UCLA/CAL Chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I posted this on the UC thread but haven’t recieved a response so I’m asking here now-

I’m a senior entering high school and will be completing an application of my own in a couple months

ACADEMIA

Freshman year-

Spanish 2 (A/A)
Anatomy/Phys (A/A)
Honors Chem (A/A)
Honors Alg 2 (A/A)
Honors English 9 (A/A)
Forensics (speech and debate class) (A/A)

Sophomore year-

Spanish 3 (A/A)
AP World History (A/A)
AP Chemistry (A/A)
Physics (A/A)
Trig/Pre-Calc (A/A)
Honors Eng 10 (A/A)

Junior Year-

AP Physics C (A/A)
AP Biology (A/A)
AP Spanish (A/A)
APUSH (A/A)
AP Calc BC (A/A)
AP Eng Lang (A/B)

Senior year schedule next year will be-
AP Physc
APES
AP Micro/Macro econ
AP Lit
AP stats

and a college level math class (mulitvariable calc if I’m not mistaken)

Also I will be taking an ASL class after school in my senior year (more on that later).

TOTAL UC GPA: 4.7 (my district closed down the portal to view the GPA so I’m approximating here)

Class rank 8/7476

TEST SCORES:

SAT-1960
ACT-30
SAT MATH 2- 710
SAT BIO E- 740
SAT CHEM-790
SAT World History-700

AP WORLD: 5
AP CHEM: 4

Can’t quite view the others until this friday

EXTRACIRRICS

I didn’t cure cancer or anything but I’m much bigger on volunteering than anything “competitive”

Science Olympiad- I went from B to A team in my high school career and won various regional medals, nothing quite spectacular on the state level unfortunately

Math Team- Again, not too many results besides the occasional high school integration bee etc.

Speech/Debate- I did this in freshman sophomore year but quit in junior because I couldn’t stand the team culture (vehement competitiveness etc.)

Ronald McDonald Charity house volunteer-I help familes who have children in hospitals but can’t access their homes because they live too far away. Usually the job entitles sitting front desk but also cleaning and driving a golf cart between the hospital and the house. I’ve also participated in fundraising events, such as concerts raising little more than $200. Since 9th grade.

-The reason I took AP Spanish was because of my work here (LOTS of spanish speakers), should I mention this on the additional comments section?

Break the Barriers- This local organization is basically a gym for the disabled or sickly. I mainly assist elementary school kids from impoverished backgrounds as a swim coach but on other days I help kids and adults with down syndrome in dance/tumbling lessons. I’m working with the founder to start up a class to combo arts and crafts and potential science experiments. I’m fairly positive that this will show good commitment towards a cause

  • I'm taking ASL next year as a senior to help communicate with the deaf kids that attend the class

Tutoring- Although I don’t do it as much right now, due to a lack of clients, I have been tutoring math as a paid job. Right now, it filling in for others but I have had 7th graders I tutored for entire semesters.

SUMMERS:

Between 9th-10th I did a fast paced physics course for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
Not much happened between 10th-11th
This summer I’m gonna be getting an internship for clinical research at a hospital

MAJORS:

Biochemistry
Bioengineering
Biology

and some other life science related majors if the pop up.

Stuff to point out:

-I’m in state
-Volunteering is most important to me but my only problem is that I don’t have an awful lot of awards and honorable mentions to attach to myself. How detrimental is that to me?

-Although I haven’t quite started on my essays yet, I plan on writing about my time at BtB, hopefully if I get the science class rolling I can mention that. Also the challenges of tutoring younger children.

-Alot of my extracirrics show that I work with children or those that are significantly younger than me. This particularly because I have to watch 2 younger siblings of my own all the time and thus have that knowledge under my belt.

-I may or may not be shadowing various doctors some time between now and application season.

2

Test scores are too low. I calculated your cap weighted GPA for you, it’s 4.29. Your fully weighted I’m assuming is 4.7. Needless to say, stellar GPA, but do you have any AP scores to report? It’s just that these are used to sniff out grade inflation. If you get your test scores up, you’re set. Unless you blow your essays. But then again, bioengineering is a tough major, and even with stellar stats people do get rejected. Please be wary.

3

AP scores are a split between 5’s and 4’s so no inflation. Bioengineering is my 3rd choice.

4

@cheekylittleduck In that case, just get your test scores up (aim 2100+ to be competitive) and nail your essays. Good luck.

5

I agree with above posters, your Test scores are a bit low for UCLA/UCB. If you can get your SAT score up to 2100+ range and ACT around 32+, you have a very good chance. You are competitive applicant for the mid-tier UC’s such as UCSB/UCD and UCI and should consider these schools if you are unable to increase your test scores. Good Luck.

6

Any engineering is difficult at UC’s since they are impacted majors, and you will be admitted for your major, so the review process looks for experience in the fields. This allows them to choose the best students for this major with the limited space they have. Biochem and biology are in the college of Letters and Science, where students are not admitted based on major, but instead to the college of L&S as a whole. Here, you will get in with the stats and EC’s you have. But for bio engineering, I would raise the test scores.

7

Alright, well Biochem/biology is my first/2nd choice regardless. However, if bioengineering is my 3rd choice, am I still a competitive applicant to the letters and science?

8

Your major doesn’t matter at this point because those test scores won’t get you in.

The competition to just get into those schools, regardless of major, is tough.

Grades don’t match your SAT scores. Try some of the CSU’s as well.

I don’t see any team sports. The UCs tend to like organized sports as an “extracurricular”.

Too much competition for “becoming a physician”. Everyone going into those schools thinks they will be the next doctor.

9

Try to get your ACT up to a 32.