Please help me with my college application list!! Chances for UC's and Harvey Mudd.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): n/a
ACT (breakdown): 33 (Composite), 34 (English), 30 (Mathematics), 35 (Reading), 33 (Science)
SAT II: Will be taking Physics & Math II (Most likely Chemistry too)
Weighted GPA: 3.4 (I had an extremely low GPA in my freshman year.)
9th grade - 2.1
10th grade - 3.75
11th grade - 4.4
UC GPA: 4.12
I don’t know if this helps me at all. There is actually a background story to my low freshman GPA, I just had moved to the United States and I was at the school for 1-2 months so I didn’t have a good chance to adjust to the new environment.
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 16 out of 67.
AP (junior year): US History, English Language and Composition and Spanish Literature. I also took 3 classes at UCSD; Intro to Logic, Fluency in Informatics (or something like that) and Marine Biology. And I took a psychology class at my local community college.
Awards: I don’t have much besides my academic excellence awards (They are awarded each semester so as a total I have 3), and a couple of awards for speeches that I have given.

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): I am the president and founder of the STEM Club at my school, I am the president and founder for a Tutor-student association at my school in which students organize and help each other and form a closer community. I volunteer as a tutor with my physics, math and chemistry teachers and stay after school to help them during their office hours, and I go to a club for public speaking which has also helped me develop my communication skills.

Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service: Most of my hours are related to helping other students in their classes and my club, I have around 150 hours. And I also have 200 hours at a middle school in a poor neighborhood in Mexico helping the students learn English and other Math/Science subjects.
Summer Activities: I recently started working at a chemistry lab at SDSU and I will be constantly working there (I’ll probably go weekly until I graduate, the professor wants me to be there as much as I can).

Teacher Recommendation: I have great relationships with my teachers, they all know me very well so I hope they are great.
Counselor Rec: I have been talking more to my counselor so she gets to really know me, and she always helps me with my projects and clubs.
Essays: I have been working on a couple of them and my teachers have really liked them; I have been surrounded by incredible unusual situations and have experienced a lot at my age and it has really helped me to become more mature and change my perspective about life.

Other:
Intended Major: Biomedical Engineering.
State (if domestic applicant): California.
School Type: Small Charter School.
Ethnicity: Hispanic (Mexican).
Gender: Female
Hooks: URM Female pursuing an engineering degree?

Current School List:
UCD, UCSD, Cal Poly SLO, SJSU, SDSU, UCI, (maybe I’ll apply to UCLA and Berkeley too but I know they are reaches) and I am thinking of doing ED to Harvey Mudd since it is seriously my dream school. (and I do know that they do not offer Biomedical engineering but I also like the idea of Engineering in general).

If you can recommend me other schools to add to my list or maybe cross off I would really appreciate it! Any comments are welcome, I also do not want to go out of California at all. Thank you guys!!

2

Your GPA is pretty low for Mudd, especially as those are weighted numbers. That 30 in math on your ACT is a problem, too. Can you get your GC to highlight your freshman year situation in their recommendation? I can’t tell what your math sequence looks like, what will the highest level of math be that you will complete? Mudd will like your hook – but it is a HARD school, and they will need to be sure you can do the work. I think it is probably a high reach.

3

I can ask her to, I was at a different school during my freshman year. She also knows that I was going through some emotional issues at the time (I was depressed because I moved from Southern Mexico, and also had a really strong family loss that affected my family, and still does today). Sadly, my highest math will be AP Calc AB, but it is also an issue I had when I arrived to the US; my counselor at the time absolutely refused to place me in a higher math even though all that I did in that class was read because I finished the work early and already knew what they were teaching. Since what they thought me in Mexico is in a way different to the math they have been teaching me here at the US I have been self-teaching myself all of the basic math and other “easy” stuff that I should know by now, but I am a quick learner and I don’t really struggle with what they are currently teaching me. Ironically, the easiest part for me on the ACT was trig. I also want to continue on taking classes at my local community college, I was planning on taking more advanced chemistry (they don’t offer AP Chem at my school) since it would help me more with my work at the lab, but would taking more advanced math be a better idea? I also wanted to apply to the FAST program at Mudd, IF I get accepted would that improve my chances? (Although I know that getting into the program is hard too).

4

AP Calc AB is enough. Really study for the Math II test, could offset the ACT a bit. And yes, apply for FAST. I can’t say what it will do for your chances, but it will likely make your essays stronger.

5

I will, than you so much!!