The Official UC Chance Thread

<p>Can someone please chance me? =)</p>

<p>GPA: 3.69 UW
UC GPA: 4.04</p>

<p>Major: Chemistry, Chemistry B.S. (Berkeley)</p>

<p>Campuses: Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, UC Irvine</p>

<p>AP’s: Chemistry (3), Chinese (4), Biology, Statistics, Comparative Government, Environmental Science</p>

<p>Senior Load:
AP Envi Sci
AP Biology
AP Comp Gov
English 12 Honors
AP Statistics
Precalculus</p>

<p>SAT II: Chem (670)</p>

<p>SAT I: 2130
M: 750
W: 710
R: 670</p>

<p>EC’s:
300+ hours volunteering at VA hospital
Founder and president of Women in Stem Club
member of Robotics Club
member of Science Club
Math Club member, competed sometimes but our school never won
Key Club
Senior Service Club
Tutor an elementary school student
Job at Baskin robbins</p>

<p>Essays: 1) how i felt about growing up poor in a rich community and how I took advantage of my situation despite my lack of financial means
2) how science club motivated my hunger for chem knowledge and how i was inspired by science to participate in internships but ended up getting rejected and developed my new club instead and the whole “i wont be stopped by failures” type thing
3) additional info - talked about how my family/personal situations developed into anxiety, causing my low GPA, but how i over came that with an activity that also planted my seeds for chemistry knowledge</p>

<p>Other things-
Increasing grade trend and rigor (3.5->3.95)
Increased activities</p>

<p>Low income <$20k
OOS</p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

I’m extremely worried about college right now. I really want to get into UC Riverside or UC Davis but my grades aren’t that good. I did pretty bad during my sophomore year because there was a lot of family problems in the household.

Here are my grades:

Freshmen Year- SEM1&SEM2 (I got the same grades for both semesters)
Chinese 2 A-
English 1 B
Algebra 1B A
Vocal Arts A
Dance A
Earth Science A-
GPA: 3.83

Sophomore Year: SEM1/SEM2
English 2 A-/A-
Chinese 3/4 B+/A-
Geometry H B-/C-
Health/Intro to Microsoft A-/A-
Dance A/A
Chemistry B/C
History B/B
SEM 1 GPA: 3.43
SEM 2 GPA: 3.29

I took Algebra 2 over the summer and got A’s on both semesters

Junior Year: SEM1/SEM2
English 3: A/A
AP Chinese: A/A
Pre-Calculus: B/A
APES: B/A
Anatomy: B/A
History: A/A
Sem 1: 3.5 Sem 2: 4.0
My gpa unweighted is 3.4 and weighted 3.67

What are my chances of being accepted?

@teenaa UCD= match/ slight reach and UCR= match (all depends on your major)

Chance me? UC GPA 4.21 SAT 2070 EC: 100+ hours volunteering at local library, french national honor society, internship at a biotech company, karate instructor. I got wait listed from SD and rejected from D, is there any chance at LA?

I’m a junior, and I’m very stressed out about UCs because at our school (which is very competitive), some of our geniuses did not even make it to UC Davis or were wait listed to UCI or UCSB. I truly regret taking so many AP classes because I was ultimately quite average in everything that was not science related and actually got a C in Calc :frowning: Could someone please chance me for Berkeley, LA, SD, SB, I, and Davis? I will most likely be majoring in some form of biology.

UC GPA: 3.96
Total weighted GPA: 4.02
Total unweighted GPA: 3.7

AP’s taken: Bio, chem, calc bc, language, music theory, U.S. History

AP’s for senior year: Physics, Environmental Science, Statistics, Literature, Econ/polysci

Took spanish at saddleback

extra curriculars:
Will be in marching band and concert band for 4 years
Piano for 8 years (won many competitions, passed CM panel, play in a local honors orchestra, performed at Carnegie Hall last year)
Will be in Red Cross club for 4 years
Hospital volunteer
Volunteer with Project Reach
OC science fair participant
ISEF Semifinalist

Oh I forgot, I got a 35 on the ACT and a 2150 on the SAT (might retake)

@xylores‌ I think you’re looking solid for all depending on your major. Just try to bring your uc gpa above 4.0 by the end of this semester if possible. I only applied to uci and ucla off of your list so those are the only ones i can tell you about. Uci this year focused mainly on gpa. There were people who got in with 4.0 gpas but 1400 sats while others with 3.5s and 2200s were rejected so if thats where you want to go, dont bother retaking the sat. UCLA will look at you holistically, so try very hard on your personal statement because this can honestly make a HUGE difference with them. I applied to ucla expecting a rejection because my ucgpa was only 3.23(math class just left the nuts hanging out junior year smh) and sat was 2040. I wrote excellent personal statements and was accepted to ucla.

@DPattt‌ @xylores‌ i agree with DPattt, your personal statement can definitely make difference, especially if you have a unique circumstance.
P.S congrats on your acceptance to UCLA DPattt!

@UCSantaBerkeley‌ Thanks man :slight_smile:

@teenaa Don’t worry too much about your grades; especially when it comes to the better UC’s. As DPattt and others said, your essays & personal statement WILL make a difference.

Show them what your drive and passion is.

I don’t know about you or anyone else, but I think a class of all overachieving students is not well-rounded and definitely doesn’t sound interesting.

Let’s say fashion is your passion as an example:

No college is going to look at your application and say, “Well, I guess it’s cool that she provided interview clothes to 30 low-income mothers in her town and helped get 3 homeless women off the street… but I really wish she had a higher GPA.” “I guess it’s cool that she found a correlation between tailored clothing and self-esteem, and then launched an online course so she could do something about it – but getting a high GPA with the rest of her class would have demonstrated real curiosity.”

A well-rounded class with a bit of everything, from those who are strong academically, to those who are a complete person, is ideal; and it’s true. But always apply to UCR as a backup maybe. From what I hear it’s a great place and it’s getting better by the year.

Also agreeing with @UCSantaBerkeley if you have a unique circumstance or just something that sets you apart from other people, you most definitely have a shot.

Junior here who’s also going through the nerve-wracking stress about getting into schools I like. My top choice is Berkeley L&S, but I’m looking into UCLA, Davis, and SD (my major is comp sci).

U/W GPA: 3.65
Weighted GPA: 4.28
UC GPA: 3.93
Rank: Top 5% out of 700 kids
2100 on SAT since I didn’t study, retaking and should get around 2300
35 ACT

Grades:
Sophomore - Sem1/Sem2
Eng = A/A
Honors Chem = B/B-
Honors Precal = A-/B
APWH = B+/A-
PE = A/A
Spanish 2 = A/A

Junior - Sem1/Sem2
AP Com Sci = A/A
AP Chem = C/B
Spanish 3 = A/A
AP Calc BC = C/B
Journalism = A/A
Honors English = A-/A-

I took US History, Python, English Composition, and Psychology at CC over the summer (counts as weighted)
Senior Course Load: AP Physics, AP Gov, AP Stats, Photography, Journalism, and another AP

ECs: - Debate (4 years that has led to regional and national level success), team captain

  • 100+ Hours coaching middle school debate (and some HS kids) that led to late elim rounds
  • Interned at a software engineering startup over the summer
  • I’ve been coding for 8+ years, made a couple of apps for people
  • 50+ other hours volunteering for a comm. serv. organization
  • News Editor for School Newspaper
  • Tech/Business News Analyst for an online newspaper (which is based in the east coast)

I guess I’m aiming for upwards trend after 1st semester of junior year, and will probably have to emphasize my ECs.
I also have about 100+ unreported hours at a youth group, will the schools still consider those?

Stressing out about college now. Please chance me at UCLA, UCB, UCSD. I’m currently a junior. My grades are the follow:

U/W GPA: 4.083
Weighted GPA: 4.1
UC GPA: 4.15
Rank: Top 5% (out of 500 kids)
School: Very competitive
1910 on SAT, planning to retake and aiming for at least 2150
First generation going to college, low-income family, immigrants background, came to the US when I was 12

AP’s taking: Physics 1, Calculus AB, US History
AP’s next year: Calculus BC, Chemistry, Macro, Civics, Spanish
Getting 2 seals of bi-literacy (Spanish and Vietnamese)

EC:
Tennis (3 years, JV level)
Key Club (3 years) served as historian and currently Division News Editor (multiple high schools in a division)
CSF (2 years) currently treasurer
NHS (member)
200+ community service hours

Major: Forensics Science

UC GPA (capped+weighted)= 3.95 :((
UC GPA (uncapped +weighted)= 4.14 (use with UCB and UCLA ONLY)
Rank: N/A, but around top 30% of my class
UW school GPA: 3.75
W school GPA: 4.1
SAT
Oct 2014= 2140 (690CR/800M/650W/9E)
Jan 2015= 2210 (680CR/800M/730W/10E) (retaking in Nov, hoping for at least 2250+)
SAT 2 Chem (Jun 2014)= 770, SAT 2 Math 2= >760 (haven’t gotten it yet, if I don’t get an 800, I am retaking both Chem and Math in October)

Courses a-g for Sophomore+Junior year with semester grades (CA resident, competitive school)
Sophomore (bad year with personal problems. what a mess.)
Chem Honors (B/B) (appealing in the fall to get an A in second semester)
AP Chinese (A/B/5)
Lit 10 (B/A)
Dance (A/A)
World History (B/A)
Alg 2/Trig (B/B)
Junior
Business (A/A)
APUSH (B/A/4 and above hopefully…)
AP Chem (A/A/I think a 5?)
Honors Lit (took APLAC for this) (A/A/most likely 4…)
Pre-Calc H (B/A)

Senior (planned courseload)
AP Calc AB (maybe BC?)
Physics Honors
Lab Aide (not a-g)
AP Gov
AP Econ
AP Lit

ECs
Volunteering (3 years)- going to get about 100 hours by the end of summer, will get more as the school year starts
Science Olympiad (1 year)- to be VP of Events the coming school year, I hold 3 gold medals (regional+invitational) and 1 silver (state level) all for Chemistry related events
Chemistry Olympiad (1 year)- will continue for next year; ended up being top 2 in my school for this, but couldn’t go to USNCO exam due to regional cutoffs.
Member of the Chinese Honor Society
DECA (1 year)- won 1 6th place award at a regional competition
Sports- Tennis (1 year) and Track (1 year) had to leave both due to personal reasons
Misc.- taking physics at a local CC this summer (the course is not UC applicable)

Work Experience
Unpaid tutoring + test writing for other students (Chem related things)

Intended major: Chemistry/Undeclared
I’m looking to apply to all the UCs bar Merced and Riverside (so UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI, UCSB, UCSC). What are my chances?

I don’t know how helpful this will be but I’ll provide these anyways. They show admit rates of UC schools by UC GPA Ranges, SAT/ACT Score ranges and other ranges. People may have already seen these before but for those who have not.

UC Santa Barbara: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_santa_barbara.pdf

UC Davis: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_davis.pdf

UC Irvine: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_irvine.pdf

UC Santa Cruz: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_santa_cruz.pdf

UC Riverside: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_riverside.pdf

UC Merced: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_merced.pdf

UC San Diego: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_san_diego.pdf

UC Los Angeles: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_la.pdf

UC Berkeley: http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/files/freshman-profiles/freshman_profile_berkeley.pdf

Anybody with a UC GPA > 4.0 has a pretty good shot at getting into 7 of the 9 UC schools.

Hi guys, I would really appreciate it if someone could assess my chances on getting in to UCLA and UC Berk.

I’m a senior entering high school and will be completing an application of my own in a couple months :slight_smile:

ACADEMIA

Freshman year-

Spanish 2 (A/A)
Anatomy/Phys (A/A)
Honors Chem (A/A)
Honors Alg 2 (A/A)
Honors English 9 (A/A)
Forensics (speech and debate class) (A/A)

Sophomore year-

Spanish 3 (A/A)
AP World History (A/A)
AP Chemistry (A/A)
Physics (A/A)
Trig/Pre-Calc (A/A)
Honors Eng 10 (A/A)

Junior Year-

AP Physics C (A/A)
AP Biology (A/A)
AP Spanish (A/A)
APUSH (A/A)
AP Calc BC (A/A)
AP Eng Lang (A/B)

Senior year schedule next year will be-
AP Physc
APES
AP Micro/Macro econ
AP Lit
AP stats

and a college level math class (mulitvariable calc if I’m not mistaken)

Also I will be taking an ASL class after school in my senior year (more on that later).

TOTAL UC GPA: 4.7 (my district closed down the portal to view the GPA so I’m approximating here)

Class rank 8/7476

TEST SCORES:

SAT-1960
ACT-30
SAT MATH 2- 710
SAT BIO E- 740
SAT CHEM-790
SAT World History-700

AP WORLD: 5
AP CHEM: 4

Can’t quite view the others until this friday

EXTRACIRRICS

I didn’t cure cancer or anything but I’m much bigger on volunteering than anything “competitive”

Science Olympiad- I went from B to A team in my high school career and won various regional medals, nothing quite spectacular on the state level unfortunately

Math Team- Again, not too many results besides the occasional high school integration bee etc.

Speech/Debate- I did this in freshman sophomore year but quit in junior because I couldn’t stand the team culture (vehement competitiveness etc.)

Ronald McDonald Charity house volunteer-I help familes who have children in hospitals but can’t access their homes because they live too far away. Usually the job entitles sitting front desk but also cleaning and driving a golf cart between the hospital and the house. I’ve also participated in fundraising events, such as concerts raising little more than $200. Since 9th grade.

        -The reason I took AP Spanish was because of my work here (LOTS of spanish speakers), should I mention this on the additional comments section?

Break the Barriers- This local organization is basically a gym for the disabled or sickly. I mainly assist elementary school kids from impoverished backgrounds as a swim coach but on other days I help kids and adults with down syndrome in dance/tumbling lessons. I’m working with the founder to start up a class to combo arts and crafts and potential science experiments. I’m fairly positive that this will show good commitment towards a cause :smiley:

         - I'm taking ASL next year as a senior to help communicate with the deaf kids that attend the class

Tutoring- Although I don’t do it as much right now, due to a lack of clients, I have been tutoring math as a paid job. Right now, it filling in for others but I have had 7th graders I tutored for entire semesters.

SUMMERS:

Between 9th-10th I did a fast paced physics course for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
Not much happened between 10th-11th
This summer I’m gonna be getting an internship for clinical research at a hospital

MAJORS:

Biochemistry
Bioengineering
Biology

and some other life science related majors if the pop up.

Stuff to point out:

-I’m in state
-Volunteering is most important to me but my only problem is that I don’t have an awful lot of awards and honorable mentions to attach to myself. How detrimental is that to me?

-Although I haven’t quite started on my essays yet, I plan on writing about my time at BtB, hopefully if I get the science class rolling I can mention that. Also the challenges of tutoring younger children.

-Alot of my extracirrics show that I work with children or those that are significantly younger than me. This particularly because I have to watch 2 younger siblings of my own all the time and thus have that knowledge under my belt.

-I may or may not be shadowing various doctors some time between now and application season.

So, what are my chances of CAL/UCLA?

I am a rising senior and I thinkingf of applying to UCB, UCLA, UCSD, and UCD, and I would like to study business.

My school curriculum consists of a total of 7 courses per semester/year, but the UC system only takes 6 of the courses into consideration. I am only listing the rigorous courses that I took/will take…
Sophomore year curriculum:
Honors Chemistry
Honors Algebra 2/Trigonometry (which UC doesn’t count as an honors class)
I got straight As except for English II (got a B+)

Junior year curriculum:
AP Biology
Honors Precaculus
I got straight As for all my courses

Senior year curriculum:
AP Calculus AB
AP Statistics
AP Psychology
Honors Spanish 3
Honors Physics

UC GPA: 4.17
weighted GPA: 4.21
unweighted GPA: 3.93
ACT: 30 (Reading: 32; Writing: 28; Math: 33; Science: 25)
Planning on taking SAT II Math
Class Rank: top 20%

Leadership Roles: student government officer (senior), NSH member(junior - senior), president (senior) + officer (junior) of an cross cultural council (senior), ambassador (junior)
Extracurricular activities: Backstage crew for nearly all muscial/play productions (sophomore - senior), manager of a sports team (junior + senior), speech team (sophomore)
Summer: Took two weeks of business/accounting/finace courses, internship at a property firm’s accounting department for two weeks

I did not take rigorous courses throughout my sophomore and junior year because I am actually an international student who transferred to high school in America as a sophomore (so I couldn’t take any AP courses coz I did not have any prerequisite grades), and I wasn’t confident at all in taking challening courses because I was afraid of coping with too many challenges at the same time (I had to get used to the American culture and school system + English is not really my first language). Since I got very good grades (as you can tell from my unweighted GPA) in my sophomore and junior year, I am finally confident and courageous enough to take many rigorous courses in my senior year, but I am afraid it’s too late… :frowning:

I am a US citizen though, so I won’t be applying as an international student. I am an in-state student.

Can someone please tell me what are my chances? And are there any suggestions?

White male from Pennsylvania no aid needed
Year: Rising Senior
School Type: Large public
Prospective Major: Accounting maybe? I might apply to mostly CAS
Unweighted GPA: 3.5
Weighted GPA: 3.7
Class rank: N/A (school does not calculate rank)
Cal State GPA: 3.64
UC GPA: 3.6

ACT Score: 30 (33 English, 32 Reading, 28 Science, 28 Math)

SAT I Scores: 1280/1950
SAT I Math: 630
SAT I Critical Reading: 650
SAT I Writing: 670
(Not submitting)

SAT II Scores:
SAT II Math I: 660
SAT II US History: 540
(Not submitting these, either)

APs: European History (3), Comparative Government (5), Statistics (4), English Language & Composition (no test), Macro (next year), Spanish (next year), Chem (next year), Calc AB (no test)
I got a C in AP Calc, will this be detrimental for a non-math major???

Senior Year Course-load:
Honors Physics
Calc 2
AP Macro
AP Spanish
AP Chem
Honors English

Extracurricular info:
Three Jobs
President of a club with volunteer hours, member of a few others
Model UN and Model Congress
Varsity track/cross-country (very long hours, explains lack of other ECs, but I love it)
Volunteering (maybe 200 hours?)
Summer program at NIAHD (four credit hours)

Are being LGBT and vegan hooks (it’s what my common app essay is about lol)

Awards:
National Spanish Honors Society
NMS Commended or whatever (does this count)
AP Scholar

Anyways, the schools are: UCD, UCSB, UCR, and UCI
(If anyone wants to chance for Cal Poly SOL, that would be nice, too (:slight_smile:

Out Of State

UC GPA: 3.7
(Clear upward trend in grades; Went from 3.8 freshman year to 4.64 junior year weighted).

SAT I Math: 760
SAT I Critical Reading: 700
SAT I Writing: 650
(All 1 sitting)

Total: 2110

ACT
Single (Comp: 34, E: 35, M:32, R:32, S:36) W: 08
Superscore (Comp: 34, E: 35, M: 34, R:32, S: 36) W: 10
Took 3 times in total

SAT II’s:
SAT II Chem - 800
SAT II U.S. History - 740
SAT II Math Level II - Not yet taken

AP U.S. History- 5 (Student of the Year)
AP Chemistry - 4
AP World History - 3
AP Lit - 3

12 grade Courses
AP Government
AP Environmental Science
AP Macro-Econ
AP Lang
AP Calc BC
AP Computer Science
World Religions
Study Hall

Extracurriculars:
Boy’s State House of Rep Member + Health and Pollution for city + Nominated for County Sheriff by City
Did Research Work w/ Local College and got paper submitted into a journal (IDK how to prove the accepted into journal part yet so disregard that for now)
4 years on High School Varsity Swim Team
2 week Intensive Course on Web Programming at Harvard
Volunteered For Local “IndiaFest” (Built stages and stuff)
1 Year NHS
1 Year as Beach Lifeguard at County Fire Ocean Rescue Division (I’m young for a Senior so they didn’t let me work at 15 so thats why I only have 1 year.)
1 Year as House Management staff at a local theatre
Intern for Rick Scott Campaign for Florida

Notes:
I’m really worried about my Freshman year because I didn’t really care about school back then and I was like 13 and I just need a second opinion. Also, I have met some people who believe that EC’s aren’t that

Berkeley: Haas or Chemical Engineering
Maybe LA

Berkeley is my #1 dream school.

@Sunil494 Freshman year grades are not counted in your UC GPA/your admission decision. You have good test scores but in order to be accepted into UCLA/UCB as an engineering major, you need high test scores and a good GPA(4.0+).

I’m a senior in high school living in California and I’d really like to go to a UC. My top choices are UCLA, UCSD, and UCD, and maybe UC Merced

Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White
Location: California

Prospective Schools/Majors
UCSD: Cognitive Science/Psychology
UCLA: Cognitive Science/Psychology
UCD: Cognitive Science/Psychology
UC Merced: Cognitive Science

GPA:
Un-weighted: 3.6
Weighted: 4.2
UC GPA: 3.72
Rank: Top 15% (67/546)

SAT: 2010 composite (650 M+ 660 CR+ 700W)
8 on Essay

12 Grade Courses
-AP Calculus BC (Will take AP test)
-Government/Economics
-IB HL English 4
-IB HL French 4 (Will take IB test)
-AP Statistics (Will take AP test)
-AP Computer Science A (Will take AP Test)

Extracurriculars:
Volleyball - all 4 years
Community Service (50+ hours)
Volunteer work/Internship at an Chabot Observatory
Member of 3 Clubs
Track & Field athlete