Please Chance Me:

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello,

 I am currently finishing the first semester of Sophomore year and my grades rn aren't looking too great/promising.

In freshman year I had a 3.9 UW gpa and 4.0 W. (All A’s and A+s except for 1 B)

This semester however, I will probably end up with a 3.6+ UW, Im not sure of the exact gpa because the grades aren’t all locked in yet.

I have two A’s, three B+s, 1 B, and I have a C in H. Alg 2. I suffered a lot from depression starting from the beginning of this semester and it took a toll on my grades, math in particular because the math class would be an easy A but I found myself having anxiety/panic attacks.

I come from an Asian background and my parents have always had incredibly high expectations but now they are pretty set on the idea that I will have no chance on getting into a “good” college because of my Sophomore grades- which I honestly hope isn’t true.

My E.C’s so far:
I have completed 200+ hours of community service, ( I teach kids who are not in the best financial situation how to play the violin, and I am in Youth Action Team and National Honors Society). I have played the violin for ten years and have been in multiple honor orchestras and I am in our school’s top orchestra. I am the president of our school’s National History Day club which is a national/international competition. I went up to the State Level for the past two years and Im competing this year as well. I will be doing an internship at the OCRegister (orange county newspaper) and I have a high chance of being the editor of our school newspaper next year.

I am going to take my SAT’s junior year but
I know that it’s a little too early to tell, but I were to have a 3.9+ gpa next semester and all of junior year, what would my chances be of getting into these schools? (reach, match, safety) I’m planning on majoring in journalism.

UCBerkeley
UCSan Diego
UCLA
UMichigan
Duke
Columbia
Emerson
UChicago
NYU
Penn
Brown
Rice
UOregon
Wellesley
Harvard (this I know will be an incredibly high reach but its the school that my parents want me to attend).
I’m thinking of applying to liberal arts as well but Im still looking into ones that I’m interested in.

Thank you so much for reading this, and please leave honest responses.

2

This is very early to know. You have a lot left to do so nothing much can be said now. Assuming you keep your GPA above 3.9 and have an SAT score of 1450+ I will chance you for these colleges. I would advise you to try and take some more AP classes to boost your Weighted GPA. The three options - Reach, Match and Safety are very subjective which is why I’m gonna split them into R+,R,R-,M+,M,M-,S+,S,S- which are in the order of difficulty.

UCBerkeley® - Very academically oriented so they look at grades a lot. If you have a good enough explanation in your essays about why your grades suffered, it may make a difference. However UCB is notorious for the importance it gives to grades.

UCSan Diego(S+) - Shouldn’t be tough to get in. You have a pretty good shot.

UCLA(M) - The UCs have been getting higher number of applicants making them tougher. UCLA has crossed 100,000 applicants this year.

UMichigan(R-)

Duke®

Columbia®

Emerson(S)

UChicago®

NYU(S+)

Penn®

Brown(R-)

Rice(M+)

UOregon(S-)

Wellesley(M)

Harvard(R+)

As colleges get more competitive, it becomes too subjective to decide as everyone applying there has stellar grades. Here usually the ECs and Essays matter when they pick. Your ECs appeal to me, but we never know if they will appeal to each college. That is why most top colleges are placed in the Reach range for most students, including really good ones.