<p>I go to a public high school ranked within the top 3 in California, (I don't wanna name it)
and I see a lot of people around me getting into good colleges. Two senior friends that I know got into NYU, UCI and UCLA.... I asked them how they did it, and they said it was through years of preparation, community service, and extracurriculars...
I've been thinking about college lately and how off-course i am.
Here are my grades....
For Freshman 1st sem: 2.93, 2nd sem:3.17
Sophomore 1st sem: 3.3 Sophomore 2nd sem to be: 3.66 or above (do you see a pattern here?)
I've only been involved in one sport, and that's baseball. Our records aren't very good...
I haven't been involved in any extracurriculars.. I've tried to look for community service opportunities around me, but they're all full or too far away (10-15 mi).
I haven't taken any APs, but I have taken 4-5 "honors" classes and 1 actual honors class ("Honors" in quotes, because our course standards are high, so technically everyone is taking honors classes.)
I want to know what I have to do to get into UCSD or UCI, UC Berkeley would be awesome, but I know that's impossible.
I'm planning to take
11th grade
AP Chemistry
AP US History
AP Environmental Science
12th grade
AP Calculus AB
AP Physics
AP Language
AP Spanish
I know i won't drop my GPA in junior or senior year below 4.17, because i will try as hard as I can, and when I try, I get good grades (WHAT A SURPRISE).
I plan to get involved in several clubs, (ie. Red Cross, Key Club) and I plan to get involved in class administration and the student body.
I'm not popular, but I am well-known throughout the grade (good or bad reasons).
I have a strong interest in sciences, especially physics and engineering.
I want to know what GPA i have to get each sem from now on to be even hopeful about those colleges, what SAT or ACT scores I need, how many hours of community service I need, how many extracurriculars, and whether I need teacher reccomendations..
Thank you for reading.</p>
<p>By the way, the reason I’m not taking many APs, is because our school doesn’t offer much AP classes, because of our school size and funding/</p>
<p>Your “planned” app may be strong enough, but I doubt all of that will be reality; good luck getting there, however. Your SAT should be above 2150 to make up for your early poor GPA</p>
<p>Hmm… I believe that Berkeley and UCLA will not be possible and even UCSD and UCI will be big reaches. You need to do very well on you SAT and SAT 2s. I’d say strive for a 1900+ on your SAT. Colleges will mainly look at your 10th and 11th grade years so you must do your best junior year as it can determine if you get in or not. They don’t weigh 9th grade as much since it’s years back. Definitely get several extra curriculars (with some leadership positions) and do community service.</p>
<p>I’m gonna work really hard on my GPA and SAT scores…
What about community service hours?
On average, how many do you need (not “need” as in required, but recommended by accepted students)?</p>
<p>The UCs do not calculate your frosh gpa into the cumulative gpa. Aim for a really good GPA junior year if you want a solid chance</p>