***uc san diego class of 2023 decision thread (stats only)***

Accepted
ACT 27
OOS
Good EC’s
Public High School

Accepted
SAT:1380
GPA: (UC weighted) 3.96
In State
Major: Biochemistry
Took 7 AP classes
8 honors classes
Extracurriculars:
President of French club
President of Relay for Life
M.e.s.a member
Advisor for a technology group in school
Robotics member
Volunteered to tutor at a elementary school
Participated in a hospital volunteer program during my junior year

Comments: my unweighted gpa was not spectacular but my extracurriculars and my SAT helped me out. Also my essays were pretty good

Hi everyone! I am so glad that I am back in this site seeing all folks are waiting for the result with anxiety. I was transferred to UCSD in Computer Science major. Got rejected by UCLA and waitlisted in UCB. If you have any question, simply reply and I may answer if I have time.

Good Luck!!

Last year, my decision come out in the afternoon on April 26th.

Decision: Waitlisted

Objective:
ACT (breakdown): 34 (35 English, 35 Math, 33 Reading, 32 Science)
SAT II: Math 740 Physics 800
Capped Weighted UC GPA: 4.21 Uncapped GPA 3.88
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): School doesn’t rank
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH 4, AP Lang 4, AP Physics 1 5, AP Physics 2 5
IB (place score in parenthesis): None
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP Calc BC, AP Gov/Econ, AP Lit, Spanish 3, Computer Game Design,
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Acting in school plays as well as in various summer productions out side of school for all 4 years, Playing Piano for more than 10 years, various school clubs
Job/Work Experience: None
Volunteer/Community service:
Volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club junior and senior summer about 50 hours all together,
Part of a club that surfs with underprivileged kids, but only had about 10 hours
Joined Key Club senior year.
Volunteered to help my piano teacher teach younger kids.
Summer Activities:
As I mentioned, Boys and Girls Club volunteering
I did theater camps and acted in their productions
Essays (rating 1-10, details): I’d say 8, but Idk for sure. I wrote one really good essay about how I grew up having Autism. I talked about how this made it hard to make friends and made me struggle in school. The other were decent but not great. I wrote one about how much I enjoyed acting and volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club.

Supplemental Review or LOR submission: No

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Bioengineering
Alternate Major: Undeclared Social Science
State (if domestic applicant): California
Country (if international applicant): N/A
School Type: Public
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: $100,000-$150,000
ELC Eligibility: Top 9%, making me ELC eligible
First Generation: No

Reflection

Strengths: ACT for sure, Weighted GPA
Weaknesses: Unweighted GPA, rigor of classes (my school offers like 25 AP classes and I only took 8-9)
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Idk
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted: SDSU, UC Riverside, CSU Chico, Santa Clara University, CU Boulder, University of Oregon, UCI, Boston University

Waitlisted: UC Santa Cruz, Cal Poly SLO, UC Davis

Rejected: UCSB, UCLA, UCB, Pitzer College, USC

General Comments: Why does it seems like the UCs are waitlisting so many people this year. I’ve been waitlisted at three so far.

Decision: Admitted

Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Human biology

Academic stats:

Comments about course load (including senior year): full ib diploma, 4 HL Mandarin, Bio, Chem Econ 2 SL Eng A, Math
SAT (total and sections): 1530, maths 790 eng 740
SAT Subject Tests (if any): Math 2 - 800, Chem - 780, Bio M 770, USHistory - 690
AP exams (scores in parentheses):
IB exams (score in parentheses): HL Mandarin (7), Bio (7), Chem (6), Econ (6), SL Eng A (6), Math (7)

Subjective:

For the following, indicate level of recognition or award (e.g. local, state, national, international) and/or leadership roles:
Extracurriculars: Fencing (province), Piano (national/kind of international), MUN (national), student gov president (local)
Job/Work Experience: subtitles and translation
Summer Activities: summer school in Berkeley, Harvard, USC

Essays (topics, details): topics mostly on extracurriculars and personal battle with anxiety issues
Letters of recommendation: no recs.

Demographics

Country (if international applicant): China
High school type: IB certified school

Gender: F
Race/ethnicity: Chinese, 100%

Applied for need-based financial aid?: N/A
Pell grant eligible?: N/A

Highest level of parent education: Masters
Living with both, one, or no parents?: Both
Relation to alumni of college: N/A

Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: other UCs, some other T30, waitlisted by UCBerkeley and UCLA

Decision: Admitted

Major: Accepted as a Studio Art major in Muir, switched to Literature/Writing.

Stats:

UC Unweighted GPA: 4.00
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.29

Rank, percentile rank, or percentile range (if available): Rank 1 (but we only have 36 seniors;:wink:
Comments about course load (including senior year): 2 Honors (not UC approved), 4 APs Junior Year, 5 in Senior year. (4/9 APS were art or writing related). We have 7 courses/year at our school.
SAT (total and sections): 1390, 760 R/W, 630 Math, 21/24 Essay
SAT Subject Tests (if any): None
AP exams (scores in parentheses): U.S. History (5), Biology (4), English Lang/Comp (5), Studio Art- Drawing (4)
This year: Statistics (TBD), English Lit/Comp (TBD), Environmental Science (TBD), U.S. Government (TBD)

Major Awards : Going to these International Tournaments/Competitions called ‘Far East’. Have attended these competitions in Drama, Art, and Tennis, but no major awards.
Won a regional drawing contest once.
Essay Scholarship winner.
String Orchestra KIMEA bronze metal

Subjective:

Extracurriculars: Varsity Tennis (9, 10, 12), Drama Club (Lead Actress), Junior Officers (Public Affairs), NHS (Treasurer), SNHS (Secretary)
Job/Work Experience: Voice Actress
Volunteer/Community service: Not much.
Summer Activities: None

Essays (topics, details): Creative Side: Talked about my reason for making art., Talent/Skill: Be able to Empathize and use emotion in all my activities, What makes you a strong candidate: Talked about life as a military child exposing me to many cultures, and how I plan to apply diversity to my work, Subject that interests you: English Language and how it can create worlds that can be seen differently with every person (like art)

Demographics

State (if domestic applicant): California, but going to a DODEA school in Korea.
High school type: Public?

Gender: Female
Race/ethnicity: Korean/Mexican

Applied for need-based financial aid?: Yes
Pell grant eligible?: Yes (~$4800 grant)
Blue and Gold eligible

Highest level of parent education: Masters
Living with both, one, or no parents?: One
Relation to alumni of college: None

Reflection

Strengths: Minority, Decent essays, Non-competitive major, straight A’s. A good art portfolio. Going to a small school made it easier to be a competitive applicant over peers and made it easier to get officer positions and make the varsity team.
Weaknesses: Very average-low math SAT for a STEM-based school. No incredibly impressive ECs or course loads.
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I think that being an artistically-oriented applicant helped me stand out among a largely STEM applicant pool and made my ‘average’ stats less of a concern.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Accepted: UCI, UCSC, RMU, U. of San Francisco, UC Davis.
Rejected: Stanford, UCLA, UCB.

[aB][asize=4][acolor=#008000]Decision: Admitted[/color][/size]**

Merit scholarships awarded (if any): none

Major (and division if applicable) applied to: Human Biology

Academic stats:

UC Unweighted GPA: 3.79
UC Capped Weighted GPA: 4.07
UC Fully Weighted GPA: 4.34

Rank, percentile rank, or percentile range (if available): top 20%
Comments about course load (including senior year): AP bio, AP stats, AP spanish lang, AP US govt, philosophy, theology, health (yes as a senior lol), and dance (full 8 courses)
SAT (total and sections): 1490-best in one sitting, highest math-770, highest English-770
ACT (total and sections): 32 composite: 33 english, 29 math, 35 reading, 30 science; all 8’s on writing.
SAT Subject Tests (if any): 590 us history, 660 chem, 660 math II (very bad, ik)
AP exams (scores in parentheses): 5: world history, english lang; 4: US history, chemistry
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP scholar with honor, some miscellaneous awards for dance competitions, award for excellence in geometry class freshman year

Subjective:

For the following, indicate level of recognition or award (e.g. local, state, national, international) and/or leadership roles:
Extracurriculars: competitive dance (20+ hours a week), model UN (2 years), science Olympiad (2 years), school student ambassador (3 years), NHS (2 years)
Job/Work Experience: freelance tutor for middle and high school students
Volunteer/Community service: 2 service trips and over 100+ hours of community service in HS
Summer Activities:internship at kaiser medical, summer school, service trips

Essays (topics, details): 2 of my essays talked about dance and its role in my life. One specifically dealt with how being on a team has made me a better leader and the other about having to step away from it being a large part of my life but not my career goal. My third essay talked about my passion for biology and medicine. My final essay talked about what I’ve learned about giving back to the community specifically while on a service trip, discussing how easy it is to make a positive impact on someone else.
Letters of recommendation: none because UC application

Demographics

State (if domestic applicant): CA
Country (if international applicant): 'murica
High school type: private, catholic

Gender: female
Race/ethnicity: white

Applied for need-based financial aid?: yes
Pell grant eligible?: no

Highest level of parent education:bachelors
Living with both, one, or no parents?:one
Relation to alumni of college: none

Reflection

Strengths: my SAT and ACT scores definitely were high points in my application. I also feel 3/4 of my essays were pretty strong.
Weaknesses: my grades dipped junior year and definitely dipped my GPA, I didn’t feel my extracurriculars were very strong/ showed a definitive interest or commitment to much in school
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: I honestly don’t know, with UCs the process is very random. I feel my passion and field experience in the medical field definitely helped me as I displayed a strong sense of what my goals and aspirations are, giving a clear plan of action in my application. I further talked about how UCs could further this goal specifically, so I think that helped. UCSD is known for its biology and my strong passion for it I believe landed me a spot.
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: accepted: Syracuse, UCSC, U rochester waitlisted: NYU, william and mary, UCLA, U michigan, carnegie mellon, northeastern rejected: boston u, stanford, UCB, northwestern, U penn

General Comments: Honestly like I said, UCs are a bit of a shot in the dark, you may get in at one and not the other and it make no sense at all. Although its hard to understand (I didn’t when I was in your place), you will end up where you need to be. Don’t procrastinate on your application!!