<p>I've been told that all the UCs use a formula when choosing students, and I also saw these formulas on the UCSD, UCD, and several other UC websites. If this is so... then... I have a question. ^_^</p>
<p>I took 3 SAT IIs and I know that only the two highest scores will be counted. I'm a Chinese and took the Chinese SAT II and scored an 800. I also took the MATHIIC (720) and USHIST (710)... Which two scores should I submit? If the UCs are based strictly on formula, then shouldn't I submit the 800, but I've also been told that it shows lack of <strong>abilities</strong> because I didn't have any other knowledge and was resorted to taking the Chinese test.</p>
<p>800 looks really nice on the app, but 700+ is competitive for all the UC's anyway. I honestly don't think 90 points will make a difference in your acceptance/rejection.</p>
<p>No college cares about percentiles for SAT II exams. If you really think about it, they really don't tell you anything anyway. And a college that denies you admission over 90 points isn't worth going to anyway.</p>
<p>Submit all your SAT II's. When you order the official ones sent, all will be sent anyway. The so-called formula you are referring to really is something that applies to the minimum statistics you need for admission; for actual admission they then consider the whole package including grades, test scores, essays, etc. Percentile is not relevant to SAT II's; anything above 700 is a very good score.</p>
<p>The more prestigious the UC, the less formulaic the policy. Berkeley and UCLA have a lot of wiggle room, the others do tend to follow a formula more rigidly. But any of those scores will look good to those schools.</p>
<p>Actually, according to self-reporting (to the schools' GC's), UCLA actually had less wiggle-room this yr. than they normally do, merely because of the recent Srs' application volume. However, I do know of one student from D's h.s. who had ho-hum SAT I scores (a lot lower than your SAT II's, green_apple), but she did have compensating factors. She also probably had a very good essay & was interested in some specialty programs which UCLA offers. However, even your GPA is higher than hers, according to what you told me yesterday. Therefore, I really think you have very little to worry about. You look quite good so far.</p>
<p>And it certainly is not "all" based on formula, or this other student would not have been admitted. It is likely that not even her SAT II's were as high as yours. </p>
<p>Go to the source: <a href="http://www.ucop.edu/pathways%5B/url%5D">www.ucop.edu/pathways</a>. Read it carefully - it explains everything you need to know about minimum requirements (both in state and out of state) for test scores, GPA, subject requirements, etc. The site also explains the process of comprehensive review, which allows the UC's to look beyond the formula once you have met the minimum requirements for admission.</p>
<p>to echo epiphany and carolyn, the "formula" is just a tool for broad eligibility; beyond that, comp. review kicks in to assess other selection factors that are less formulaic. In addition to looking at the website, you can contact admissions directly, & this would be a better time to do so than much later in the cycle, when they're swamped. They should be able to give you direct answers to your questions about which SAT II's to submit, ec.</p>
<p>UC Davis, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Cruz all use a "comprehensive review" point system to determine who is admitted and who is rejected. Essentially, they assign positive attributes a maximum point value and award a certain amount of points to applicants who display these attributes. The applicants with the highest scores are admitted. </p>
<p>I am fairly certain that these are the only UC campuses that use this type of system. These formulas do apply to out of state applicants as well, with the only difference being a higher point cutoff(for example, it's been said that UCSD's cutoff is 7400 for in-state and 7500 for out of state).</p>
<p>dont understand really.....is there a difference between the formulas of UCD, UCSD, and UCSC. do they all use one formula or does each school have its own. not still familiar with UC system but i thought everyone is evaluated under the same formula</p>
<p>Every UC uses different formulas. You can see that the lower UCs weight ELC more heavily, as opposed to UCSD which weights ELC the same as being a first generation applicant.</p>
<p>ETS - it is confusing, because there are two separate classes of admissions formulas used by UC. There is a basic, mechanistic GPA + SAT + SAT2 formula for determining eligibility to be admitted into UC - that is, the UC system as a whole. If you don't meet those minimum standards, you are not eligible to be considered for acceptance into any UC campus (as I understand it.) </p>
<p>Beyond that basic eligibility formula, however, each campus has its own way of assessing applicants for admission to that particular school. Although there is a system-wide set of general criteria each campus can (and does) weight the criteria differently, and applies them with varying degress of rigidity. Just to make it even more confusing, the gpa and test criteria are weighted differently in the acceptance process from the weights used in the eligibility formula (and they are also weighted differently at different campuses.) </p>
<p>A few years ago pretty much every candidate who met the minimum standards would be offered admission to UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz. UCSC started becoming more selective a few years back, however, and meeting the minimum standards won't necessarily get you into that school anymore. Meeting the minimum GPA and test score eligibility standards will get you an acceptance at Riverside last I heard. All of the other campuses have their own admissions assessment process beyond that initial stage. And they're all different.</p>