UC Chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m going to be a senior in a few days and I’ve finally started to consider my admission chances (better late than never… right?)

Going to apply to:
UCB
UCLA
UCSD
UCD
UCI
UCR

California Resident (high school relatively close to UCR)

Thinking about the Cognitive Science major

Unweighted GPA: 3.975
Weighted: 4.63
UC GPA: 4.36
Ranked: Top 5% or 2/600

SAT (didn’t study… probably would’ve helped if I had):
Reading 650 + Math 650 + Writing 620 = 1920
I’m planning to retake in October.

A-G Courses: (Sem1, Sem2) (AP score)

Freshman Year:
AP Human Geography (A, A) (4)
English 1 Honors (A, A)
Biology Honors (A, A)
Algebra 2 Honors (A, A)
Spanish 1 (A, A)

Sophomore Year:
AP European History (A, A) (3)
AP Statistics (A, A) (4)
Pre-Calculus Honors (A, A)
Chemistry Honors (A, A)
English 2 Honors (A, A)
Spanish 2 (A, A)

Junior Year:
AP Chemistry (A, A) (3)
AP Calculus BC (A, A) (1 w/ subscore of 1)
AP US History (A, A) (4)
AP English Language (A, A) (5)

Senior Year:
AP Macroeconomics
AP Government
AP English Literature
Digital Media Productions

Work Experience:
Summer job at engineering firm w/ ties to LA MTA and OCTA

Extracurriculars:
National Honor Society (2 years) - Secretary
California Scholarship Federation (3-4?)
Drawing/Painting (forever)
California Partnership Academy (Design) (3 years)

Volunteer:
Hospice (3 years) (constantly had to fill in for team “leaders”…)
Interact (1 year)
Junior Honor Guard

Awards:
Top 10 for all years
awards from design class
not sure if spelling bees from a million years ago count

Apparently none of my school’s honor courses (other than Pre-Cal) are recognized as honor courses by the UC system. My reason for not being a part of a million ECs was because my mom works from 8am-8pm, and I constantly had to mooch rides off of friends freshman and sophomore year. On top of that, my parents are strict and my personal statement is about art helping me get through their divorce and any other hardships in my life. Immigrant family and whatnot as well. I’ve tried my best to make do with what I have. My SAT scores are at the 99th percentile for each category at my school, so I’m not sure if ELC would help me for the more competitive UCs.

Last year’s saludictorian got accepted to Berkeley, but he had a lot of impressive UCs. Someone in the top ten got into UCLA. A few are going to Davis. Most of my school, however, ends up going to UCR.

Please chance me!

2

Typo… “lots of impressive ECs”

3

I smell grade inflation from Calc. 2 As but 2 1s? Something smells fishy. SAT is low. GPA is good.

4

Junior year was stressful and I gave importance to the classes for which I didn’t have to murder myself trying to study for. (Lousy excuse, but I had family stuff going on too.) When it came up to the exam, my brain shut down. I was so frazzled after the Chemistry exam (day before Calculus) that I left my wallet at Jack in the Box. Knowing my math capability, I should’ve taken the AB exam (what most of the seniors did), but my teacher urged me to try BC. I saw him during summer and personally apologized for failing his exam. It was also the first year that BC had been offered at my school.
Sorry for the drawn out answer. I just know too many people that beg teachers for extra credit and care nothing for the subject and so I feel I have to defend myself. My grades may have been for my effort and sporadic success, especially when compared to the rest of my peers whom of which didn’t take the class seriously. The pass rates at my school aren’t stellar.

5

A few things to keep in mind:

  1. ELC doesn’t guarantee you admission into the UCs you apply to. Although a disproportionately large number of ELC applicants get into each UC (because they are top 10% of their class), all ELC does is guarantee you a spot in an alternate UC (usually Merced) if you do not get into any UC that you apply to.
  1. Ok, I can understand that this is the first year that BC was offered at your school. but is that really an excuse to completely bomb the test? You can put family things under extra info if it prevented you from doing things. Unfortunately, red flags will go up for grade inflation in that class no matter what.
  2. Are you taking only 4 classes senior year?
6

What major? If engineering, SD, LA, and Berkeley are all reaches. If anything else, get your sat up to a 2000 and I think you’ll get into all of them.

7

My “safety” UC is Riverside. My high school is (sadly) generally academically underwhelming and so I was wondering if the context of my academic career would be of any value to the top-tier UCs? Or is it more test-score oriented, even if it’s the best that the students at a given high school could achieve?

Thank you for warning me about the calculus score looking really weird. I do plan on explaining what led to that score on my application. No, it’s not an excuse to fail the test, but math isn’t my strong suit by any means. However, classmates with similar test scores and grades in my class also received 1s on that exam. I wasn’t an outlier.

Senior year I will be taking 5 classes, 6 if my (family) situation allows me to take AP Spanish Language. I still need to complete my district’s PE requirement, but I hadn’t listed it since it’s not A-G.

8

I was thinking of the cognitive science major. I was pushed in the math direction although I’m a language/social science person.
With a higher SAT score, would I make the fit for UCB or UCLA?

9

@treehugger24 Your GPA is stellar. I wouldn’t worry about it. If your SAT score is competitive (2150-2200+) you’ll have a good a shot as anyone else. If life allows you to take your Spanish class, it will bump up your course rigor. In the additional information section, I would advise you to put down the fact that it was your school’s first year teaching Calc BC and any other information that you feel fit to decrease your performance. However, I would not use the whole “two AP tests back to back” excuse. Kids do that all the time: I sat next to a guy in my AP Chem class during the AP test, and he was taking 7 APs. Bless his heart and soul. From what my college counselor told me, UCs like to see people who take initiative with their families, even though they may cut back on a few ECs at the moment. It shows the whole “I care more about the group, less about the unit” thing, you know? I say turn this experience into a meaningful essay (Use it for prompt one to describe your world or prompt 2 to describe your experiences) or if you can’t put it anywhere else, put it in additional info.

10

@MegaMetalHead I don’t think that’s a good statement to make: “you’ll get into all of them”. It’s too broad, and UC admissions are putting the pressure on kids. First of all, the good ol’ “UC curse” likes to kick in. It’s very rare (I use this term loosely) for kids to get into both UCLA and UCB. It rarely happens in my school. A 2000+ SAT is very standard for UCB, so you need something a lot higher to be considered very competitive. The OP is guaranteed bottom 3 UCs, but much less can be said about the top 3 (flip of a coin), but who knows?

11

@michelle426 Thank you for your insight! I’m worried about my SAT score because I don’t know if that was at the lower or higher end of my capability. Having the June SAT with the printing error didn’t help me with determining that.
I’ll be sure to address anything like that. 7 APs would’ve been the death of me. Euro by itself nearly finished me off.

12

@treehugger24 Have you tried the ACT yet? Maybe take a few subject tests to give your app some “umph”? If finances are a concern, maybe just try to nail the SAT.

13

I think you will be ok, you might get extra point because you go to a low performing high school. High GPA. Just don’t apply to any major too competitive. I don’t think Cognitive science is a competitive major. UCs discount SAT because it’s not fair for low income students.

14

Work on your SATs… Do not write your essays expecting to get pity points… Be yourself… You may get in into your dream school… UCI is an extremely good school for engineering. Best!

15

@michelle426 I haven’t tried the ACT yet, but I might. My friend received a significantly higher ACT score when compared with his original SAT score (like 400 point difference). Any subject tests would have to be either social science/english… I suck at math.

16

@DrGoogle Lots of low-income friends received fee waivers for their SATs though, so I don’t see why it would be a disadvantage. Fee waivers for the PSAT too.

17

@quintosol Thanks! Not applying for engineering though lol
I’m not one for pity points. Everyone’s been through things. Some more than others, but still. I’m sure that people with far less opportunities than I have done achieved more.

18

@treehugger24 I realized after I posted that you were after cognitive science… My bad. Your summer job threw me off :slight_smile: Good luck!

19

The disadvantage is not in the fee waiver but because kids from high income households tend to do better in SAT. Starting with their parents education, hence the high income.
It’s not rocket science. My kid started reading wsj when she was younger than 2, ok she was reading it upside down, but I still have a picture of her so that’s why I bring it up. She developed a love of reading, or wanting to read whatever the heck mom was reading. Needless to say she did very well in SAT.

20

Hmmm, is your high school competitive? Because UC acceptances are based off of high school context. So if, generally, students at your high school are on a lower academic standard than you, you will have a good chance of getting in. If not, then chances are it will be very hard for you to get into the top tier uc’s. Also, how is your uw GPA 3.975 if you’ve never received a B? LOL But very good gpa (i’m jealous) and decent extracurriculars. My sat score is around the same as yours haha, and I’m taking october as well. I think you have a strong chance at all them except UCB and UCLA, which are reaches. Chance me back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/18717519#Comment_18717519