UCLA or UCB?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Last post lol, thought because i couldn’t get a response in the UC Forum that I would try here instead.

White male - junior
Come from a very prestigious public school in New Jersey, approximately 80 in the nation according to Newsweek
I transferred to the school my freshman year as a tuition student, so I was completely new to the area and my classes I had taken in middle school were far less advanced than the courses the typical student was taking at my age, so I needed to do a lot of catching up. (Which is why my courseload my freshman year is completely different than that of my Junior year)
Intended Major: Double Major with Business and Spanish

GPA: 98.2059
SAT: 1990 (CR: 670 W: 660 M: 660 - This was first time taking the SAT in October, and just took this at the November test date and felt much better about this test and my essay, and will be taking the old version in December and January as well) - expect to have at 2100 at least
SATII: None taken yet, but plan to take Spanish, U.S. History and maybe Chemistry at the end of this year

Classes:
*Freshman - Advanced Alg 2 (A), CP Global Issues (A), Spanish I (A+), Honors English 9 (B+), CP Biology (A)
Sophomore - Honors English 10 (A+), Honors Chemistry (A-), Spanish II (A+), CP U.S. History I (A+), Advanced Probability, Statistics, and Trigonometry (A+), Advanced Geometry (A)
Junior - Honors Precalculus, Honors English 11, AP Chemistry, AP U.S. History, Honors Spanish 4
Senior (Intended) - Honors Physics, AP Literature and Composition, AP Comp Sci, AP Calc AB, AP Spanish

**My previous school didn’t offer a spanish program or a higher math program, so I needed to take basic level Spanish and Math that year. Also, I was told that it wasn’t a good idea to take too many honors classes in this school upon arrival, so I took classes that were too easy. Note the gradual moving up in each class
*Took Spanish III over the summer

Extracurriculars:
National Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society (next year)
Varsity Soccer - 10,11,12
Freshman Soccer - 9
JV Winter + Spring Track/Field, 9
Stand with Camden (volunteer service club centered around paying the tuition of a particular student in a charter school, and also is involved with other service opportunities in the city of Camden) - 9,10,11,12 (plan to hold leadership position next year)
Leo Club (also volunteer service but centered around the immediate community around the school) - 9,10,11,12
Interact Club - 9,10,11,12
Lifeguarding at a local Swim Club – 10,11,12
Junior Urban Medical Program (JUMP) @ local medical univeristy – 10
Club Soccer - 9,10,11,12 (Captain 10,11)

Community Service:
Peer Tutoring in Spanish and History - 10,11; not sure how many hours
Volunteer @ Hospital of University of Pennsylvania - 9,10 (Team leader - 10); 96 hours total
Miscellaneous service activities in the community; approx. 100 hours so far (still have rest of Junior and Senior year to go)

2

Until you get your most recent SAT score, unable to chance. You do look qualified so far but so repost when you get your SAT score.

3

Is your question where should I apply to?

4

Nah, it was just a general chance for both of the schools

5

With your current SAT score and being OOS, I’d say your chances are not good.

Did you complete the F requirement-one year of visual or performing arts in a graded classroom?
The UCs won’t additionally “weight” those honors courses for OOS students, so your GPA may be lower than what you’d expect.

Will you be able to afford the UC fees? That’s $55k per year to OOS since there is little to no financial aid for OOS students at a California public school.

6

UCs only look at sophomore and junior year grades and ignore pluses and minuses, so they consider you to have a perfect 4.0 GPA sophomore year. At UCLA and UCB a 4.0 is a huge admissions boost, so if you can keep that up junior year you have a reasonable chance, especially if you get the higher SAT scores.

If you don’t keep up the 4.0, I agree with aunt bea (both on admissions chances and her other very helpful comments).

For reference, UCLA admits about 60% of applicants with an unweighted 4.0. (http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_fr/Frosh_Prof14.htm)

7

@“aunt bea” Like I said, it was only my first SAT. I just took the November one, and will be taking the December and January as well. I expect my score to be at least a 2100 at the end of it.

And my school requires 2 credits of visual/performing arts and 2 credits of practical arts. My freshman year I took Public Speaking and received an A and took American/International Cuisine and had an A+, fulfilling one credit of performing arts and one of practical. This year I am taking a photography class for the other practical arts credit, and senior year I will take a film class to fulfill the visual/performing requirement. I’m not sure if that’s what you meant, but I didn’t put them on my schedule because they weren’t core academic classes.

Also, yes, I would find a way to pay the tuition if I did go. This was more curiosity than anything, but thank you for your response.

8

According to the UC admissions page, Public Speaking is not considered a visual/performing arts course. You also need to take 2 semesters (2 credits) from the same area see below: Copied directly from UC admissions a-g course page:

  1. Both be categorized within the same arts discipline of dance, music, theater or the visual arts.
  2. Demonstrate a sequential relationship of some sort, whether by being tied together because the one semester-long course is a stated prerequisite to the another semester-long course, or because one semester-long course reasonably serves as a good foundation to another semester-long course.

So based on your post, you need to take 2 semesters of Photography to fulfill the UC requirement “f”.

Also “f” classes are core classes for the UC’s.

Other options to fulfill the requirements:

Students are expected to complete a single yearlong VPA course to satisfy the “f” subject requirement, but they may also fulfill the requirement by completing two semesters of sequentially related and approved “f” courses within a single arts discipline.

UC-transferable college courses or satisfactory scores on AP or IB exams can also be used to fulfill the visual and performing arts subject requirement.

9

Update: I just received my November scores. I got a 2090. 720 CR. 690 M. 680 W.