Low GPA, Good SAT--Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>My GPA is a 3.5 UW, 4.01 W. It was low because I had some family issues in sophomore year, but thankfully I was able to bring it up a bit in junior year (upward trend) and I'm even headed for 4.0 this semester. My school is also highly competitive (state ranked 10, on a scale in which 1 is the worst and 10 is the best). </p>

<p>SAT: 2200 </p>

<p>APs/Honors (Our school is weird and doesn't offer many APs in 9th & 10th grade so these are all 11th/12th grade): AP US History, AP Biology, Spanish 4 Honors, AP Economics, AP Spanish, AP Statistics, AP Literature
AP Scores (Junior Year): Biology (3), US History (4), Language and Composition (5)
Honors (not many haha ): AP Scholar, National Merit Commended
ECs (not great...): Member/officer of Psychology club, Technovation, Piano for 8 years, 100+ volunteer hours
Ethnicity: Indian-American
Major: Psychology</p>

<p>I also have a pretty good hook.</p>

<p>Do you think the fact that my school is difficult, my courseload was pretty heavy, and my upward trend will help account for my low GPA? </p>

<p>Here are some of the schools I'm looking at applying to:</p>

<p>UMich, Drexel, University of Washington, Syracuse, UT Austin, Carnegie Mellon, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University, USC, Boston University, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Davis</p>

<p>Some these are clearly reaches, I know, but what do you think are my chances for a few of these? </p>

<p>Edit: Yes, I'm in-state CA, and my UC GPA is 3.85</p>

2

<p>For the California UC’s, you need to calculate your UC GPA: <a href=“GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub”>http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/&lt;/a&gt;
If your unweighted GPA is 3.5, then your UC GPA should be around 3.7-3.8. UC’s like high GPA’s around 4.0+, although your are on the cusp. Your SAT score is very competitive and if you explain your low Sophomore grades that may give your application a boost. Are you in-state California?
I will only chance you for the California schools, since I am really not that familiar with rest.</p>

<p>UCSD/UCLA/UCB/USC: Low Reach/High Match (only because your GPA is a little low)
UCD/UCI: Match</p>

<p>Good Luck.</p>