Listed are my stats/activities…
Based on this, what are my Ivy/UCLA/UCB chances
ACT: 31 (They may scratch out standardized tests this year)
Unweighted GPA: 3.95
Unweighted UC GPA: 4.0 (Only 10th and 11th grade)
Activities:
Student Researcher at University of KY
Girls’ Advisory Board on National Girls’ Collaborative
KY Dep. of Education Student Council (1 of 2 from my county)
STLP Club President at my school
HOSA chapter founder and president at my school
Founded local chapter of National Girls’ Collaborative
Youth Sustainability Council member (61 students from my city) + Chair of this organization’s Idea Festival Committee
National Honors Society
National Art Honor Society
AWARDS:
KY Science Fair Finalist and Winner of Society for In-Vitro Biology Special Award (Didn’t make it as an ISEF finalist though)
1 of 100 International Conrad Innovators
HOSA International Barbara James Service Award (Silver for 175+ healthcare volunteer hrs)
Southeastern Scholastic Art and Writing Awards Honorable Mention
STLP State Showcase “Best in Fair” (1 of 60 across the state)
Academic Team State 2nd place in Written Testing (Language Arts)
Since the UC’s will be test optional, they will put even more emphasis on your GPA and a 4.0 capped weighted is below the 25th percentile. Your EC’s are very good but the UC’s tend to be GPA focused and expect competitive HS course rigor. AP, IB or DE courses taken?
Also if you are an Out of state applicant, do not expect any financial aid so you would be full pay at around $65K/year to attend.
2019 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 12%
UCLA: 7%
2019 UC capped weighted GPA averages along with 25th-75th percentile range:
UCB: 4.23 (4.15-4.30)
UCLA: 4.25 (4.18-4.32)
25th - 75th percentiles for ACT composite + language arts
UCB: 28-35
UCLA: 29-35
Both schools are a Reach.
Which Ivy League schools are you interested in?
@Gumbymom 4.0 is my unweighted GPA from 10th and 11th grades combined, my weighted GPA is 4.59…
Here are my classes taken (Would they really look at freshman yr, I thought they focused on 10th and 11th grades?)
9th Grade: (We don’t have Honors classes in my school, its called “Advanced”)
-AP Human Geography (4)
-Adv. Probability and Statistics
-Art 1
-Adv. Geometry
-Adv. Biology
-Spanish 2
-Adv. English 1
-Adv. Citizenship
-Summer Prior to Grade 9: Summer PE/Online Health
10th Grade:
-AP Statistics (4)
-AP World History (4)
-AP Environmental Science (3)
-AP Psychology (Self-taught + Scored a 5)
-Drawing 1
-Adv. Spanish 3
-Adv. Algebra 2
-Adv. Chemistry
-Adv. English 2
11th Grade:
-Took Precalc at an Academy during the summer (got 97.8% overall grade)
-AP Calculus AB
-AP Language and Composition
-AP Biology
-AP US History
-Adv. Spanish 4
-Dual Credit Physics
-Adv. Art Principles (Pre-req to AP Art Studio)
-Teacher Aid (Free Block)
Can you offer advice on my course rigor and gpa based on what I provided?
@DadTwoGirls
My Ivy List Currently includes Brown, Cornell, Princeton, and UPenn
Additionally, other equally selective schools include Vanderbilt, Duke, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Rice, and Stanford.
Do you think this is a good reach list based on my info?
My safety schools are two state universities…
The UC’s look at 9th grades to make sure you passed all the a-g course requirements, use 10-11th for the GPA calculation and Senior year courses to determine that you will meet all the a-g course requirements upon graduation. HS course rigor is determined by all courses taken 9-12th grades. Your HS course rigor looks on target so what is your planned schedule for Senior year?
What is your capped weighted UC GPA since I am assuming 4.59 is the uncapped GPA (capped weighted UC GPA is 4.4).
Overall your academics look competitive so now you need to identify some Match schools since you have many Reach schools and 2 safety schools but nothing in-between.
What is your college budget since the UC’s should be considered full pay if you are OOS? Do you qualify for need-based aid? Are you looking for both need and merit aid?
@Gumbymom I do not qualify for need based aid. I am an out of state applicant and a non US Citizen/ permanent resident with an H4 Immigrant VISA, so federal aid scholarships won’t qualify for me either. I’m currently looking at schools with an annual total cost of about 50-60k. Do you think I would still be able to qualify for merit based scholarships at prestigious schools such as UC Berkeley with my academics and extracurriculars?
Without a hook, a 31 is not competitive for the Ivies, Vandy, Rice, Duke, or Stanford. So, your list is way too top-heavy.
The UCs barely give any merit scholarship dollars and a 31 will not be competitive for those either. On the contrary, the UCs are looking for OOS/International full payors to help offset state budget deficits. So being OOS is a plus factor with UC, if accepted, expect to pay sticker.
Sorry.
Regents is academically based and is $2500/year at UCB and $2000/year at UCLA are the most common merit scholarships available so a drop in the bucket when it comes to OOS costs for these schools but they are only available to US Citizens or Permanent Residents.
As stated above, expect to pay full fees which are currently $65K/year to attend.
“I do not qualify for need based aid”
“annual total cost of about 50-60k”
Many of the schools on your list do not give any merit based scholarships, or do not give financial aid to international students. UC Berkeley and UCLA give almost no aid to any out of state students.
With your stats you certainly could get into multiple very good universities in the US that either cost less than 60k at full pay, or that would give you enough merit aid to get the total cost below 60k. In fact you could very likely get the cost down well below 50k at many very good universities.
I think that you are at least a competitive applicant at many very good schools. If you could get your ACT up you might be competitive almost anywhere (and this year schools might not look at ACT due to the pandemic). However, you have a very long list of reach schools. It is hard to imagine your doing a good job on the essays for this many applications. Also, it is hard to imagine that all of them are really a good match to what you want in a university.
You might want to use “total cost of attendance” as one way to filter your list down to fewer schools. You should also make sure that you would be happy if you are turned down everywhere except for your safeties or if you find everything except your safeties to be unaffordable.
Thank you for the advice all! Will take this into consideration 
I will be making another thread soon once I got my extracurricular list finalized along with a list of 4-5 reach schools!
As an international student you have to push everything up a notch: international students typically make up 8-15% of the student body. Unis that would be a match for a citizen are more like a reach for a non-national. Given that you also want merit aid, looking for unis for which you are in the upper 25% of admitted students is where you need to build your core list. Also, none of the Ivies or Rice or Stanford are going to come in under $60k except for need based aid. Vandy does have some good merit scholarships but a 31 isn’t going to come close to getting one.- just getting in is a reach.
It’s really hard to have done so well academically- & I am guessing you are a bit of a star in your class- to realize that between intl status, budget and the sheer level of competition you have to treat your reaches as super long shots and focus on practical, less glamorous options. It’s worse, though to have to say no to a school b/c you can’t afford it- and worse again to be stuck with an option you are really unhappy with. You are lucky though that one of your safeties is probably Big Blue, which everybody in KY (except rabid UofL people ofc) rates!
@collegemom3717 thx for the advice! Also, just for clarity, I am a resident in the US with an H4 visa. International students are students applying from countries outside the US, I would assume.
Pretty sure that only US Citizens and Green Card holders are in the ‘domestic’ pool… It’s not about where you are currently living: a US citizen living in (and applying from) another country is still counted in the domestic pile. Depending on the state you may eligible for in-state tuition- but your application is still evaluated in the ‘international’ pool.
@collegemom3717 I just discussed this with my admissions counselor via phone, and he had mentioned that I would be considered in the domestic pool for most universities because I don’t need to apply for a special immigrant status called I-20 because I did the majority of grade school in the US and took courses and tests like most other US residents.
But I do understand what you are saying. I may fall under a special immigrant category which I will check with.
I’m not going to argue with your admissions counselor- but I’m pretty sure that the fact that you don’t need an “I-20” is b/c you have an H-4, not b/c you have done a lot of schooling in the US. International students who are in US boarding schools on student visas have done "courses and tests like most other US residents’ but they are still considered international. Of course, a few places (such as Princeton) don’t differentiate at all- each school can have it’s own policies.
I-20 is the form you complete to apply for an F-1 student visa (I-20 is not a status in itself). If you are on an H4, not on an H-4EAD, you’ll want to think through the pros & cons of switching to an F1 . From a post by @“b@r!um” :
@collegemom3717 Thanks for the info! Do you know where I can find/try to search which colleges don’t differentiate among international applicants residing in the US?