My chances at the UCs? (Focus on Pre Med)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - GENERAL
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Ok, time for a question with a more definite answer, what are my chances at the various UCs?:

UC GPA (I know it’s low but I feel I can explain why on the personal insight):
Unweighted: 3.67
Weighted and Capped: 3.88
Uncapped: 3.91
Uncapped (counting senior year): 4.12

SAT: 1240, I took it in march, a 70-130 increase seems doable for the december test, so more likely 1310-1370

Will take a total of 2 honors classes and 7 AP clases by 12th grade (3 APs 10th grade, and 2 APs 11th grade), will most likely pass 5 of the 7 by graduation.

Volunteerism:

Will have around 100+ Volunteer hours at a local hospital by November 30th.

Member of my school’s leadership, will have over 50+ non-mandatory hours by the time I apply.

Planning to volunteer at my local church, but will probably happen after application is filled.

Extra Curriculars include rally and school event set ups, advertisement creation for my school’s news, after school guitar practice, and after school dance practice.

I planning on majoring in Neurobiology/Neuroscience, and marked the alt major as bio/biomedical engineering. The schools I’m applying include UCD, UCI, UCSD, UCSB, and UCR.

Upon further research, My top choices are UCI, UCD, & UCR, they seem to have great opportunities for Pre Med and they seem the most realistic with my scores.

Are my observations correct, or am I overestimating my chances at the UC system?

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  1. Senior grades are not considered for UC admissions. Taking a rigorous Senior schedule will be noted.
  2. Addressing your lower than average GPA will help but UC’s are very GPA focused and as a “Pre-Med” applicant you will have heavy competition for those coveted A grades in the Medical school pre-req courses.
  3. Have a backup plan if Medical school falls through. Only a small percentage of Pre-Med students actually make it into Medical school.

Bumping up your test scores will help your chances and put you on target for the majority of schools on your list.

The stats below are not major specific but an overall admit rate. The more competitive the major, the higher the stats need to be. You will also find admits on each end of the spectrum.

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19:

UCB: 14%- Reach
UCLA: 14%- Reach
UCSD: 44%- Low Reach
UCSB: 54%- High Match-Low Reach
UCD: 58%- High Match
UCI: 65%- High Match
UCSC: 85%- Match
UCR: 94%- Low Match-Match
UCM: 96%- Low Match-Safety

You might want to consider several of the top Cal States. SDSU, CSU Long Beach and San Jose State will give you an excellent education and schools like SDSU have very good Pre-Medical advising but unfortunately do not have Neuroscience/Neurobiology majors but offer Bioengineering.

Best of luck.

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3.9 and 1240 means you are likely to get into UCM, UCR and UCSC. The rest could go either way with a compelling application and ECs. Another 100 SAT points wont change that picture significantly.

I agree, you’d be well served to apply to a couple of CSUs while you are at it. In addition to those listed above, perhaps CPP and Fullerton.

Good luck