My GPA Unweighted:3.47
Weighted:4.21
SAT:1370
ACT:31
EC: Drumline Captain, Started my own Non-Profit for School Band, DECA Norcal
Entrepreneurship Champ, Jazz Drummer for 4 years, All-League Lacrosse Athlete
Work:Chipotle Grill 2017-18, Started Non-Profit
Ethnicity: Hispanic+Native American
First Generation
AP Scores: Euro 3 AP Calc BC 3, Bio 5, Language 5, US History 5
I plan on majoring in Neuroscience.
Schools I Wish to Attend: UPenn, Duke, Vanderbilt, Washington University at St. Louis, UCLA, UCSD, University of Southern California, UCB, Cornell, and Brown.
UC Capped weighted GPA and Fully weighted? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
CA resident?
Ethnicity/race not considered by CA UC’s.
Do you have tribal registry?
Short answer, the GPA is far too low to have a realistic chance to any of these schools. A weighted GPA only helps if you have an unweighted at or near 4.0. Also, the SAT/ACT is going to be below average. All of these schools have a 15% or less acceptance rate.
Your GPA is still on the low end, as well as your SAT. ECs aren’t really too strong either, with the exception of the nonprofit. Your ECs have not demonstrated any interest in neuroscience or any STEM fields. I suggest applying to some local state or community colleges.
Why I agree that your chances aren’t the best at those schools I think the community college suggestion is a bit drastic. I think there are plenty of 4 year schools you could get into.
There have been URM who got into WashU with a lower ACT, although with a higher UW GPA.
5s on AP Lang and Composition, Biology, and APUSH indicate that you have the ability/academic chops to do college level work and do well enough if you are accepted to any of your reach schools.
A lot of college classwork depends on the ability to apply/synthesize concepts instead of pure regurgitation and you appear to be able to do that. Especially since Bio and APUSH have very low percentages of test takers getting a 5.
No Dartmouth on your list? They do focus on Native American students IIRC.
If you are OOS for UCs, take them off your list since they are going to be expensive and offer no financial aid.
I absolutely think you stand a chance at those schools! You have arts and sports in addition to strong grades. Your SAT scores aren’t the strongest piece of your application, but they are respectable. You are an URM. You are first gen. You have some 5s on AP tests. Great accomplishments!
What concerns me is that all ten schools you listed are highly selective…with the possible exception of UCSD, and even that is pretty selective. I think you should pick your favorites from this list and then balance them with some match and safety schools.
Best wishes to you with your college apps!
Approximate acceptance rates at the schools you listed:
UPenn ~9%
Duke ~8.3%
Vanderbilt 9.6%
Washington University at St. Louis ~16%
UCLA 14.1%
UCSD 30.2%
University of Southern California 13%
UCB ~17%
Cornell ~14%
Brown ~8%
I don’t chance but I think your list is very aggressive for your academic stats. Being a URM will help but I would balance out the list with more safety/match schools.
Since you have not listed your UC GPA capped weighted, I am guessing based on your UW GPA that it is around a 4.0 to 4.1? URM status will not help at the UC’s and your test scores are on the lower end of the averages with exception of UCSD. UCSD is probably your best chance at a California UC but unless you are a CA resident, all the UC’s will cost your around $65K/year to attend. UC’s offer little to no financial aid to OOS applicants.
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 (capped weighted ) and not major specific:
If you are a CA resident, I recommend you add UC Irvine, Davis and/or Santa Barbara along with Santa Cruz or Riverside as possible safety schools. Hopefully you have identified 1-2 safety schools you plan to apply beyond the schools listed.
Dartmouth would have been a better choice since they have a mandate to take Native American students.
Since you are a CA resident, you should know that UCs can’t take race into consideration. Your best bets for acceptance are private schools and I think you are a better fit for private schools than UCs. Much better support for URM and easier class selection.
The schools you have listed are reaches for everyone, and extremely high reaches for someone with your stats, though your URM status will certainly give you a boost at most of the privates.
However, the suggestion made by a poster above that your academic record necessitates your focusing on CCs rather than on major universities is absurd.
The top 20s might be very “reachy” for your, but your stats are more than sufficient to get you into any number of fine private universities and state flagships.
My top three choices are UPenn, USC, and Duke, how are my chances for those three specifically, also I am adding Dartmouth, Tulane, and Middlebury to my list