I am a senior from a fairly competitive high school who applied for these universities:
UCLA
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
UC Irvine
San Diego State University
San Francisco State University
Cal Poly Pomona
Cal Poly SLO
I am an in-state applicant from California. Here are my stats:
Weighted and Capped UC GPA: 3.52
Unweighted GPA: 3.14
SAT: 1430
ACT: 28
Classes: 3 honors classes and 4 APs throughout high school, 2 honors and 2 APs during 10th and 11th grade
Extracurriculars: 4 seasons of cross-country, 3 seasons of track, and 1 season of lacrosse.
Ethnicity: White
Intended Major: Psychology
Do I have any chance of getting into any of the UCs that I applied for? Does anyone have recommendations for other schools I should apply to?
Thanks
Your competitive HS will be taken into consideration but the reality is that 6 of the 9 UC campuses have average UC GPA’s above a 4.0. Your SAT score is far better than your ACT score, so hopefully you submitted your SAT score. You seem to be very capable student, but unless you have some other extenuating circumstances which impacted your grades, most of the UC’s will be tough admits since they tend to be very GPA focused.
Although your personal insight essays and EC’s will all contribute to your chances, your GPA will tough to overcome.
2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCB: 4.23
UCLA: 4.23
UCSD: 4.16
UCSB: 4.13
UCI: 4.13
UCD: 4.11
UCSC: 3.96
UCR: 3.81
UCM: 3.71
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.40-3.79 (capped weighted) and not major specific:
UCB: 1.8%
UCLA: 2.2%
UCSD: 7.2%
UCSB: 10.1%
UCI: 11.1%
UCD: 16.6%
UCSC: 43.8%
UCR: 63.3%
UCM: 88.7%
High Match: Santa Cruz
Low Reach/Reach: Irvine, Santa Barbara and San Diego
High Reach: UCLA
For Cal Poly SLO, Psychology is a competitive major and again your GPA is well below the averages for the College of Liberal Studies which was a 4.04 last year. SLO will be a Reach school.
The rest of the CSU’s admit by Eligibility index and major, so your EI calculates out to 4246.
SDSU: Match/High Match since Psychology is one of the most popular majors
Cal poly Pomona: Match/Target
Other than SFSU, I see no other safety school. I would add San Jose State and Cal State Long Beach for more Target/Match schools along with UC Riverside which has a very good Psychology program.
Best of luck.
2017 UC admission rates by UC weighted-capped GPA:
Campus 4.20- 3.80- 3.40- 3.00-
higher 4.19 3.79 3.39
UCB 43% 13% 2% 1%
UCLA 47% 12% 2% 1%
UCSD 84% 39% 7% 1%
UCSB 82% 45% 10% 1%
UCI 94% 52% 11% 3%
UCD 90% 56% 17% 4%
UCSC 93% 76% 44% 14%
UCR 98% 90% 63% 23%
UCM 98% 96% 89% 57%
Based on the above, all of the UCs on your list should be considered reaches at a 3.52 UC weighted-capped GPA.
Your CSU eligibility index = 3.52 * 800 + 1430 = 4246.
SFSU is not campus-impacted, but (pre-)psychology is an impacted major: http://www.sfsu.edu/~prospect/apply/impacted.html . While CSUs without campus impaction will admit to non-impacted majors at 2950 eligibility index, impacted majors may require higher thresholds.
In terms of other campuses, consider UCSC, UCR, and UCM for more likely UC admits.
SJSU admitted frosh psychology applicants at eligibility index 3850 for fall 2018, but the threshold may change this coming admission cycle: http://www.sjsu.edu/admissions/impaction/impactionresultsfreshmen/
Thank you!!
If your UC capped and weighted is indeed 3.52, you have little to no chance at the UCs that you listed. You’ll want to apply to UCR and UCM as well, as you’ll have a better shot at those schools.
You do have a good SAT score, so you index (4246) probably will be good enough to get you in most of the CSUs save for CPSLO, but @Gumbymom will give you better advice.
San Diego State University - probably,
San Francisco State University - almost certainly
Cal Poly Pomona - almost certainly.
The others on your list are pretty unlikely. I’d add one or two of the following:, CSULB Sac, Sonoma or Chico so you have several options from which to choose.
Good luck.