Please chance me for UC Berkeley and UCLA!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello~ I am currently in the process of filling out the UC Application! I would greatly appreciate more input as to my chances for UCB and UCLA, especially UCB. I am also applying to Stanford and UChicago as super duper reach schools
so chances on that also would be much appreciated. Thank you.

UC Weighted GPA: 4.57
Unweighted GPA: 3.97
Weighted GPA: 4.3? (9th grade grades were particularly bad because of a family situation but thankfully UC’s do not look at 9th grade/ I have gotten straight A’s since then)

9th Grade:
H Biology B/B
H English A/B
H Algebra 2 C/D
Mandarin 1 A/A
Geography A/A
PE
(I know my grades in 9th were terrible, I had a family situation which I plan to explain in the additional comments section. Plus 9th grade grades arent taken into consideration for UCs so I am safe.)

10th Grade:
AP Biology B/A
AP World Hist. A/A
H English 10 A/A
H Algebra 2 A/A
Mandarin 2 A/A

  • PE requirement

11th Grade:
AP US Hist. A/A
AP Eng Lang A/A
AP Psychology A
H Physiology A/A
Mandarin 3 A/A
Painting A (had to split up semesters due to swim team in spring)
AP Statistics A (took summer of 11th only first semester)

12th Grade:
AP Physics C: Mechanics
AP Literature
AP Calc AB
AP Gov/ Honors Econ
Mandarin 4
Painting

AP Tests taken:
AP Biology 4
AP World History 4
AP US History 5
AP English Lang 4
AP Psychology 5
AP Statistics (didnt take AP test yet)
(plan to take the 12th grade ones)

California Resident

SAT Scores: (CR: 640 WR: 700 Math: 730)
(my current SAT score but I am waiting on the results from October SAT to be released, hopefully they will be better!)

SAT II Scores:
Biology E: 770
Japanese: 780
Plan to take Math 2 in Nov.

Which college are you applying to? (Letters and Science, Engineering, Chemistry, etc.)
Letters and Sciences undeclared/ leaning towards physics/ science major.

ECs
-Team Captain, Varsity Swim team 9-12th grade
-Director, School Heal the Bay Club 9-12th grade
-UCLA Medical Radiology Center internship w/ head associate professor 11-12th grade
-Wushu/Martial Arts team (outside of school) 9-12th grade
-Vice president, Academic Decathalon team 11-12th grade
-School Robotics Team 11-12th grade
-Knights and Ladies school service organization 11-12th grade
-Historian, MESA (Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement) 9-12th grade
-Early Academic Outreach Program (EAOP) 10-12th grade
-Piano/ music theory 9-12th grade

Work:
Actress 9-12th grade
Small business founder 9-12th grade (online + also sell my work in shops around LA)
(all money has been put towards college savings)

Any other specific accomplishments:
-2015 Junior Honor Guard: (basically top ten students on UC GPA chosen to oversee graduation for class of 2015
-2015 CIF LA City Swim Championships: (4th overall in 200 medley relay)
-1st Degree Black Belt (after about 8 years of doing Martial Arts)
-Music Theory up to Level 5 from Trinity College London with High Honors
-USC Mesa Day 3rd place in egg drop
-AP Scholar with Distinction
-NHSS Scholar

Demographics stuff:
Gender: Female
State: CA
Race: Mix of Japanese/Pakistani/Iranian
Both parents attended college and both have bachelors
Public school

Thank you so much for reading and I apologize for the length!

2

You have a good GPA but that is all you have … and that became possible to you (after the 9th grade fiasco) by you litterally avoiding any challenging class in the 10th and 11th grades. That will not go unnoticed (as well as your 9th grade). Your SAT is also rather low for UCB/UCLA (Needs a 100+ bump).
My verdict: Low reach/high match

3

Thank you for your reply. I forgot to include that I also took Honors Trig/Pre Calc in 11th grade also. In your idea, what could I have taken in 10th/11th grade that would have made my course more rigorous? I have taken all AP’s offered at my school except for AP Chem and took ap psych and AP stats outside of school.

4

Okay. Could you have taken any of those APs that you are taking now, in the earlier years? if you had no chance to take those APs (in math and physics, earlier), then you need to let it be known somewhere in your applications. That would make a difference. Only in that case: high/match

5

not sure what planet uclaparent9 is living on but your GPA is fine and actually above the accepted average for both schools. Your course rigor could only be considered lacking by the tigerest of tiger parents. 6 APs (even though you did take some of the easier ones) plus honors classes puts you well within the range of accepted students. Only 26% of applicants had over 19 semesters of AP/honors classes and you are well over that. Your SAT score is a bit low but the UCs care a lot more about GPA and yours is excellent. You are going to be accepted to both schools unless you do something horrible with your essays.

6

AP Calc at any level and Physics C (especially before senior year) are probably necessary for Chem E or EECS but certainly not for an undeclared L&S major. I don’t think anyone is going to think less of you because you didn’t take them as a junior.

7

If I remember correctly UCLA rejected 40% of straight A (4.0 UW GPA) applicants last year!

8

With a 1370 CR+M score (and especially with a 640 in CR - that’s a very low section score), Chicago is going to be a stretch. It’s worth applying, though.

How do you have a 3.97 UW GPA with that D in algebra 2 (and the pair of Bs) at the end of freshman year? That seems rather high. If it’s simply your GPA for grades 10 and 11, you should be aware that, while Stanford and the UCs look only at grade 10 and beyond, Chicago wants to know your GPA for all 4 years of HS.

9

UCLA rejected about 30% of the UW 4.0 applicants last year. But it’s probably safe to say that the majority of those were not 4.0 with 6-12 AP honors courses in the mix and a 95 percentile SAT score.

10

@gluttonforstress, actually for the fall of 2014 UCLA only accepted 61.39% of its 4.0 UW GPA applicants, meaning it rejected 38.61%

http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof14.htm

11

Reaches for all of those listed schools because of that SAT score.
GPA is very important but if the SAT score doesn’t align with that GPA then your chances are not great.
Yes they do a holistic review but that’s in conjunction with those stats.
UC’s review 10th and 11th but include your 9th grade stats in the overall GPA.

12

Thanks @gluttonforstress , I already have a pretty good essay topic in mind so hopefully that will be okay.

@NotVerySmart I calculated my unweighted gpa using UC standards, therefore 9th grade isn’t included. I’m well aware that my SAT score is not as high as it can be; I have been studying very hard for them but the the CR section is very bad for me. Do you suggest I retake it in Nov? Or is it probably not worth my time?

Thank you to everyone who has replied!!

13

You are just barely above the 25th percentile for CR. You are well within the 25-75 bracket for your other scores. if you think you can bump it up closer to 700 it would be worth your time.

14

what you got above a 2000 for SAT? I really hope a college will accept me. I would cry if my mother is right.

15

Your 9th grade grades don’t count at UC’s, and your UC GPA is superb. Take the SAT again and raise your score 100 points to erase any uncertainty and write a great essay.

If you want a chance at Stanford or Chicago raise your SAT 200 points, write a better essay. Chances still won’t be good, but they are not for anyone who is not a national figure or major donor’s offspring.

16

Update: I got my October scores back and my score actually dropped: 2060. Yes, I am as furious as you might think. I’ve decided to sign up for the December ACT since many of my friends have been saying that they did significantly better on the ACT than the SAT although they studied for both.