<p>So I have a 3.7w gpa and 30 ACT at a competitive SoCal high school (I'm a junior at the moment)
I have tons of extracurriculars and will be able to write decent essays- I'm a strong writer. </p>
<p>I want to major in biology/genetics, but I'm scared because I have a low gpa.
Can someone suggest colleges to apply to? I'm looking mainly at the UCs, Northwestern, UM Ann Arbor, UWash, UChicago, just to name a few.
Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>What’s your UW GPA? Your GPA seems too low to any school in your list. And 30 ACT is not decent to these schools. </p>
<p>3.5 uw (my school doesn’t weigh classes until junior year)</p>
<p>I would say that a 3.7 (weighted) and a 30 ACT are somewhat in-line with one another. I think the OP may be setting goals that are too high. You can certainly keep all the schools mentioned, but they are reaches based on both gpa and ACT score. You need to add matches and safeties to this list.</p>
<p>@Northwoodian: Younger son has same GPA W- 3.73 and GPA UW- 3.5 with ACT 31. Applied for Computer Science. He was only accepted at UCR but accepted at most of the Cal States except SLO. UC’s will look at GPA more than test scores, but will also evaluate your essays. If you write stellar essays, you may have a chance at some of the UC’s UCR/UCSC maybe UCSB. The rest of the schools listed would probably be a reach, but go ahead and apply, you never know. Just make sure you have 1 or 2 safeties.</p>
<p>If you are applying to UCs, your UC-weighted GPA is the most critical component. Would you have to declare a Biology major when applying to most of the UCs, or would it be part of the regular undergraduate college at most of them? I’m inclined to agree with the others here that all of the colleges you listed would be real reaches for you. It wouldn’t hurt to apply to one or two of them, but your stats just aren’t terribly competitive for the top tier. Saying that, they aren’t very different from my son’s, and he was accepted (from out-of-state) at Davis and UCSD. He did not apply to any “impacted” department, though. His UC-weighted GPA was close to 4.0, although his unweighted GPA was 3.3-3.4. All colleges state that “the most demanding available curriculum” is what they seek above all else. If your UC GPA is higher than 3.7, then you have a decent shot at most UCs other than Berkeley and UCLA (outside of more selective programs like Engineering and Computer Science). If it isn’t, you still are competitive for Riverside, Irvine, and Santa Cruz. There are great undergraduate Biology departments outside of the top-ranked colleges. Almost every state university began life as an “ag” school, with Life Sciences at the core of their curricula. People often think of traditional women’s colleges or liberal arts colleges as focusing on Humanities, but they almost all required Science courses, and many have very high admission rates for medical schools and graduate programs. Perhaps you should consider Michigan State, instead of U.Michigan-Ann Arbor, or additional western public universities (e.g. Washington, Colorado, AZ, etc.). </p>