Hi Everyone! I’ve been looking at College Confidential for quite some time and would like to share my student profile to see what you guys think of my chances of getting in a good school. I currently live in California and am aiming to go to a public university (preferably well-known). I don’t really have a lot of people in my family to turn to when it comes to college, so I really appreciate the input you guys put for me!
Personal Information:
- 1st Generation Female Student
- URM (I’m not sure if I qualify) - Vietnamese/Cambodian
- Current Junior
- Attends a College-Preparatory private school
Academic Profile:
- Current GPA: 3.8, looks like its going to be steady like this for the rest of my Junior year.
- Currently in a Biomedical Sciences Program where I take an accumulative of 6 years of science rather than the traditional 4
Extracurriculars
- Admissions Leadership Team -2 years
- Link Crew International (Working with international students instead of the freshman. I was selected for this group, which only has 2 people in it, out of a dense pool of applicants) - 2 years
- Student Council (1 year)
- National Art Honors Society (NAHS) - going on 2 years (Also running for President/VP this year)
- California Scholarship Federation
- Officer for Clubs
- Sec of the Board Game Club (someone asked me)
- Treasurer of a Medical-Influenced Club
- Designer and Journalist of the Yearbook Club
- Co-President of a Asian Cultural Club
- Currently Doing Crew (rowing) - 2 seasons
- Plays Piano (going on 10 years)
Achievements and Awards (Nothing really interesting)
- Honor Roll (Estimated to be all 4 years)
- Received High Honors for the Music Teachers Association of California for Piano
- Received the Caught Doing Good Award in my school (just for going beyond with helping with the international students)
- Biomedical Sciences Program (Comes with a certificate and cord when I graduate)
Some Things to Note
- I have terrible test anxiety, so my PSAT/PACT scores are not admirable, however with Covid and everything I haven’t been able to take PSAT/SAT for this year. If possible I don’t plan to submit my scores if the option will be given to me come application time next year because I don’t think it will boost my profile.
- I have a strong story as to why I am pursuing the major I am applying for, and am not pursuing my intended career just because I want to make a lot of money or for my own personal gain. Just want to help the field as much as I can based on my own past experiences (what I plan to talk about on my essays)
- Since I go to a small school and I’m really involved with leadership, I think I can get good LORs from many teachers, faculty and even my principal.
Intended Major: Biology or any health-related field
Hoping to get chanced for:
- Any UC (Irvine, Davis, La, SB, etc)
- CalPoly (SLO)
- San Diego State University
- (Just for fun) UWashington
I just want to note that I’m asking to be chanced for public schools because my parents told me that they’re not paying for my college tuition, so I want to find affordable options for myself. I’m really aiming to go to a good well-known school, or else I have a good safety school in mind already that has a high acceptance rate so I’ll be okay otherwise.
Thanks for reading this long lol! Also, if anyone has any tips for me I would appreciate it a lot!
UC’s and CSU’s only use 10-11th grades for their GPA calculation for yhe a-g courses (exception Cal poly SLO which uses 9-11th grades).
After Junior year, calculate your 3 UC GPA’s using the calculator below:
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
For a list of HS courses that get the extra honors points in the calculation, you can look up your HS here:
Your capped weighted UC GPA= the CSU GPA
Cal poly SLO GPA= the CSU GPA + 9th grades and a cap of 8 semesters of Honors points.
You are not a URM and CA publics do not consider race/ethnicity in their admission decisions anyways.
LOR’s are by invitation only for UCB. The test of the UC’s and CSU’s do not consider them currently. You have a good student profile so your chances look good for several schools on your list but find one safety school before you complete your list.
Are you low income since financial aid will be limited if you are not? CA publics can be generous for low income applicants but offer little merit aid if your parents make a good living. As a student, you cannot take out more than $27 total in loans for 4 years.
If you are paying yourself, take off University of Washington since it will be unaffordable.
Any reason your parents will not pay for college? Most students without family help usually start at a community college to keep costs down
All schools offer a net price calculator on their website to help determine if the schools are affordable. Just google NPC for each school of interest
Hi Gumbymom! Thanks so much for replying, you definitely cleared some questions I had for a while. I did the UC Calculator and my Capped/Weighted GPA is a 3.71 if I keep the same grades as I did next semester. I do have a couple of safety schools in mind but I don’t have solid list yet, I just wanted to see what people had to say about my profile so far. I do believe my family is considered low income.
As for why my paren’t aren’t paying for my college, they just want to make sure that I am responsible for my time in college. They’re open to assisting me while I’m in college, but they’re leaving it up to me how I choose to pay for my tuition and rent.
I’m hoping that if I train hard enough and do well, that I could possible be recruited for crew at a University, so that was why University of Washington was on my list for a while. The club that I play with are well known to college coaches, so I’m holding on to that hope for a while.
I am going to be honest about you and your parents expectations regarding financing college. If you are recruited athlete, then it is possible to get an athletic scholarship which could cover tuition/room and board. However, if you are not recruited and you do not qualify for need-based Federal and California Cal grant aid, the $5500 Freshman year student loan will not even cover Cal state tuition which runs around $7500/year. Add in the cost of room/board which can run from $13,000 to 16,000 a year, you are looking at $20K+/year to attend the Cal states. The UC’s run around $35K/year for tuition/room/board.
You need to sit down with your parents and together run the Net Price calculators for a couple of Cal states and UC’s so they are aware that if they want you to attend college, they need to pitch in immediately. You cannot attend college unless you pay prior to enrolling in classes, so the money for the 1st semester/quarter is paid prior to attending. If they want you have some skin in the game so to speak, then you should take out the Federal students loans totaling $27K/year in your name so you have some accountability. If they are not willing to help you fund your undergrad, then either commuting to your local community college and transferring or commuting to your local Cal state might be your only option.
A 3.71 CSU GPA is a solid GPA and would make you competitive for most of the Cal states. SDSU, Cal Poly SLO, CSU Long Beach will be tougher admits especially for Biological sciences and related majors.
A 3.71 UC GPA capped weighted however would make only UC Merced, Riverside and Santa Cruz target options. Under a 4.0 GPA, will make the rest of the UC’s a tough admit.
2019 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.40-3.79 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 1%
UCLA: 2%
UCSD: 9%
UCSB: 6%
UCI: 7%
UCD: 9%
UCSC: 40%
UCR: 53%
UCM: 80%
2020 UC capped weighted GPA averages along with 25th-75th percentile range:
UCB: 4.22 (4.13-4.30)
UCLA: 4.25 (4.18-4.31)
UCSD: 4.18(4.04-4.28)
UCSB: 4.17 (4.03-4.27)
UCI: 4.11 (3.96-4.26)
UCD: 4.11 (3.97-4.25)
UCSC: 3.94 (3.71-4.16)
UCR: 3.88 (3.65-4.11)
UCM: 3.68 (3.40-3.96)
The link below is the most recent CSU admission data with average Capped weighted CSU by campus to give you an idea of target schools: https://www2.calstate.edu/attend/counselor-resources/Documents/freshmen-2019-admission-impaction-chart.pdf
If you are considering athletic recruiting, you may want to look into the athletic recruiting forum section here. Also, check how your individual performance compares to what athletic-scholarship-offering schools are looking for to see if athletic recruiting is likely to be something you can use.
Biology by itself tends not to have particularly highly paid bachelor’s degree level job opportunities, so it is important that you minimize college debt. If you intend to do pre-med, be aware that medical school is very expensive.
Hi Ucbalumnus, I do plan to study a health related field (Biological sciences/Biology), but the career I have in mind that requires this major (radiation therapist) doesn’t involve going to medical school, which is what I was afraid of.
I’ll definitely take a look at both things you mentioned here, thanks for letting me know! I’m new to this so theres a lot I don’t know yet. Thanks!
UCM and Sac State, HSU have solid bio programs and and lower student rents than most CA publics.