving students.</p>

<p>Try to distinguish yourself in your essay, don’t make it a sob story, make it a story where you showed personal achievements, personal strife, and synergize it with your school life and how it developed you. If you have ADHD, focus on that, exemplify the hardships you had to go through, make it central to your point, but don’t base it as the cause of all troubles. If i were you, I would start writing the personal statements now, using last year prompts as a guideline, and tweak it according to the new prompt. </p>

<p>Also apply for scholarships :slight_smile: They ask for similar essays like the personal statements. </p>

<p>It took me over 16 drafts for my personal statement to be final! A lot of work went into the essays.</p>

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<p>Look up online how to calculate it, then. That’s the only GPA they’ll be looking at.</p>

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<p>UCSB, UCI, and UCD safties? I have to disagree…I had some pretty solid SAT scores (higher than the OP’s SAT I score + good SAT II scores), but it took me as far as UCSD. They really emphasize GPA over SAT scores. I’m not disappointed or trying to discourage the OP, just pointing it out. Just bring those grades up!</p>

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<p>^ Really? I never thought about that because most of the people at my school got in with 3.6s and 3.8 with 1600-700 SATs and 500-700 SATII XD. That’s around 9 people that really wanted to go to UCI XD And like 10 people at UCSB. UCD, well… no one applied there since they thought it was a low -tier UC.</p>

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<p>robbins:</p>

<p>since UC’s only care about sophmore and junior grades, and my junior grades are pretty much set in stone (unless of course, i get that A in ap bio) how am i suppose to get my grades up? are you saying that senior year, i shouldl get really high grades? would they even consider it?</p>

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<p>Chances are, no. I think if you’re borderline then they may ask for a 12th grade first semester update (happened my year, and only Berkeley at that). I’d say UCSD is a reach</p>

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<p>Nothing is every guaranteed.</p>

<p>I had a 4.something GPA, and a 2120 on my SAT, over 500 hours Community Service, Tennis for 4 years, family issues, etc etc, and I still got rejected by Irvine and Santa Barbara while others at my school got in with a 3.2 GPA, and 18something SAT.</p>

<p>For UCSD, pretty much include anything and everything that you’ve had over your high school career, including family stuff because UCSD accepts students on a point system where they assign points to you based on things in your application. I dont have the exact link for it but I’m sure if you use the magic of Google, then you’ll find it.</p>

<p>For the other UCs, no one can really say, there are too many (yes I will use Stats in this reply) lurking variables to even estimate anything. The application reader could be having a really bad/good day, they may have just read the work of Einstein and are comparing your essays to his, etc etc. Idk what they may be but there are a lot. Just apply and hope for the best. No matter what, you’re bound to get into a good school</p>

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<p>-_- the title of your thread tells you your chances already</p>

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<p>* ^ Really? I never thought about that because most of the people at my school got in with 3.6s and 3.8 with 1600-700 SATs and 500-700 SATII XD. That’s around 9 people that really wanted to go to UCI XD And like 10 people at UCSB. UCD, well… no one applied there since they thought it was a low -tier UC. *</p>

<p>Sounds like a lot of people are misinformed at your school for one… and the rest is anecdotal evidence. In the admissions profiles at the UC website, they have these statistics posted (for Fall 2008)</p>

<p>UC Davis 3.30–3.69 GPA acceptance rate: 38.6%
UC Irvine 3.30-3.60 GPA acceptance rate: 22.5%
UCSB 3.30-3.60 GPA acceptance rate: 27.2%</p>

<p>Don’t think you can call those numbers safties.</p>

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<p>none of the UC schools are safties…
after this year and so many kids that i thought who should of gotten in didnt…
there are no safties schools.
each year the UCs are getting harder and harder.</p>

<p>unless you got a crazy 4.0and a 2400SAT then ur good</p>

<p>anything below is by chance
i got into UCSD with a really really really low SAT score
my friend with a much higer SAT score got rejected</p>

<p>it isnt about the numbers… the school will just select whoever they want
if ur lucky then you’ll get in. nothing is ever guarenteed in this system</p>

<p>good luck next year though. you have UC potential in ya</p>

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<p>There are definitely safety UC schools. The whole top 4% of your graduating class guaranteeing you admission, at least if you’re a California resident. But in terms of the actual thread, UCSD is a reach</p>

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<p>I’m pretty sure you can say that Riverside and Merced are safeties, seeing as how they’ll accept ANYONE who meets the minimum requirements. And if you dont meet those requirements… well then, what are you doing applying to UCs? Might as well CC and transfer. Personally, I saw Davis and Irvine as safeties, but doing so is, of course, at your own discretion (so dont be too shocked to get rejected xD). </p>

<p>And to the OP, keep the grades up. Even though only junior and sophomore grades count, there are many other things you can still do to boost your application. Getting involved and starting innovative ideas (maybe create a club?), take community college classes (these can boost your GPA and score you early units) volunteering, etc. etc. and start thinking about your essay.</p>

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<p>OP </p>

<p>class 2009 got hit the hardest, I know a lot of people with high SATs ( 2100-2200) who didn’t get in but low SATs ( 1600-1800) who did. Why ? i don’t know but like Avib0y said U must include every piece of info for UCSD cuz of its point system. and INCREASE YOUR GPA because with ur gpa, even a 2300+ would stand a less than 50% chance of getting in. our years point needed was 7738 ( which is ~200 point increase from that of 2008) </p>

<p>aim for atleast a 7950 in ur point calculation, if u want to be safe. good luck.</p>

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<p>mwadsit I’m guessing you’re pulling that 4% “fact” from the whole ELC deal. You ARE right that you are guaranteed admission to a UC but basically only to Merced and maybe one other lower tier UC at this point in time. I’m pretty sure this statistic has gone down in this year’s admissions, but Cal had an acceptance rate of 50% for ELC kids. UCLA wasn’t really all that different. Higher tier UC’s including UCSD don’t go as far as guaranteeing admission even if your school sucked hardcore.</p>

<p>As for you warrior, I heard that ucsd goes totally on a point system, so it’s not admissions are not quite as sketchy as those for cal and ucla. Still, higher SAT/SAT 2 scores will bring you that much closer to getting in.</p>

<p>Although this has the possibility to be totally unrelated, a guy in my high school had terrible grades and really had nothing going for him, but somehow his essays got him into UCLA. I’m still kinda shaking my head that someone like him could get in simply by writing a couple sob stories about how much his life has sucked. He even almost got his admission revoked for drunk driving… But the moral of this story is that amazing essays could help A LOT in general. It seems doubtful that ucsd admissions would disregard them completely.</p>

<p>SOOOO, answering your original question, I think that it’s a stretch for you to get into UCSD. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give it a shot though. It’s not like you have to do more work anyways.</p>