<p>Asian-Indian(1st gen)
High school senior
Male</p>
<p>Class of 2011
college Unweighted: 3.59
College Weighted: 3.99
Rank 43 of 563 ish</p>
<p>AP's: World history, us history, (calc ab, and physics-taking right now)
Sat 2: math:670 chem: 490
ACT: 25</p>
<p>Many recommendation letters and some Extra curricular activities, not too much though.</p>
<p>What UC's do u think I should apply to?
And as what major, I want to go onto medicine, and I know any major can be considered pre-med, but what should I choose? I know bio is good, but its impacted, so should I still select bio or something else?</p>
<p>And should I apply to USC's BA/MD program..do I have a chance of getting in there? Anyone have a link or know the stats of getting into the ba/md at usc?</p>
<p>You don’t have much of a chance at USC or any of the top UCs. Your scores are just far, far too low. I know that Berkeley/USC/UCLA all have average ACT scores around 30. Your GPA is also really, really lacking. All these school require a bit above a 4.0.</p>
<p>Your closest fit would be the midtier UCs (Davis, Irvine, and Santa Barbara) but they’re all low reaches. You’d need to raise your ACT score around 2 points to be a match. You could always safety Riverside or Santa Cruz though. If you’re ELC, you’re guaranteed one of the lower UCs.</p>
<p>You might try applying to UCD. They have great science and veterinary programs. It would give you a good basis for going into med school. It should also give you a chance to prove that you can handle the work.</p>
<p>@ original poster
your scores/gpa are not super low. I think that you would have a fairly good chance at getting into the middle tier UC’s (Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara) If you go on **************.com you can see that your ACT score is within the middle range for these schools. Also, I know some people who got into UCLA with lower scores than you. It all really just depends on what they’re looking for and your personal statement etc… Also things like did you pass the AP tests and stuff like that.
=)</p>
<p>There is some leapfrogging at UCLA (as well as at many schools probably including Cal), under holistics, but more exception to the rule. </p>
<p>Unweighted gpa at UCLA is ~ 3.81, and this includes some who graduate from under-performing hss top 10% with uw 3.7’s (student takes hs to best of its resources). A 3.59 if hs is rated “10” (excellent) by UC won’t help, but prbably need near perfect or perfect jr and sr grades a-g. Bad grade in one course will probably cause rejection even if overall is still o/s.</p>
<p>If w gpa is < 4.0, probability of acceptance goes down significantly also.</p>
<p>Then add scores: Great scores won’t help in admittance under above, but pedestrian will definitely hurt.</p>
<p>Georgia Girl, the vast majority of Berkeley applicants submit SAT rather than ACT. The composite ACT score for Berkeley is 30 not 28. </p>
<p>Application to Berkeley and UCLA varies from college to college and major within the college. For example, it’s harder to get into eng’g at Berkeley than into L&S. And in the College of Engineering, it’s harder to get into Biomed or EECS than, say civil engineering.</p>
<p>RML, you should wait until Cal releases its next CDS form. Preliminary releases are often quite different from the final version, and depending on the school are to be taken with a grain of salt. And, fwiw, I fail to understand why such minute differences are worth debating ad nauseam! </p>
<p>In the meantime, the last commonly accepted statistics are available here:</p>
<p>While first gen is a plus factor for UC, it is of little help at 'SC which loves, loves high test scores. Without your test scores, 'SC is a high reach just for admissions, which would liklely be Spring if you are successful. The joint ba/md program is not even worth the app essay.</p>
<p>The top 3 UC campuses are high reaches; even Davis is a reach, IMO. You will be accepted into UC, but most likely the lower tier. The real question you have to address is whether you are ready to swim with the premeds at the big research Unis…</p>
<p>your scores/gpa are not super low. I think that you would have a fairly good chance at getting into the middle tier UC’s (Davis, Irvine, Santa Barbara) If you go on **************.com you can see that your ACT score is within the middle range for these schools. Also, I know some people who got into UCLA with lower scores than you.</p>
<p>It is irrelevant that his scores might be within the mid-50 range for mid-tier UCs. The UCs get soooooo many apps, that they have to routinely reject students within the mid-50-range (they’ll even reject students in the top 25%).</p>
<p>And…more importantly…his scores are at the BOTTOM of the mid-50 range for UCI and Davis…which even further decreases his chances.</p>
<p>These schools are ONLY admitting about 45% of their applicants!</p>
<p>*I know some people who got into UCLA with lower scores than you. *</p>
<p>This isn’t really relavant. UCLA and other schools do have some low scoring students, but they have been accepted because they’re athletes or some other special reason…like they’re top 4% of class for GPA, but having low scores (which happens in Calif inner-city schools). That’s why UCLA’s mid 50 range does dip down to ACT 24. </p>
<p>A student who doesn’t come from an underprivileged area/school is not likely going to get the nod from UCLA with an ACT 25 without being some super athlete or something.</p>
<p>OP – be careful. You don’t pick med school; med school picks you. A 490 on your Chem SATII does not bode well for two of the pre-med weed-out courses: Chem and Organic Chem.</p>
<p>Beyond this, Med school necessary MCAT scores map pretty well to the top 1-2% (closer to 1%) of SAT scorers out of HS. </p>
<p>Perhaps another area of health care services is worth looking into.</p>
<p>Back to your original question, USC is probably about 3-5% chance for you, while the mid tier UCs: UCSB, UCI, UCD are about 50% for you.</p>
<p>QW553, RML wasn’t making up the data. According to Berkeley’s CDS that xiggi linked, the 25-75 percentile range for ACT composite is 27-32 for 2009. </p>
<p>DunninLA Quote: *OP – be careful. You don’t pick med school; med school picks you. A 490 on your Chem SATII does not bode well for two of the pre-med weed-out courses: Chem and Organic Chem.</p>
<p>Beyond this, Med school necessary MCAT scores map pretty well to the top 1-2% (closer to 1%) of SAT scorers out of HS. *</p>
<p>I agree that there is a correlation between high MCAT and high SAT/ACT scores. </p>
<p>However, I’ve seen the ACT breakdown of the OPs ACT, and he’s strong in math. His composite is low because English isn’t his first language. </p>
<p>I think for him to have even a chance at doing well in a pre-med curriculum, he needs to avoid the cut-throat atmosphere that exists in many UCs amongst those wanting to go to med school.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I’d agree if I understand what you’re saying…</p>
<p>I would think doing well on MCAT would be more relational to how well the student did in his or her premed classes, generally life science, which I would imagine be totally different than the SAT, not only in topics tested, etc. </p>
<p>I know of plenty of people who weren’t all that great on SAT prior to college, but did well on MCAT and were admitted to med school because they found the more narrow scope of college majors, specifically premed more to their calling in addition to buckling down.</p>
<p>If you’re intimating good test takers, I’d somewhat agree.</p>
<p>How else does one explain UCI which is one of the better premed schools in the state, but not having particuarly high scores. UCI is better in premed than higher scoring USC.</p>