UCSD chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
1

I know UCSD is a difficult school to get into, so I wanted to get the most honest opinions.

Race: Asian (Japanese and Chinese…I’m also Filipino, Puerto Rican, Portuguese, and Hawaiian but I’m not planning on putting this down)
Gender: Female
State: Hawaii
Financial: will definitely be applying for Financial Aid. UC schools are crazy expensive.

GPA: 3.9
SAT: 1730- 620 writing, 540 math, 570 reading (I understand I have to bring these up as these scores pretty much suck)

AP’s:

  1. AP United States History (3)
  2. AP English Literature and Composition (3)
  3. AP European History (4)
  4. AP English Language (currently taking)
  5. AP Psychology (currently taking)

EC’s:
-Vice President of Student Body Council [12]
-NHS [11-12]

  • Vice President of Japan Club [11]
    -Japan Club member [9-12]
    -Japanese Wizards Competition [9-11]
    -Robotics [10]
  • Yearbook head editor [11-12]
  • Basketball [9]
    -NASC award
    -AP Scholar Award
  • Volunteering at Pediatric ICU [11-12] [150+ hours] [4 hours a week]
  • leads worship in school chapels

All opinions, advice, and critiques are appreciated!

2

I’m in the same situation as you.

3

UCSD In-coming Freshman Stats for 2015:

UC GPA: 4.13 SAT: 2035 ACT: 30 are the averages. You can compare your Stats to these to give you an idea of your chances. You may also want to check the common dataset which uses unweighted GPA along with 25th and 75th percentiles for test scores.

http://studentresearch.ucsd.edu/_files/stats-data/common-data-set/c.pdf

4

As @gumbymom points out, your GPA and test scores, though strong, are significantly below the norm for UCSD.

You note you will need financial aid - you should know, that is virtually unheard of for OOS applicants to UCs.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply but, you should also apply to schools more likely to admit you. Perhaps UCSC, UCR - though none of them will be affordable.

You should look into some privates like USD and LMU as they are more likely to offer aid.

Also, look into WUE - a consortium of Western schools that offer discounts to residents of other Western states. Here’s a list of participating schools.
http://wue.wiche.edu/search_results.jsp?searchType=all

Good luck.

5

If you get your SAT score up a couple hundred points, I don’t doubt that you’ll get in. I’ve noticed that extra curriculars are what UC’s really look for, plus decent SATs. Shoot for at least 1900.