<p>So, my situation is I do a ton of curriculars (volunteering at Nursing Home, Vice President of Operation Smile Club, Tech Team Senior Advisor, current treasurer of Student Government as well as possibly President for next year, NHS, CSF) and take super challenging classes and get a 4.2, while a friend of mine takes easy classes with no extra curriculars except Swim and NHS but has a 4.5.</p>
<p>Will this edge me out for public state colleges like UC Davis, or am I still a pretty good shoo-in for it?</p>
<p>extra curriculars and difficulty factors are nearly always more important than gpa</p>
<p>I think it largely depends, remember, colleges want to know who you are and if you are a right “fit” for their school. So, to be honest extra curriculars are extremely important as well as gpa and courseload. Right now, I think you should just focus on maintaining a pretty good gpa and courseload as well as try to win some awards. So yeah, hope I helped!</p>
<p>Yeah, right now I’m focusing on lifting up my GPA, but is 4.2 a terrible starting point into getting into public state universities like UC Davis?</p>
<p>you mean 4.2, like as in straight a’s? honestly is that even a question? that’s a fantastic starting place, especially if you’re taking hard courses. I’m really confused as to where the discrepancy lies</p>
<p>Nah, I have one B plus and one A minus, but yeah other than that it’s A’s and A+'s.</p>
<p>I just have a terribly low self esteem and am incredibly unsure of myself, and that difference between my and her GPA tells me I’m not the best of the best, which makes me scared that that might make me lose getting into that university which is my dream. Also, I have Asian parents so they are pretty rough on me haha</p>
<p>yeah, well i honestly don’t know anything about uc davis, but i’d expect most, if not all, state schools would look fondly on your resume, esp if you had some nice recs and essays</p>
<h1>2 wrong, some colleges wouldn’t care if you don’t do EC only that you take hard classes and get good grades.</h1>
<p>But you could use some EC for the sake of of doing. (How do people and do so much EC anyway, I barely does one…)</p>
<p>UC Davis average GPA is below 4.2. I’m pretty much positive you will get in. I know about a million people that go to Davis, and their gpa’s are lower than 4.2 and they have less ECs.</p>
<p>Here’s the 25-75 percentile for UCD
GPA: 3.86-4.22
ACT: 26-32
SAT Math: 610-740
SAT Reading: 550-690
SAT Writing: 580-710</p>
<p>As you can see, you are almost at the 75th percentile for admitted students. If you get a good SAT score too, I don’t see why you wouldn’t get in.</p>
<p>What makes me different is I’m going there as a Bio major, which UCD is clogged up to the brim with since they have some of the best research facilities out there. Plus, I’m afraid that since I’m Indonesian, they’ll put me up with all the other Asians so that my college resume looks nothing more than another Asian trying to become a doctor. :(</p>
<p>UC’s do not practice affirmative action. They are not allowed to discriminate based on race. UC admissions are calculated on a point system. </p>
<p>You are at almost the 75th percentile. If your GPA goes up .03 you will be above it. Try to stop worrying!</p>
<p>Get the grades, pass your classes, and do what you enjoy doing. Extra curricular activities and your position in clubs will show how well you do outside your academic life, but it really doesn’t matter. It depends on the college you are going to. Do what you enjoy doing and do your best at it. I graduated high school with a 3.1 GPA, took a lot of honors courses, participated in maybe…1 extracurricular class, but that was it. I’m doing fine today. A person with a lot of EC stuff vs a person with not much EC stuff…no difference. It depends on the path you choose for your future. EC helps you with being social with people and helps you make connections but even without EC, you can still make connections with people in college.</p>
<p>^ There is certainly a difference between a person with or without ECs. I don’t know where you would get that idea.</p>
<p>^^And what is the difference? Is it simply that EC people do more or non-EC people do not, then that is not a true difference because there are other factors involved.</p>
<p>There are other factors but that is one of the factors. If its a factor, it makes a difference. The UC schools do care about ECs. Yes, GPA and SAT are more important, but that doesn’t make ECs unimportant. The UC gpa has a cap, so an applicant can only include 8 semesters of weighted classes. So OP is actually not too far from some of the highest gpas. There is definitely not NO difference between someone with or without ECs.</p>
<p>Awesome, so that is what affirmative action means. How would I do in applying to Stanford.</p>