Hi, this is my first post on here, I’m only a junior in high school, the year just started like a couple days ago and I kinda wanted to see what my chances are of getting into UCI. So I have a 3.85 GPA, I haven’t taken my SATs yet but I am studying for them and I know that I will get at least an 1850, even though I’m aiming for a 2200-2300 score. But the thing is, I’ve heard UCI only accepts kids with crazy ECs and I literally have none. My sophomore year, my family moved to Australia and we did not plan on coming back here because of my dads job, so i basically skipped sophomore year and didn’t have any chance to try out any ECs. Freshman year was also kind of empty, because i was still trying to adapt to high school life, i did join 3 clubs though but they were like Make A Wish, MSA, and She’s The First. I am trying this year to get some ECs in, but I feel utterly hopeless that no matter what, I won’t be able to get in to UCI because i don’t play a sport, don’t play an instrument, and am not into acting or music. I am super crazy about family and help out a lot at home but that’s about it. For APs, I’m taking A.P Psych this year and Honors Chem, which are both 5.0 classes, and Freshman year i took honors Geo and Honors Bio but i ended up with Bs in those classes which lowered my GPA by a lot. Teachers usually like me and I’m pretty sure i can get really good recommendation letters and I am pretty good at essays, so I’m sure I can do well on my college essay. I do live here in Irvine and really wanted to go to a school thats close to family. It’s really just me, my mom, my dad, and my sis. We split up with the rest of our family so its just us 4. Idk if colleges care about family life but ughhh i feel hopeless, do you guys have any idea if I have any chance of getting in?? I was thinking if I explain the Australia move really well they might see that I am determined schoolwise because I was the one that kind of forced my parents to come back so I could come to school here. Soooo what do you guys think? my friends say I don’t really have a chance of getting in while my mom and dad are saying it’s not that hard to get in and that i’ll be fine.
Oh and also, I am overweight by like 40 pounds and I have been focusing on losing that weight, I lost like 10 pounds so far but again I don’t think colleges care about weight loss either?
What’s your UC GPA? Your SAT is about UCI’s average, so you’re in a good place.
Don’t worry too much about ECs for now. Look at the UC prompts and think if you have anything to write about. That said, do join some clubs that you are interested in. What do you want to study in UCI?
It’s not impossible for you to get in, so keep going. Good luck!
I just went and calculated my UC GPA, I think its 4.00 because your not supposed to count 9th grade and that was where i had 2 B’s. But sophomore year I had all A’s when i was in Australia and when I came back here to complete sophomore year. So I think its 4.00.
Oh and I was interested In studying either Psychology or Accounting, my parents say Accounting is good for me but I always liked Psychology so i haven’t really decided between those 2.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/irvine/freshman-profile/
As you can see, your stats are just a hair below avg for UCI, with string ECs, you’d probably sail in. For you though, it could go either way. Stronger SAT would help. I bet you have a unique story about relocating to and from Aus that you can highlight in your essay. That may make all the difference.
Apply to UCSC and UCR to be safe,… maybe SDSU too.