<p>I'm a rising senior interested in attending college in California.
I recently visited UCLA and UC San Diego and loved them both. </p>
<p>I'm also interested in UC Berkeley and UC Irvine.
The issue remains that I'm OOS which typically means I have a very low chance of being accepted into these schools.</p>
<p>I really don't want to apply to more than 2 out there due to such low chances.
I'd love some serious help in picking the two that would best suit me/ with the best chance of acceptance.</p>
<p>Other info: 4.0 weighted GPA, top 15% out of about 400 students, interested in majoring in English/Journalism with possibility of Med School in the future
ECs include dance team/ballet, Vice President of Spanish National Honors Society, etc etc. I won't bore you with credentials.</p>
<p>Also, I'm not sure if these campuses are too large for me. I was going for somewhere between 5000 to about 16,000 and these all exceed that. Are there any smaller CA schools I should look at?</p>
<p>You’re being outside of the top 10% in your graduating class will seriously hurt your chances to any UC, I think. However I would still encourage you to apply to Berkeley (being your 1st choice and most likely a reach for your past and current academic achievements), UCLA, UCSD and UC Irvine (as match). You can make UC Merced as your fall back, if you really want to study in a UC campus.</p>
<p>You don’t say much about your “profile”, but here are the admission profiles of the last two UCLA classes. Aside from the OOS required GPA ( which is not going to be a problem if your looking at UCLA and Cal), I’m not convinced OOS vs in state profiles are that different. It’s the cost that might give you pause.</p>
<p>USC admissions are about the same as Berkeley and UCLA – around 22%. Other UC’s are less selective with around 50 to 60 admission rates. I’d recommend UC Santa Cruz over Merced as a backup.<br>
You haven’t mentioned your SAT scores but USC relies more strongly on SAT than purely on class ranking (considering they get a lot of private high school applicants where ranking isn’t a good indicator of ability. USC Annenberg is an amazing journalism and communications school and USC encourages double majoring or double minoring. Since cost for you would be about the same for a UC or USC (as an out-of-stater) cost probably isn’t a factor as it is for in-state kids who end up choosing a UC because of cost.</p>
<p>Given the economic problems in CA and the impact they are having on the UC, I would not be that interested in a UC school right now–until the impacts are better known.</p>
<p>regardless of the budget situation, unless you are interested in specialized programs (film/theater at LA, or bio-eng at SD), the UC’s are just not worth the OOS price. Moreover, the top UC’s are brutally competitive for premed. Without test scores, it’s hard to make a private recommendation.</p>
<p>fwiw: Cal has a top-ranked English Dept. UCI is known for comp lit.</p>
<p>I would also like to say that UCLA, UC- Berk and UCSD do NOT have an undergraduate journalism program. UC- Berk only has a graduate degree in journalism. I would pick USC for journalism.</p>
<p>OP- Have you heard of the Claremont Colleges? They are a consortium of privates that may be what you are looking for according to your choices of majors. Take a look at their website-you’ll be impressed.</p>
<p>Batllo - Yes, I have heard of those LACS yet the size is something that really put me off. As much as I feel I would flourish with a smaller size, most of those colleges have a smaller student size than my high school. But I’ll definitely look into it further.</p>
<p>early_college - I also realize that many of those schools do not have undergraduate journalism majors so I was hoping to look into their English programs. I’m extremely indecisive as to what I’d like to do in the future so I’m kind of just looking at anything that seems appealing. Odd, I know compared to many on the site that have their lives basically mapped out.</p>
<p>As for my scores, I recently took the SAT I and the scores have not been released. It should be out later this week, I’m hoping.</p>
<p>My highest on the ACT was a 28, extremely low compared to all the other students who frequent CC… but I’m also hoping 3rd time’s a charm. I recieve those scores this week as well…</p>
<p>Can anyone explain more about Berkeley? I haven’t had the chance to visit so I’m a bit skeptical. I’ve gotten a very positive vibe from many of the websites I’ve seen but I’m still unsure…</p>
<p>I’m not completely set on going for a UC but I would definitely enjoy anywhere by the Ocean, where the weather is amazing, as opposed to my home state of IL.</p>
<p>SD has the best weather of the UCs and is on the water. Santa Barbara is also on the beach, but less competitive in admissions. But, you’ll probably need about a ACT 30-31 (or ~2000) for SB OOS.</p>
<p>While an excellent English program, Cal will require a 32/2100+ to be competitive OOS, particularly with your class rank (over 10%).</p>
<p>I understand, I would also recommend Occidental. It isn’t a big school though. But I still think USC is the best for English overall and plus it has a journalism program.</p>