Not in top 10%, any chance at UC's?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Indian Female
Family Income- >$250,000
California</p>

<p>UC GPA 3.54 W
Top 12%, jumped 5 percent just this semester</p>

<p>Significant upward curve in grades, went from 3.1 to a 4.16 (semester gpa's)
Moved schools about 4 times
Live in a family of 13 people, took care of 2 younger siblings and 2 younger cousins (7 & 3) while parents were gone at work everyday</p>

<p>sophmore year ap's- AP biology, Honors English
junior year ap's- AP psychology, AP english</p>

<p>senior year schedule- AP environmental science, AP civics, AP english, AP calculus, and advanced photography </p>

<p>SAT's- 1980
Haven't taken Sat II's yet... seems like Lit will be around 680ish</p>

<p>EC's-
volunteer regularly at a riding academy for disabled children (autism, etc.) 100+ hours
CSF seal bearer
Pivet club 2 years
also voluneer at animal shelter regulary, probably 50ish hours
help a nurse at a convalescent home, by end of summer will probably have 80 hours</p>

<p>Going into medical field- either a pharmacist, doctor, or P.A.</p>

<p>Planning on writing a veryyy good essay</p>

<p>What are my chances at Santa Barbara, Davis, and Irvine (just curious about this one, have a friend who had a 3.6 and less than 1800 on SAT that got in)?
And does anyone know of any other good schools that I might have a chance at?</p>

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<p>btw, class size is about 430ish, give or take 5</p>

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<p>I would say you have a good chance at Middle UC’s ( Irvine, Santa Barbara, Davis) and lower UC’s ( Santa Cruz, Riverside, and Merced)</p>

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<p>irvine too? I really want to go there… and I think I am very capable of doing well there, but my sophmore year ruined my gpa… i had a 3.1 and 3.5 =/
and I don’t want to get my hopes up and then have them crushed lol</p>

<p>thanks for replying though :)</p>

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<p>Your sat is in the range for Davis, Irvine and Santa Barbara but, unfortunately, they each have an average gpa of around 4.0 for admitted students, so it could be difficult.</p>

<p>You’d be much better off applying to private schools that take hardship (or even unique experiences) into much greater consideration. UC’s do take it into consideration too, but it doesn’t seem to help nearly as much.</p>

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<p>oh, please let this be true… my grades/stuff are about similar with pewpew’s… (down below…)</p>

<p>Lemon’s app: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/726718-curious-chances-least-uc-irvine.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/726718-curious-chances-least-uc-irvine.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>OP- Do you honestly think taking 4 APs is in your best interest? Can you handle the workload while applying to colleges? IMHO, think you should take a strong science like AP chem, AP physics instead of AP environ sc. You should register now to take the SAT IIs in October- the earliest possible in case you need to retake. You will be shut out of a testing site near your home if you don’t register soon. To be accepted into a premed science major you’ll need Math II, and a science subject test unless you are going to declare Undecided. Go to the UC website and CC threads and read what is required for the UCs. You are playing catch up in comparison to other students hoping to get into a UC. Your gpa is low- competition for spots for all the UCs except UCR and UCM is high. Good Luck.</p>

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<p>I think you have a great chance at UCI. You stated you wanted to go there yes? I think you need to be a little more active in school (join clubs) and a few more EC’s wouldn’t hurt. </p>

<p>My friend got in this year and is going to UCI next fall. He had 4 C’s all in math throughout all 4 years. Roughly a 3.4UW/3.5W. 1800 SAT. Similar ECs and he was in a few clubs. He’s also asian. You should be fine. Just write a good essay and have decent recs :)</p>

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<p>UCI is extremely competitive for Biological Sciences so OP’s gpa and SAT I may not be enough.</p>

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<p>I hope the op gets in but, realistically, it’s going to be hard with that gpa. And the UC’s are probably going to cut even more spots for incoming freshmen next year.</p>

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<p>Batllo-
Well 2 of the AP’s (environmental and civics) are supposedly really easy (according to every person that took it last year). So I really see it as only 2 ap’s (calc and english).
I did take Sat II’s but did not study whatsoeverrr so i didnt see the point in posting them since I’m retaking them… 680 on English, only 580 on Math II, and 600 on Bio.
AP chem isn’t offered to seniors, but physics seems to much of a workload for senior year. many students that got into UCLA, Irvine, etc. from our school had that class last year and struggled to pass it.
Thanks for the advice though! :)</p>

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<p>KB24yo-
I love hearing stories like that! They give me so much more hope :)</p>

<p>also, a couple random questions…
what is op? haha
and those gpa’s that are shown on UC sites and etc. that show what the average incoming freshman’s high school GPA is, are they the UC GPA (A-G, Weighted for 8 semesters only) or overall GPA?</p>

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<p>op means original poster</p>

<p>^they show UC gpa</p>

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<p>OP- Have you thought what you will declare for your major?</p>

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<p>I’m not 100% positive… Everyone around me is constantly telling me of these great majors for amazing careers that make 250,000+ a year, etc.</p>

<p>But it looks like it is going to be Biology, Chemistry, etc. (majors for pharmacy) and I realize there is ALOT of competition for these majors…
But I’m also been very interested in Psychology</p>

<p>BTW, Does Undeclared for a major hurt my already slim chances?
And I know a few people who declared a different major than they really wanted, something like Japanese Literature, but changed to Bio major once getting into schools such as UCLA. They declared these majors because the competition was very low for them, and they hoped it would raise their chances.
Should I take a similar route? Is there a downside to this?</p>

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<p>***firstly, sorry about the confusion i caused that led to the use, “OP” :(</p>

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</p>

<p>here are three pathways I can think of into college. (there can be more. and i am no expert in this, only speaking from what heard…) Here’s 3 options, like you said, that can be summed up:</p>

<p>1.) OPTION I: applying to [college] head on, as your desired major: like you said, the majors for pharmacy might be competitive. But should you get lucky and get in, well: no more effort to change your major to a desired major.</p>

<p>2.) OPTION II: applying as undeclared some freinds told me this is the best way to go. (from their experience from older siblings who went to college.) then, i heard conflicting opinions otherwise. No final verdict yet on the feasible factor of this option.</p>

<p>3.) OPTION III: applying as some major that is rarely popular, then once accepted into desired college, switching to a desired major this sounds like a good plan. Unfortunately, I’ve never heard of anyone (maybe I’m out of touch) do this. </p>

<p>now my opinion: I can’t imagine declaring as “undeclared” hurting your chances. and no, your chances arn’t slim: just give it hope, and put some time into studyin’. your not a senior this year, right?</p>

<p>LEMON</p>

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<p>the’hairy’lemon-</p>

<p>oh no don’t be sorry… I am still a little behind on the CC lingo lol</p>

<p>And I am an incoming senior.</p>

<p>I think what will be best for me is to go Undeclared b/c it can’t raise my chances any more than picking a less competitive major, and like you said, I won’t have to go through the hassle of switching majors.
And what conflicting opinions did you here about going Undeclared?</p>

<p>And sorry for the late reply, I kept checking on the first page for responses… just realized now that there are two pages =P</p>