I’m an Asian, female student living in California. I would like to apply to Stanford, UC Irvine, UCLA, or UC Berkeley.
My Grades: 4.1W, 3.7 UW.
I got a 2300 on the SAT, with 800 in math and 750 for the others.
APs: Biology, European History, Art History, Calculus BC, US History, Lang, Chemistry, Statistics. I got all 4s except for a 5 in Lang.
I have almost no extra curriculars aside from volunteering for 25 hours at physical therapy.
Subject Tests: 770 Bio, 770 Math 2, 750 Chemistry
Do I have any chance of getting into those schools? Are there any dates I should know? Any other colleges I should apply for? Anything I should be doing right now? Any help in general would be much appreciated.
At this point, I’m very concerned that I haven’t done much of anything and that my academic performance was underwhelming. Thank you for any assistance.
I would still apply UCI and one of your Reach schools such as UCLA or UCB. I would also consider UCD, UCSC and UCR if you want a UC. Cal states mainly base their acceptances on GPA and Test scores, which you have covered, so include Cal Poly SLO, CSULB, SJSU and SDSU. You can look at some privates such as LMU, USD, Pepperdine, Occidental, Santa Clara, but EC’s are important for the privates holistic review.
I do not think you have 0 chance at any of these schools due to a lack of EC’s, but admissions will wonder if all you did was study and do nothing else.
I echo Gumbymom. I think the complete absence of ECs, especially if you are a product of a reasonably affluent family or community, can set off warning flags at the most selective colleges, such as Stanford. Despite your impressive test scores, I suspect Stanford is out of reach, and Berkeley/UCLA are moderate reaches (depending on your UC-weighted GPA). I think most other UCs are well within reach, if not safe for you. The most elite colleges have thousands of high-stat students to pick and choose among. If you cannot justify the absence of EC participation with, for example, family responsibilities, they will presume that you were heavily tutored and coached. They want students who obtained those grades and scores while remaining active in their communities, because they want engaged community members on their campuses. Outside of the top handful, however, GPA and scores will prevail. Have you considered traveling further. McGill, for example, is surprisingly affordable in relation to US colleges, and bases admissions almost exclusively on stats. Washington U in St. Louis is also known for liking high test scores. UCSB, within the UC system, is known for weighing SAT/ACT scores more heavily. I also think UCI is pretty safe for you, but would add UCSC or SJSU/SDSU as absolute safeties.