<p>Just that hyphenated word tells me the odds are against me and that I need to really work hard. </p>
<p>My 3rd year, last year's GPA was around 3.8 and my total of all three years is 3.5 because my first two years were pretty poor. This year I have four AP classes, two honors and Art...heheh, and my goal is to have only As and Bs, mostly As. My GPA should be 3.8 or 3.9, right?
My first two years were poor with Mostly B's and one or two Cs and As but I heard there was something where the UC colleges only took you last two years?</p>
<p>For extracurriculars, I honestly haven't done much except over 5 years of martial arts and 3 memorable years of snowboarding. I've never won anything, so I don't know if it's worth mentioning but I HAVE done something. In school, I took track for two years and MAY take it again but I am in no way an athlete and I have never taken any leadership roles.
For volunteering, I haven't done much as well but my mother is trying to see if we can get volunteer hours from the time I volunteered at the Humane Society. If I get those hours, it would certainly be over 100 hours.</p>
<p>My SAT score is not the best; it is 1700 mostly because my English skill are not very good. I have been working on improving it and I am aiming for over 2000, for which I will have to retake this October.</p>
<p>Because my record only grazes the box, I need to rely on my personal statement but what do you think I should do to increase my chances of getting into UCLA or the like?</p>