Match Me & Chance Me - CA Resident, High School Junior [3.7-3.8 GPA, 3.89/4.19/4.63 UC GPA, 1580 SAT, Biology/CS, weak extracurriculars]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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I’m a high school junior with an unimpressive GPA but solid courseload compared to my classmates (freshman year was rough, 2 B+'s and 1 B across two semesters). I think that the 1580 SAT gives me a boost, thankfully. I feel that the extracurriculars and awards are a real weak point though.

Demographics:
US Citizen
California
Competitive private high school
Asian male
Fencer, middling results but looking to improve this year

Intended Major(s):
I haven’t decided on a specific field but I am generally interested in biology and computer science. Majors that I have considered include bioinformatics and pure CS, maybe even pre-med.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.7-3.8 (unprovided by school)
Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.2 (4.8 max)
Class Rank: N/A
ACT/SAT Scores: SAT 1580

Coursework:

APs:
Completed so far: Computer Science A (5), Physics 1 (5), Calculus BC (5), European History (4)
Taking: Physics C (both Mechanics and E&M), Biology, US History

Post-AP electives (college level courses): Expert Systems (CS), Computer Architecture (CS), Neural Networks (CS), Compilers (CS), Multivariable Calculus (Math), Differential Equations (Math)
I haven’t worked out my senior year courses but they will likely include: AP Lang/Lit (I don’t know the difference), Linear Algebra, another Post-AP math elective (such as Discrete Math or Systems), AP Art History, a biology elective (Human Anatomy, Organic Chemistry, DNA Sequencing), 2 CS electives (I don’t know what is available next year, we have yearly rotating electives), AP Statistics

This is where my application gets dicey.

Awards
President’s Volunteer Service Award (100 hours)
A couple JCL (Junior Classical League, a Latin club) state convention awards
Several fencing competition medals
AP Scholar with Honor (hopefully with Distinction after this year)
I might be forgetting a couple but overall I don’t have many awards.

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)
Co-founder of a school club this year
Involved with and on the board of a youth community service club
Part-time job
Fencing
Started research with a professor recently, hoping to compete at science fair
Did a summer program at Brown, not a prestigious one but I liked the campus

Essays/LORs/Other
N/A, haven’t written them yet, but whenever I think about essays I get worried as I feel I don’t have many unique experiences to write about. Will likely get mediocre LORs from my junior year teachers as I’m pretty introverted but I’ll try my best.

Cost Constraints / Budget
N/A. My parents have told me that they will pay for my college in full, which I’m really grateful for.

Schools
I have no super strong preference for factors like size. I would prefer a college with a sports team, I guess. I also really only have knowledge of in-state schools, so excuse my potentially skewed rankings.

  • Safety: I honestly don’t know. Maybe UC Merced, Riverside, and Irvine? I haven’t given any thought to others.
  • Likely: No clue
  • Match: Purdue, UC Davis, UCSB, UCSD
  • Reach: Brown, Columbia, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Cambridge, UIUC

Where would these schools rank?: Harvey Mudd, Rice, WashU, Pomona, Emory, Johns Hopkins

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Don’t fret. The UCs ignore freshman grades so those Bs won’t hurt you. On the other hand, the UCs are test blind so the 1580 won’t help. Add SJSU to the mix too. You should have a decent shot at all the schools.

UCSD will be a reach given recent trends. Also please recalculate your UC GPA, unweighted, capped and uncapped using letter grades from 10-11. Roger hub calculator should help.

P.S - your profile is very similar to my S22’s profile and he targeted pretty much the same schools. Good luck with the apps!

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For UCs, recalculate your GPAs using the method described at GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub . This will give you unweighted, weighted-capped, and fully-weighted GPAs for UC purposes. Most UC web sites use weighted-capped unless otherwise indicated, though any which show GPAs greater than about 4.4 are likely using fully-weighted.

For CSUs, do the same recalculation and use weighted-capped, but double count college courses and grades (i.e. if you got an A in a semester college course, count that as two A grades in two courses if you are using semester grades in your high school courses).

CS can be much more selective than overall at many UCs and some CSUs. At such campuses, it can be very difficult to change into CS after enrolling as a different major or undeclared.

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Here is what I got:

Unweighted GPA: 3.89
Weighted GPA: 4.63
Weighted and Capped GPA: 4.19

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With those #s and your rigor, you will be in the running at every UC but there are no guarantees.

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What about schools in other states? I really have no gauge on what schools to target or have as safeties outside of a couple.

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Look into Rose Hulman. And may be UMD College Park.

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What is unimpressive about your GPA - or your ECs - fencing, part time job, co-founded a club.

I think you’re just a wee bit hard on yourself.

You go to a private high school - so you should take advantage of the counseling opportunities afforded.

I can’t evaluate your UCs - but Brown, while unlikely, is not impossible. Same with UIUC - but I assume you re thinking CS which would be hard whereas Bio would be a match or even likely.

Purdue is very likely for bio and possible for CS. Pre-med is not a major btw - you can major in anything - yes, even History or Business, etc. and still be pre-med.

The schools you mentioned at the end would all be reaches - but that’s ok.

So here’s the thing - you don’t need safeties, likelies, matches, and reaches.

In fact, you only need safeties - maybe two - these are schools you can 100% get into, you can 100% afford, and you’d 100% be happy to be there.

So let’s say Merced and Riverside are safe and you are happy to attend - then you could be done. Or you could apply to only high reaches and it’s ok - because even if you got shot down everywhere, you have those two safeties to fall back on.

So your parents are willing to pay - so you’d have low cost opportunities in state and out of state if you wanted them - but you’d also have high cost opportunities.

Since, at the end, you mentioned some LACs and smaller schools, is this a preference? If so, you can look at any from - Occidental to Kalamazoo to Wooster on the LAC side and many more that will come with merit aid - to a Rochester, Miami (Florida), U Denver, William & Mary, or RPI type school, or it’s a bit more focused (no pure bio) but a Colorado School of Mines type in addition to the schools listed.

Good luck

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It’s going to depend on your major at some schools. If you go for straight CS, Purdue becomes a reach. Biology is a much easier admit but it’s next to impossible to switch to CS if you change your mind later.

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Here are some UC snd CSU admit rates for CS and Biology if available. If you are ELC eligible, UC Merced is a Safety but apply since competitive majors are not guaranteed if referred.

2022 CS admit rates if available

Campus CS
UC Berkeley 2.9%-L&S updated 2023 EECS-4%
UC Davis No data but estimated <20%
UC Irvine 5.8%
UCLA 3.8%
UC Merced 85%
UC Riverside 36%
UC San Diego No data but estimated <10%
UC Santa Barbara No data Historically 5-6%
UC Santa Cruz 60%
Cal Poly SLO 9%
Cal State Long Beach 54%
San Diego State 40%
San Jose State 31%

For CS:
Safety/Likely: UC Merced. Add CSULB and local Cal State
Target: UCSC, UCR. Add SDSU
High Target/Low Reach: UC Davis (CS now in the College of Engineering)
Reach: UCI, UCSB, UCLA, UCB, SJSU

2022 admit Rates

Campus Biology
UC Berkeley 12.9% for College of L&S
UC Davis 45% for College of Biological Sciences
UC Irvine 23.7%
UCLA 10% for College of L&S
UC Merced 93%
UC Riverside 66%
UC San Diego No data but <20%
UC Santa Barbara 27% for College of L&S
UC Santa Cruz 52%
Cal Poly SLO 13%
Cal State Long Beach 57%
San Diego State 33%
San Jose State 56%

For Biology:
Safety/Likely: UC Merced, UC Riverside, Add SJSU, CSULB or Local Cal State
Target/Match: UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, SDSU
High Target: UCI, UCSB
Low Reach: UCSD (Biology is a capped major)
Reach: UCB, UCLA

Best of luck.

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SJSU is not a safety for CS. Recent prior year admission thresholds were equivalent to ~4.3 GPA (weighted-capped, recalculate with double counting of college courses and grades): Freshmen Impaction Results | Admissions . Applicants in Santa Clara County high schools get the equivalent of +0.25 GPA as local area preference.

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Oops you are correct. I will edit. Too early this morning to be posting.

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Irvine is definitely not a safety. You might not want to go there, but admissions are difficult. Likewise, CS is one of the most difficult majors to be admitted into. If it isn’t your love, you might look at other majors (ex. Cognitive Science).

You are a junior, so the UC GPAs that you calculated are based off of one year of school. You have this year to work hard, and continue to get good grades.

Which CSU would be considered your local campus? Would you consider attending that campus?

You are just starting junior year. Get to know your teachers.
If you are concerned about freshman grades and your LOR, look at the UCs and CSUs. All of them (except for Cal Poly SLO), don’t use freshman grades, LOR or test scores.

Have you looked at the UC Personal Insight Questions? They are different from the Common App personal statement. Your experiences don’t need to be unique. Each PIQ has a couple paragraphs under it with comments/questions. If you draft an essay trying to answer those questions, it should come together nicely.

Question 1 - Leadership. You could write about your job or maybe your club. You are a junior, so you have a year to identify situations in which you “positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.”
Question 3 - Greatest Talent or Skill. You could write about fencing.
Question 6 - Academic Subject that Inspires You - You could write about Latin or any other subject that you feel fits the prompt.
Question 7 - What have you done to make your school or community a better place? - You could write about the youth community service club or maybe one service activity.

I would also look at the UC Activities and Awards section and start drafting that now (early). Include:

  • Award or honor
  • Educational Prep Programs
  • Extracurricular activity
  • Other coursework
  • Volunteer / Community Service
  • Work experience

Fill in as many of the 20 as you can. Start with the most important. Through out this year, work on identifying things that you can add to your Activities & Awards list.

Finally, UCSB has some very good You Tube videos with pointers on the UC application.

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Look if #size is a factor you should be considering. Going from a private high school to a large state school can be a hard transition. As long as you are aware, it should not be a big deal as well. You can add a few private schools like USC, Santa Clara if desired.

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If Brown is your reach school, you may want to seriously consider Wesleyan University which resembles it in terms of history, geographic location, and branding - but not quite in single-digit admit territory. Wesleyan is a LAC with a top-notch reputation in the research sciences that, not incidentally, practices affirmative action for male applicants:
‘There Was Definitely a Thumb on the Scale to Get Boys’ - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

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This is the part of the UC app that most applicants don’t spend anytime optimizing. To get started early, and finetune over time is a hugely value adding activity.

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