UCLA applying to College of Letters and Sciences

Finally found the right forum for this! I’ve posted this same thing around, but never in this forum. I’ve heard a few varying opinions, but now that I’m posting in the “correct” place, what say you guys? Here’s the original post:

Hi Everyone! I’m new to CC and I’ve tried posting this twice now, but I’m not sure I’m posting it in the right place. Hopefully this time it’s correct.

UCLA is my dream school. I’ve wanted to go there since I was 14. However, I know this is one of the most competitive public schools in the country. While I do believe I meet their criteria in some regards and not really in others, you can never be sure. For those of you who would know, I’m going to put my information down below and ask: what are my chances of getting in? Simple as that.

My GPA per public California school calculation is somewhere between a 4.1 and a 4.5 (calculating that thing seems like a nightmare and I’ve only tried it once). My weighted GPA will be a 4.07 going into the admissions process, while my unweighted will be something around a 3.9, probably slightly above. My SAT score is a 1950: 700 Reading, 550 Math, 700 Writing. As you can tell, I am NOT a math student and all the studying in the world has never been able to help me. I will omit my ACT scores from the admissions process seeing as I have never been successful on that test, but my score is a 26. Per California Law, since my mother became disabled serving during the Bosnian conflict, I will have my tuition waived at UCLA. I am out of state, living in Georgia.

I am the head delegate of my school’s Model UN team. I have won Outstanding Delegate/Delegation in that competition four times. I am a two-year-going-on-three Service Council representative at my school. I have played varsity tennis for two years and organized my school’s blood drive. I am a member of NHS and was my school’s nomination for the social studies section of Governor’s Honors. I also have a handful of other academic achievements that would be gratuitous to list here.

I have taken the following Honors courses: Chemistry, Geometry, Algebra 2, Precalculus. I have taken the following AP courses: AP World History (4), AP English Language and Comp (anticipating a 3 or a 4), APUSH (anticipating a 5), and a College Course on Chinese Communist History that is factored into my GPA as an AP course. I will take AP Macro, AP Comp Gov’t, and AP Literature next year, along with a college course on Contemporary Issues in Education.

So, do I have a shot?

I encourage you to somehow figure out your GPA in order to prove, at least to yourself, that you are capable of handeling the challenges you will face in the cut-throat competitive environment of your dream school.

I don’t know a lot about veteran’s benefits so I could be wrong, but I believe the full tuition waiver for California public schools is only for CA residents. Here’s a link to the Cal Vets site that discusses it. Maybe there’s something else that helps cover tuition for OOS students?

https://www.calvet.ca.gov/VetServices/Pages/College-Fee-Waiver.aspx