I am currently a high school junior in the North Las Vegas CCSD county. I was wondering what my chances are to get into UCs are. I know I’m way below ivy league standards so I won’t question that. My dream college is Berkeley but I want to have my options open so please leave suggestions and please state if they have a good computer science program :)!
My current stats are:
Unweighted GPA: 3.62
Weighted GPA: 4.163
UC unweighted GPA: 3.79
UC weighted GPA: 3.92
SAT: Not taken. Going to take on November 2nd. Use 1480 as estimate?
ACT: Not taken. Will take soon too to see how it is.
Class rank: 17 of 531 (top 3%)
Household income: 24k after taxes
Parents: Divorced
APs:
AP human geography (9th grade)
AP world history(10th grade)
AP US History(11th grade)
AP Chemistry(11th grade)
This is the most my school offers at my current grade level. Senior year has many more AP opportunities and I plan to take advantage of it.
EC:
Was in FCCLA freshman year. I wanted to try it out but it was not for me.
JROTC all years. Currently a Cadet Sergeant First Class. In charge of a platoon.
Color Guard since sophomore year. Co-captain of C team first year and captain of B team this year. Will be co-captain of A team next year.
In NHS and trying to get an officer position.
In Key Club and trying to get an officer position.
In Investigative Journalism(we try to change the school in ways that we believe make it better) and will try to get an officer position next year.
I also want to start a club next year. Probably an SAT/ACT prep club or a coding club.
Have fee community service hours but am starting to rack them up. Will be helping at elementaries.
I donate to organizations such as Shade Tree, an organization that helps women and children whom were victims of domestic violence.
I plan to join swim team in hopes to learn how to swim. (Spring)
I plan to join bowling(Spring)
Valedictorian of 2017-18 stated that I have good chances of becoming captain of tennis next year so I will be trying that.
I desire to follow a computer science degree.
I am Hispanic/Latino who is raised by immigrants and will be the first generation to attend a university. 2nd to attend college in general.
Parents did not pass high school because of financial and personal reasons.
Question: Nevada is currently ranked second to worst with schools. Will that affect my chances?
Most kids at my school suffer financial problems. Does this affect my chances?
Would talking about my story as a shy neet boy turning into a leader who works hard as well as including my perspective of things such as work, the world, etc. Be a good essay? Give suggestions on essays too please :)!
First question: Can you and your parents afford $60K/year to attend a UC? UC’s do offer little to no financial aid (need based and/or merit) to Out of State applicants.
CS at the UC’s is probably the most competitive of majors.
Based on your UC Capped Weighted GPA, here is the Freshman admit rates. These are not major specific.
You might want to consider some of the Cal States which can cost between $35-40K/year again with no FA for OOS students and the WUE schools where you get discounted OOS tuition.
No, my family cannot afford 60k/year. In fact, I was prepared to go in debt for a while. I’m not wanting to go to a UC simply because they are ranked highly and I feel the need to get into a good program- it is, for the most part, for pride and enthusiasm. College is ~4 years of your life like no other(if you don’t attend again) and I want to look back and feel accomplished to the full extent. Not only that but I want to not just go to a school and wait to get out- I want to go to a school that I feel pride to be able to attend. I am fully aware that it almost does not matter what college you go to because jobs will take graduated as long as they have a degree but I’m not someone who settles for good enough. I want to be able to excel beyond “good enough”. I will be talking to my TRIO councillor soon on plans to see if I am capable of doing what I want without risking too much.
As for scores, are these really the scores? For The SAT at least. I always see videos of people with a 1500+ SAT score and a 34 ACT score. Also, if you do the proper studying, are these scores hard to get? My PSAT score was a bit higher than the average and I didn’t study jack. Not to mention that I took my classes less seriously during that time.
I do understand that debt is a horrible thing so if you have any suggestions for being able to pay a bit of college off, I’m more than willing to listen!!.. read, technically. I know scholarships are an obvious way and grants but is there more than that? Also if scholarships and grants are the only way to go, do you know any that are pretty good but less well known?
I greatly appreciate your effort for replying :)!!
Reality is that you as a student can only take out the following in loans: Freshman year- $5500, Sophomore year- $6500 and Junior/Senior year- $7500. Summer earnings can help and if you qualify for Federal aid, you could get the maximum Pell grant of $5900, but still a drop in the bucket compared to the UC costs. The rest of debt/loans will be on your parents from Parent Plus Loans, savings, current earnings etc…
I think swallowing your pride when you are over $200K in debt is worth looking beyond these schools. With thousands of colleges in the US, you can get a great education if you are willing to broaden your outlook.
My husband and I are products of our local state university like the majority of friends and family. We are all doing well in life with no college debt. It is always nice to have a dream, but moving back home to live with your parents, barely making a living due to paying off a large amount of debt for the next 20 years, is not a good life.
For the UC’s, unless your parents are wealthy or they have a large college fund, these schools are unaffordable. UC’s are California public schools and most of their FA is centered on need. CA residents that have need are given Federal and State help (Cal Grant for CA residents only) but are still required to make a personal contribution to their education. Yes the UC’s offer some merit scholarships, but again for higher amounts there is a need component and only for in-state residents.
Take a look at the WUE schools. There are some very good schools including UC Merced and several Cal states where OOS costs would be far less than the UC’s noted.
Looking at the UC Merced WUE page, it lists the WUE cost of attendance at $42,046 per year, compared to $63,745 for out of state students. IMHO you should not borrow even half of this to attend university, and it might not be possible for you to borrow enough to pay this much. I have heard of a few cases of students borrowing to attend the first two years at their “dream” school, then running out of money and not being able to borrow enough to finish and having to withdraw with a large debt. A dream can become a nightmare.
Frankly, unless your non-custodial parent is going to pay a LOT of your cost of attending university, or you get a really good scholarship (which I think is very unlikely being out of state), I think that you need to look for less expensive options. You might look at the CSUs that are part of the WUE, but I think that you need to seriously consider your in-state options.
Finding a school with a great co-op program helps pay for college. Our family’s college costs were half what we expected due to D landing lucrative engineering internships that not only paid well but meant most tax years we only ended up with one semester of tuition to pay for.
Household income: 24k after taxes
Look into privates (or state schools committed to meeting need) that meet full need. Avoid for profits.
Start teaching yourself code and participate in competitions.
Here is a scholarship estimator for Arizona State that you can plug in different gpas, SAT scores and class rank to see estimates of potential scholarships, might help you stay motivated https://scholarships.asu.edu/estimator
This is the year to take the qualifier for being considered for National Merit “Registration for the test is by high school rather than individual student. Interested students should see their counselor at the beginning of the school year to make arrangements to take the PSAT/NMSQT at the school in the fall.” http://www.nationalmerit.org/s/1758/interior.aspx?sid=1758&gid=2&pgid=398#enter
"For the 2017–18 award year (July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018), the maximum Federal Pell Grant award is $5,920. The amount you get, though, will depend on
your financial need,
your cost of attendance,
your status as a full-time or part-time student, and
your plans to attend school for a full academic year or less. "
I may be wrong, but I’m guessing you’re thinking UCs because you know your instate options are terrible and you’re one of the best students in your district so UCs are great universities you’ve heard of and aren’t Harvard. And therefore I’m hoping that “UC” for you is really a shorthand for “a really good, welll-funded University that will challenge me”.
With a 24k income, you cannot attend a UC (these are funded by California resident for California residents; OOS students are only welcome insofar as they can be full pay.) No bank will loan 250k to a family that makes less than 30k a year (nor should they).
The good news: there are terrific schools that will be interested in you AND meet need. In other words, if they admit you, unlike UCs, these universities will make sure you can attend by providing you with sufficient financial aid.
Forget WUE, not good for EFC zero.
There are elite schools out there you’ve never heard of that have lots of money - the first source for scholarships is the colleges themselves, but not all colleges are created equal : some provide you with the financial aid you need (and the richer the college, the more they have to give), some do so only for a small number of people, and yet others don’t provide anything. However the colleges with the based need-based aid are all highly selective (many, as much as or more selective than the UC’s). Some private colleges will prioritize a student from an under represented state such as Nevada, but you’ll still need high scores. Obviously it means " prepping" seriously for standardized tests - don’t assume you’ll do well, remember most break their nose in these. You cannot afford to go in unprepared, because you get fee waivers for exactly two SAT sittings, two SAT subject sittings, and two act sittings. (Most really competitive students start practicing sophomore year or earlier, and take the test three or four times.) If your first SAT is in November, ten days from now, make sure you prepare and practice every day, using Khan academy.
Yes, 1450 or 1500 is really high and really rare. To give you an idea, about 5% get to 1400, about 2% get to 1450, about 1% get to 1500. In other words, 95% test takers never get to 1400 no matter how hard they try and how confident they feel.
Don’t wait till next year to start a club. Start it now. Don’t just donate to a cause: do something for it. Note that having a part time job all year long is considered a strong EC.
Your profile will be of interest at many elite “meet need” schools - I’m thinking of Grinnell, Colby, Skidmore, Kenyon, Whitman. But you need strong scores and continue with leadership ability. Finally, you’d need to raise your uwGPA to 3.7, 3.75 - should be doable from a 3.62.
Check out Questbridge (scholarship program) and Berea College, too.
As all of the others have posted, you won’t be able to afford the UC’s.
You have to amass a quarter of a million dollars to attend for 4 years. Please do the math:
Freshman year loan: $5500
Sophomore year: $6500
Junior year: $7500
Senior Year: $7500
That’s $27K for the four years. There is no financial aid funding for OOS students at the UC’s Your parents won’t be able to take out loans for a quarter of a million dollars because the banks will not lend that amount to neither you, nor your parents. It is based on collateral and ability to repay. Do not drop this debt on your parents.
To the UC’s, this is a moot point. They cannot admit based on ethnicity.
You can apply to the private schools in California. California private colleges are very strong.
After all of the information provided here about funding and the UC’s, is there a reason you didn’t get this information from your guidance counselor?
You are absolutely correct. This is my reason for wanting to attend a UC. It actually amazed me how accurate you got this but I assume that it’s a pretty common thing so I shouldn’t be too surprised but, nonetheless, I was. You’ve completely changed my perspective on things and I think I will take your advice. Thank you very very much for your reply. I have taken screenshots of your whole reply just because of how informative it was. I will keep trying hard and look into the colleges your recommended me as well as try to look at some on my own. Do you know any colleges in California that meet those details that you mentioned? Most preferably North California. I want to stay on the west coast and want to stay close to home because I would feel bad about leaving my mom alone so I want to stay close to my home state so I don’t have to waste too much money to travel there. I understand that I shouldn’t let these factors control my choices but, as much as I try, I’m still pretty stubborn with some things.
I just went to a store that I applied to to ask how my application process is going and they said they would call me back on Tuesday so, hopefully, that comes out in my favor.
As for starting the club, I don’t have much time for more clubs. That is as far as I know. Some clubs that I attend require me to meet attendance requirements which means that I may not be able to go to one club one week and then another the next week. I’m hoping to find an advisor to stay after school on a Friday that will be beneficial in an SAT/ACT prep club. Chose this club because I find the path to studying for the SAT and ACT interesting and wish to help others in my school achieve their goals for these tests. I don’t know how creating a club works so I’m not sure if this type of club can go through as a real club with officer positions.
For my GPA, do most colleges allow you to retake classes to increase your GPA? I know UC’s only let you if you had a grade lower than a C- so I’m curious to know if other colleges do this.
Thank you again for you marvelous reply!! You may have just saved my future!! Along with all these other people but your reply stood out to me the most
I tried talking to my guidance counselor but she didn’t give me much information. And my TRIO advisor is not available and she doesn’t even know when she will be available besides that it will be sometime at least before winter break
Yeah, you’re not going from a 1080 to a 1480 in one test. Luckily your a junior and you’ll have numerous chances to improve your SAT score by the time you apply to colleges. Good luck!
@Fll15599 :
Since you’re a senior, you need to focus on the SAT and ACT. Register for both, in November AND December. Since you’re lower income, you get fee waivers for those tests, so ask your guidance counselor (or TRIO conselor) TODAY. And study every day for them, prioritizing those even over homework. Doing well on those tests is going to be crucial and it’s very late for you to be taking them, locking you out of ED1/EA. Fortunately if you do well you could apply ED2 somewhere.
Keep in mind that you come from a lower performing school system where many students don’t reach 1000, so 1480 is very optimistic - go to khan academy, take a full test there, and report your results on this thread. THat’ll be your basis and you’ll have to work from there to bring that score up. Standardized tests simply mean the same type of questions is repeated over and over in each test sitting so once you can recognize the categories and the type of formulas or skills you need to use, it gets better. However you need to practice A LOT to get to that point.
ED is a binding system: you run the NPC, the net cost is affordable for your family, you sign an agreement with the college that if they admit you and they’re affordable, you’ll go, and in exchange they give you an earlier answer and priority for admissions.
OOOPS, sorry, you’re a junior! so you still have some time. Make sure to make those tests count and prepare well. NEVER go to a test sitting “just to see”. Don’t waste time or money.
Along with all these other people but your reply stood out to me the most