please chance me- UCLA, USC, UCSD... aiming too high?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>I am a rising senior in Texas and I know that out-of-state admission to Cal schools is extremely competitive. my counselor is no help in this area, unfortunately, and all my friends just want to go to in-state schools mostly, so I don't have the best idea what my chances are. any help is appreciated. please be brutally honest, any comments or criticism is helpful.
my top schools applying to are: USC, UCLA, UCSD, UT, UCSB</p>

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<p>*before i list anything, a note about my school: i go to a small (200 avg class size), very difficult & competitive private catholic school. they dont do class rank unless you are in the top 10% (about 20 students) which requires a 4.3 i believe. there is a very small selection of APs and no IBs available and no major-specific classes. i'm worried that colleges won't see this and not realize the standard to which my school is held to grade-wise. my gpa, which i know is low, is considered very good among my peers. hopefully I am communicating what I am trying to say. small, competitive, selective, no variety, very hard to get a high gpa. </p>

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<p>*Caucasian female (actually half greek background, unsure if I can put this anywhere on my application to my advantage?)
*intended major: public relations, minor in business (might change major)
*GPA UW: 3.66, W: 3.88
-always taken nearly all honors classes all four years (& accelerated math) and APs when available which is not usually.
*AP classes: 1 AP junior year (english: 4 on AP test)
taking 5 APs my senior year (APES, econ, gov, english, statistics)
-hoping to work for good grades (mostly As) in all these APs to boost my first semester grades to re-submit them</p>

<p>*class rank: top quarter/ of 190 students</p>

<p>*SAT: not submitting, lower scores than ACT (~2010)
*ACT: highest was 32 (scored 30 twice and 32 twice)
-highest: 10 essay, 34 english, 32 math, 36 writing, 32 science (superscored is 34)
-planning to retake ACT again in september shooting for at least 33.</p>

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<p>ECs
*Student Council class representative frosh-junior years
*Student Council Vice President senior year
*social chair of Mu Alpha Theta
*NHS
*NSHS
*school ambassador frosh-sr years (tour guide for school)
*JV volleyball frosh year
*varsity volleyball sophomore-sr years (team captain senior year)
*JV tennis frosh-soph years
*varsity tennis junior-senior years (team captain senior year)
*10 hours various community service frosh year
*20 " " soph year
*30 " " junior year
*will do 40 " " senior year
-have done more than just this so ~200+ hours by graduation
*peer tutoring junior-senior years done through NHS
*club (select) volleyball sixth grade-senior year (12 hrs/wk + tournaments)
*tutored kids at neighboring elementary school through MAT</p>

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<p>Honors and awards
*varsity volleyball
-MVP & hustle award junior year
-honorable mention all district both soph & junior years
*varsity tennis
-MVP junior year
*honor roll every quarter/all years
-10+ school wide academic awards (presidential/cardinal scholar)
*silver medal on NSE frosh year
*bronze medal on NSE soph year
*honorable mention on NSE junior year
*outstanding performance soph and junior year (recognized for straight A's in classes)</p>

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<p>Employment
*various babysitting soph-sr year
*basketball scorekeeper & timekeeper at local sports academy</p>

<p>sorry i don't know if im giving too much info or not enough, im pretty new to CC but ive been reading posts for a while. please please help me out its much appreciated!</p>

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<p>Try getting your weighted gpa to over 4.0, and your act score to a 33/34. This would improve your chances. Your ECs are a little boring, but you could try demonstrating your passion through your essays. I think UCSD is a match, while the others are low reaches! Good luck!
Please chance me back: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1672761-chance-me-for-stanford-university.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1672761-chance-me-for-stanford-university.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Am I misunderstanding that you have already taken the ACT four times? If this is true, do not take the ACT a firth time after scoring 32 on two prior exams. This would really look ridiculous. </p>

<p>Tough to get in the UC schools from out of state. Why is it so important for you to go there? For the amount you will pay as an OOS student, you would have plenty of good other options with your stats.</p>

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<p>Yes the UC’s are competitive along with being very pricey for OOS like $55K with little to no financial aid available. Your ACT scores look good and do not take again. You need to calculate your UC GPA (only AP classes count as Honors classes for OOS) see link: <a href=“GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub”>http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/&lt;/a&gt;
You have competitive Stats which would get you in to many very good schools with lower price tags than the UC’s.
UCSB: Match
UCSD/UCLA: Low Reach</p>

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<p>Here are links to all the UC admitted freshman profiles (USC is private and may not strongly consider residency)</p>

<p>As mentioned above, honors classes are generally not weighted out of state. </p>

<p><a href=“University of California Counselors”>University of California Counselors;

<p>Here is one for UCLA with even more details. Most impressive to me, is the number of A-G courses completed, and the number of weighted classes completed. The numbers were not even possible in my kid’s high school class of 2008. ( among other things, tney were required to take classes that wnere not A-G)</p>

<p>2013
<a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_fr/Frosh_Prof13.htm”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_fr/Frosh_Prof13.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>preliminary 2014</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_fr/Frosh_Prof14.htm”>http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_fr/Frosh_Prof14.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Post edited by Shrinkrap at 12:38PM</p>

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<p>bump. thank you to all who have responded!! also, why is it bad/why does it look bad if I take the ACT again if I could get a higher score??</p>

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<p>that comment above about act scores was to @mnm111</p>

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<p>bump. please help out i’ll chance back!</p>

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<p>@ey12345 The UC’s are very hard to get into from oos. The UC’s are also very keen on GPA.
UCSD: Reach/Match
UCSB: Reach/Match
UCLA: Reach
USC: Reach
I think that with excellent essays your application can stand out :slight_smile: Good luck
Chance me back?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1676980-chance-me-at-uiuc-uw-madison-purdue-michigan-state-northwestern-wustl-michigan-ann-arbor.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1676980-chance-me-at-uiuc-uw-madison-purdue-michigan-state-northwestern-wustl-michigan-ann-arbor.html#latest&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>UC schools are very hard to get into, especially for an OOS student. My friend got in to UCLA and Berkeley with an ACT score of 31. So your test score is great! He was also very involved with the school (which it looks like you are too) and wrote great essays! But his weighted GPA was a 4.35 and unweighted GPA was a 4.0 so I say if you write great essays and maybe explain the way your high school’s academic system is set up then that would really help. I think you’re a great candidate for UCSB and probably UCSD too. I would think about applying to UC Davis because that’s one of the easier (kind of) UC schools to get into… average ACT score is a 28. </p>

<p>Good luck!! :slight_smile: </p>

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<p>Thank you so much! @m24683</p>