I haven’t read the other comments but I’m going to give you my advice, and I’m a senior at UCLA. I like to talk a lot so I imagine this is going to be fairly long, buckle your seat belts.
-Colleges put the least weight on your freshman and senior year grades. Your most important years are 10th and 11th. I think they more or less exclude freshman year because some middle schools include 9th grade. Having good grades your freshman year will help, sure, but don’t kill yourself over it. Senior year is a joke, trust me, have fun, don’t get C’s or anything like that but don’t stress.
-You have essays. UCLA and Cal are the two UC’s who give essays the most attention (especially Cal). There are two graders, both need to say yes.
-SAT Scores: definitely need to be over 2000. Try to keep them fairly consistent. Example: I got a 800 critical reading, 720 writing, and 600 math and universities apparently HATE that. They’d rather people have 700s across the board than a perfect score with a huge 200 point discrepancy to another subject like mine. 600 in math is a pretty respectable score, but next to my 800 CR it looks like I’m a dumbass in math. But it’s totally my fault because I didn’t study for it, don’t do that. Buy a book and actually do it, especially in your weakest subject.
-Do they still require subject tests? Look this up. I didn’t know that they wanted 2 SAT subject tests until my senior year and had to take them last minute. Take the subject tests for AP classes you take and take the subject test around the same time as the AP exam. Even if they don’t require that you take the subject tests I would recommend doing them anyway. You don’t need to put in any studying for the tests beyond the preparation you’ve done for the AP exam, and take them ASAP while your knowledge is still fresh. Example: if you take APUSH then take the American History subject test in June of that year.
-AP subjects I highly recommend:
AP World
APUSH
AP English (both years, but if you get a 5 junior year then don’t bother taking the test senior year)
AP Science (at least one, I took AP Chemistry. I would avoid AP Physics unless they’ve reformatted the class since I’ve graduated like they’ve reformatted AP Chemistry)
AP Math (I recommend stats, I never took calculus but my friends did not have a good experience)
Do yourself a favor a buy an AP psychology prep book, study it, and take the test w/o taking the class. Easiest 5 on an AP exam I ever got and didn’t suffer through a year of papers like my friends did.
-UCLA posts the statistics of who they accept btw. It’s super convenient and I think they’re the only UC that does this for undergrad.
-Stay in your clubs. Get a leadership position in these clubs.
-Why the hell are you joining 3 sports. Stop it. Stop it now. As someone who did 3 sports (swim, water polo, dance - and yes dance is a sport) in high school, I can’t stress how exhausting that is. My grades suffered because of it. If you think playing 3 sports next year is going to increase your chances of getting in then I hate to burst that bubble but no, and it will probably hurt you if you’re already struggling academically (which I disagree with that statement but if that’s how you feel). Play one you really like. Two if you’re like me and stubborn. I only know one person who played 3 sports at my high school and got into UCLA, or any top school for that matter, and that’s because of athletics…and she’s an OLYMPIAN.
-Please enjoy yourself. You’re so young, there’s no reason you should be placing so much emphasis on getting into a school. Keep it a priority, sure, but it shouldn’t dictate your life. You’re going to burn yourself out before you even get to college and trust me, that’s not pretty.
And, don’t forget:
COMMUNITY COLLEGE FAM.
It’s the best way to get into UCLA I kid you not. It’s how I got in. Sure I took a million and one AP classes and had ECs for days in high school but the lovely, lovely UC system was like “we got you a dollar” (but actually, not even) when financial aid packages rolled around so I went the CC route instead. (For the record, I was accepted into UCSB and UCSC out of high school, among other cal states. I didn’t apply to UCLA or Cal)
Instead of paying 4k/quarter for four years I paid, drum roll please, $50/semester. Go to a CCC and get the Board of Governors waiver, it waives your tuition and you only need to pay school fees and textbooks. Of course if you get any grants then those will cover that.
“But I don’t want to go to community college, only dumb people go there” I thought this too. And I’m going to let you in on a little secret. There are plenty of unmotivated people who go to CC, but there are plenty of people there smarter than either of us. Your honor student peers may look down on you, I’m sure mine looked down on me. But at the end of the day I’m graduating summa cum laude from the #2 public university in the world in a few months, and at a fraction of the cost. Community college is nothing to be embarrassed about.
My point here is, even if you fall short of your expectations in high school, it’s not the end of the world. It doesn’t mean you’ll never go to UCLA. I honestly found my CC coursework easier than any AP class I ever took in high school and laughed my way to a UCLA acceptance. It is way, way, way easier in my opinion to get a 4.0 at CC than a 4.5 in high school.
Ok now that I’ve written a novel I’m going to see myself out. Best of luck to you, and if you want any more blunt advice I’d be happy to help.
has helped me. I would love to keep in touch with you, because it’s awesome talking to someone who actually attends UCLA. And I agree, dance is a sport, just wanted to put that out there haha. Thank you so much!