What are my chances in getting into UCLA

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Los Angeles
1

I will be a senior in the 19-20 school year and wanted to know what my chances are in getting in UCLA. My focus on my reseme is surrounded by the humanities and my planned major is psychology/something in the humanities.

Freshman year - straight a’s, w/ honors english taken
Sophomore year - A couple B’s, rest a’s. took AP Euro. Honors English, and Math 2 Adv
Junior Year - new school w quarter system. First semester, straight A’s both quarters : Psych, AP Lang, Art, French 3
2nd semester, AP Chem with a 80 both quarters, Math 3 with a B and B-, APUSH with an A both both quarters, Piano with an A both quarters
Senior year planned classes - AP Psych, AP Lit, Computer Science, AP Stats, AP Gov, AP Econ, French 4 Honors, Physics

My E.C are:

Freshman year-
-Kids Helping Kids club: 10 hours
Sophomore year -

  • Mentors in action (tutoring elementary kids): 15 hours
    -Tutoring fresh and soph who need help: 20 hours
    Summer going into Junior year-
    Attended a NSLC medical conference at UCLA

Junior year-
-Tutoring and teaching elementary children in disadvanted, low income areas comprehension and reading skills with a reading organization: 8 hours

Summer going into senior year
-Volunteering and working a 3-4 hour shift every week at a hospital where I will hopefully shadow a doctor/psychiatrist. At the least I will take on hospital responsibilities
-Volunteering at a library where I will be apart of a teen advocacy group where we focus on targeting teenagers, ex: holding destressing activities for teens during finals week

Senior year-
-I will be starting the first club NAMI (national alliance on mental illness) club on my campus, where i’ll be president. Bring awareness to mental illness on campus, provide resources to students, hold fundraisers, etc etc
-Continue volunteering at hospital 3-4 hour shifts a week
-Continue volunteering at library 2-3 hour a week probably
-Continue teachings kids how to read 1 hour week
(I plan on taking the SAT multiple times, but I’m guessing my highest score will be a 1300-1350)
(Range of GPA from freshman to junior year, weighted is 4.00 to 4.25)

I go to a competitive high school where there’s a lot of crazy smart kids, but majority of their resumes will have stuff around Biotech and science awards, so I’m wondering if my humanities centered resume will stand out. Please tell me what you think my chances are and any suggestions to make my resume look better

2

Idk if this matters but I’m a female and black btw

3

I’m also in the top 10% of my class

4

I think you have a good chance of getting in. Continue to work on getting As. Your current SAT score is ok but a higher one would definitely increase your chances. Are you planning to apply as a pre-med or just psychology? Your senior year schedule looks rigorous enough, and you seem to be doing a lot of long-term extracurriculars (giving back to the community). As to how to stand out, the key will be in your application. Essays are a great place for you to shine and be unique. There is a place to explain any special circumstances on the UC App. Good luck!

5

That’s what I wasn’t sure as applying on, because in the long term I want to be a psychiatrist. Would you recommend applying as pre-med or psych? I heard that applying into impacted majors lessens your chance in getting in/less popular majors increases your chance, is that true

6

I would recommend you apply as a psych major because your GPA/test scores are low for premed. What I mean is that if you indicate you are a premed you will be competing with a lot of other students with almost perfect test scores and GPAs, which would lesson your chances of standing out in comparison. I wouldn’t take that risk. You can major in anything and still be on the premed track once you get in. Med schools don’t care what your actual major is as long as you do the right things in college.

7

UCLA should be considered a Reach school regardless of your qualifications but you are on the right track but with a very low acceptance rate, make sure you have a balanced college list which includes some solid safety and match schools. What are your test scores?

  1. UC’s do not consider Race/Ethnicity/Sex in their admission decisions
  2. You need to calculate your UC GPA based on10-11th grades and post all 3 UC’s which are Unweighted, Capped Weighted and Fully Weighted.
    Here is the calculator: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Also you need to make sure that all “Honors” classes are UC approved for 10-11th grades so you get the extra weighting. If you are CA HS student, you can look up your HS’s approved courses on this link:

https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist

  1. Pre-Med is not a major so you cannot apply as a “Premed Major”. If you want to major in Psychology, UCLA does not admit by major into the College of Letters and Sciences where the Psychology major resides.

Some statistical data for UCLA:

2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCLA: 9%

2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:
UCLA: 41%

2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCLA: 4.23

2018 Data:
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:

UCLA: 1340-1540

25th - 75th percentiles for ACT:
UCLA: 31-35

8

[quote]
@peach0v0 writes: I would recommend you apply as a psych major because your GPA/test scores are low for premed. What I mean is that if you indicate you are a premed you will be competing with a lot of other students with almost perfect test scores and GPAs, which would lesson your chances of standing out in comparison./quote There is no such thing as a premed major so you can’t apply as one

(2) UCLA admits students to the College of Letters & Science without looking at their major. You compete against everyone who has indicated a planned major that is in L&S. It doesn’t matter if you list Econ, Psychology, Biology, etc. Nor do they care if you have checked a box somewhere that says you are interested in a medical career. You all fall into the bucket of L&S applicants.

9

@mikemac I know that premed is usually not a major. For most schools it is more of a premed track. Some schools do offer premed as a major though. Either way, for a lot of schools there is an option for you to indicate if you are interested in being premed, which is what I was referring to. Yes, and I also know that UCLA admits people without looking at their majors because I applied there myself. Obviously OP is not only applying to UCLA and nowhere else. Other schools will definitely look at major selection.