My Chances for UC's?

<p>A little bit about me:
-Live in California and go to a decent public school. 380 seniors in my class and we are on the block schedule.
-Asian American, come from an extended family who all are very intelligent and have/had successful careers. My direct family is the rotten apple of the family tree though, and I grew up in a low-income household most of my life.
-Gotta get this out of the way: I was extremely lazy my freshman, sophomore and most of my junior year. I NEVER studied for tests and often didn't do homework. All I ever did was play WoW pretty much until midway through my junior year where I decided to try harder. I don't play anymore though and am trying much harder now.
-I'm interested mainly in film and something to with computer programming and stuff like that</p>

<p>Colleges:
-All the UC's but more specifically UCD, UC Berkeley, UCSB, and UCLA. Also interested in USC. (UCLA and USC for film schools)</p>

<p>Stats (all are pretty bad):
-Unweighted GPA: 3.3
-Weighted GPA 3.64
-Class rank unweighted: 93/380
-Class rank weighted: 64/380</p>

<p>The classes I've taken though have actually been difficult, as I've taken all Honors/AP classes that my school offers (aside from the science ones) and aside from my freshman year few "fun" electives.</p>

<p>AP Classes:
-AP Economics (11th: didn't take test since I didn't feel confident I would do well)
-AP Euro: taking later this year and I plan on taking the test
-AP Calculus: in right now and plan on taking the test
-AP English/Lit: in right now</p>

<p>SAT I: 1750 (I didn't study for this at all because I was lazy and thought I could just walk in and get 2000+)
-CR: 600
-W: 620
-M: 530
I plan on retaking this in Nov. and I'm already studying for it</p>

<p>SAT II: Took US History and Lit. today. I'm honestly feeling I got in the 600 range but could be better or worse.</p>

<p>Senior year schedule:
-Community Service
-AP Calc AB
-Sociology/Government
-AP English/Lit
then...
-AP Euro
-AP Calc BC
-Film
-Honors Physics</p>

<p>EC's (I fail here):
-Band and Journalism freshman year
-Applied to and was accepted into Spanish Honors Society but never went to any of the meetings or the inaugeration ceremony thing
-Taekwondo up until sophomore year when I broke my wrist. Six months away from blackbelt
-Plan on doing tennis this year if that counts but it wont be until spring
-Independent film club and hardcore camping club (fun clubs so probably don't mean anything).</p>

<p>Recs: I haven't asked for any yet </p>

<p>Essay: I feel its pretty good and during my English class's anonymous peer readings I got good reviews on it.</p>

<p>Other: My family really wants me to go to Berkeley because both my cousins went there but I know its pretty much out of reach but I'm going to apply anyways. I've also had a part time job working 20 hours a week my junior and senior year. I heard the UC has a different GPA scale and there was one course that I got a D+ in then retook and got an A so that might help me.</p>

<p>The UCs are all about GPA and SATs. Very stats driven because as a state institution, there is a lot of pressure to not use “judgement”, but facts, to defend admissions practices. Basically UCB, UCLA, and to a lesser degree UCSD require perfect grades and high test scores.</p>

<p>You already know UCLA and UCB are about 1% chances for you. UCSD about 3%. UCs D,SB,I are about 25% chance. UCSC about 70%. UCR about 90%,and UCM about 95%.</p>

<p>Those are your chances as a typical applicant. You did not say if you have any “life challenge” issues, which boost scores considerably. Teacher recs are not used at UC. Senior year schedule has little importance. Freshman year grades are not used to calculate UC GPA. PE, Health, Life Skills and other non-academic courses are not used for GPA. + and - grades are not used, just the letter grade.</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply. I do have some “life challenges” but I wouldn’t even know how to go about mentioning them in my college application.</p>

<p>Mention the challenges anyway. Take a look at the UCSD’s application website. They use a numeric formula with additional points added to your academic and EC performance. One of the categories with lots of subparts is Life Challenges. It can add the equivalent of a half point to your gpa and 200 points to your SAT in the final point total. UC Davis uses a similar but different formulaic calculation.</p>