Hi! I am currently a junior in high school. I experienced lots of hardships freshman and sophomore year- my alcoholic father passed away in the beginning of sophomore year. As a result of this, I had a lot of difficulties keeping up with my grades and I currently have a 3.0. By the end of junior year I will most likely have around a 3.5 - 3.6. I understand that this is not a competitive GPA , but I do have other strong areas to support it. I am taking very challanging classes. I am a member of the medics club, API Club, Yearbook Club, Spanish Honors Society, Newspaper club, among others. I have been in the medical pathway program, TRIO Talent Search and AVID for 3 years. I currently volunteer at the UCSD hospital and I will have more than 300 community service hours. I have already written my personal insights and will continue to improve them but they are pretty strong essays. I come from a very low income area. What are my chances of getting accepted into a UC? I am hoping to apply to Santa Barbara, San Diego, Berkeley, and Irvine. It might be a stretch but there’s nothing wrong with trying… My GPA is very low but like I said it is that low because I underwent many difficulties that came with my fathers illness and later, death. Thanks.
Calculate your UC/CSU weighted-capped GPA: http://www.csumentor.edu/planning/high_school/gpa_calculator.asp
Check http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1903428-faq-uc-historical-frosh-admit-rates-by-hs-gpa.html for information on past admission rates by GPA (reply #4 for a handy table). But note that if your intended major is an oversubscribed one, admission to the major will be more difficult.