Hey guys! How’s it going? Thanks so much for helping me out. Let me get the stats out of the way:
High School GPA: 3.6/4.0 (4.16/5.0)
College GPA: 3.88/4.0
SAT: 1350/1600
Major: Political Science
State of Residence: California
Extra-Curriculars: Started a non-profit that handles sustainable development and growth in developing countries, have interned with some politicians in foreign countries, and have won awards at the national level for history and at the state level in economics from the Federal Reserve Bank of Los Angeles.
So I have been through the UC data based and have seen their official stats for transfer and also know that they are required to give priority to California Community College students (I believe I read that 90% of their transfer students are CC students from California). I will be use my TAG to go apply to UC Davis which I have seen is a great school and it is right outside of Sacramento which makes for some great California political internships. I know Santa Barbara has a BEAUTIFUL location but it is a little out of the way from where I live (the OC area). UC Irvine is not far from where I live, so it would be more convenient for me to go there in the sense that I am used to the weather and the area, but I think Davis is better in terms of internship potential. If you have another way of looking at it, let me know in the comments.
Regardless, the ones that I am interested in are UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UCSD. All three are amazing schools and anyone would be lucky to simply get accepted to one of these and some people have the blessing of being accepted by all 3. I know from the official stats that UCSD has a very high transfer rate for Political Sciences/International Relations (about 72%) which, correct me if I am wrong, is a very strong change. The higher end of their average GPA that they accepted, according to their stats, was 3.53. As I am 0.35 points over their highest average, I think that that should give me a fair shot at getting accepted no?
At UCLA the acceptance rate for political sciences drops to about 37% and the GPA range is 3.67-3.92 which I am near the top of that, so I think that that is good and I have a year to go to pick up my GPA slightly as well. Berkeley, for its part, goes down to 33% but their GPA has a larger range from 3.59-3.92, which, again, I am very near to the top.
However, none of these state any stats about SAT scores. I know that mine is not a great score. It is not low, but it is not getting any gasps either. I had a very difficult facility situation around that time and was not able to really study for the exam and was only able to take it once. Regardless, I figured that some of you guys might have some more experience or know of someone who has gone through the process and might know what to say. All in all, I think I am on pretty good footing, but I wanted to know what you guys thought and if you wanted to recommend something that I could do to maybe add to my resume. I will be applying to some out of state colleges like UPenn and Chapel Hill, but the UCs are my core base and I would love to attend there as I love California.
Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate your input.