I wanted to ask what my chances of getting into UCLA is. I’m pretty anxious about the whole matter and need a second opinion.
Basics
First Gen Kid
Hispanic Female
Urban low class setting
Majoring in Chemistry
out of state
4.2 Weighted GPA
3.4 Unweighted GPA
1170 SAT score (I know which is low. Which is why I’m anxious)
APs: Government, World History, Chemistry, English Literature, English Lang, Stat, Human Geography, Psychology
Extracurricular: Varsity Lax, Varsity Swim, Volunteer tutor at local library and elementary school, School Jazz Band and Dance team, Student Body Government officer for four years
Extra information: I don’t know if this helps but most of my time is spent taking care of my niece due to family/parental issues everyday before and after school from about 5 until about midnight when I’m not doing after school stuff.
You realize that the UC’s are public universities funded by the state and its taxpayers? So you would not receive any state aid and would be obligated to pay full fees of $60k per year.
If you are from an urban, low-income setting, you would need to be able to pay these fees.
If you qualify for federal funding, the most you would receive is $5900 per year from Pell.
The UCs cannot use affirmative action to admit students, so race/ethnicity is not relevant.
As public universities, the UCs are obligated to instate students, first.
Sorry, but chem is an impacted major and, honestly, your SAT of 1170 is nowhere near what instate students are scoring.
Forgot to add: If you are OOS and want to come to California, you could look at private universities since their costs are the same for everyone.
Additionally, they may need someone with your background and give you scholarship money to cover the high costs of attending. However, your test scores need a major boost if you want to compete for scholarships.
You need a new college list as others have said you can’t afford UCLA.
If you are a senior it is too late to improve your admissions chances for anywhere. Have you applied in state anywhere? Have you applied to any private schools which are generous with financial aid?
If you are a junior, you can improve your test scores and keep your grades up.
In either case, the additional information section of the Common App to explain your childcare responsibilities.
UC’s only use 10-11th grades for the a-g course requirements and the cap weighted gives you up to 8 honors points in the calculation. For an OOS applicant, this means only AP/IB or DE courses taken 10-11th grade. HS designated courses will not get Honors points.
@TheApplicant3967: No one purposely crushes an applicants dream. All @“aunt bea” is doing is stating the facts and unfortunately the facts are this. OOS applicants will be close to full pay for any of the UC’s so around $60K/year. Race/Ethnicity are not considered in UC admission decisions. First Generation can help but will not override lower than average test scores and the financial issue. UC’s are great options for in-state applicants that require need-based aid and are reasonable in costs even for full pay residents.
First calculate your UC GPA since UCLA will look at both capped weighted and fully weighted.
Then find out how much your family can contribute to your college education and do not count on any aid from UCLA.
I am assuming you are a Senior so retaking the SAT is not an option?
With well over 100,00 applicants, a below 20% acceptance rate and a cap on OOS students, UCLA is a Reach school unless you are being recruited for a sport.
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 (capped weighted and not major specific:
UCLA: 14%
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above (capped weighted):
UCLA: 54%
@TheApplicant3967,
I think the dream is a nightmare when you realize that: you work extremely hard in your HS classes, take a long time on essays, pay application fees, push the “send” button and find that after all those efforts, you can’t afford to go.
A lot of my former students applied to a number of schools because there appeared to be some kind of prestige bragging rights when application times loomed. This was against the recommendations of the GC, I worked with, at my school. Parents seemed to be out of the loop.
The GC and I would talk about students who were low income, non-athletes, who were applying to these really expensive OOS schools. All of the students started wearing sweatshirts of where they hoped to be admitted. Then in March, they would come crying that their part-time job money was spent on applications, only to realize that their parents didn’t have the resources to pay.
(They couldn’t even read the financial aid letters indicating how much in loans their parents would have to take and the GC would have to explain the math to them as well as to their parents).
So, yeah, being realistic, and prepared sometimes crushes dreams, but reality will save you from future nightmares.
Well, financing the education is a separate matter that you’re going to have to figure out eventually… but as for improving your chances, it depends on what grade you’re in. If you’re a junior or below, you’ve got some time to make things better. You’re really going to have to find a way to make that SAT score better. I would certainly retake it. You should also really try to keep your grades up. Although your weighted GPA is decent, your unweighted GPA is on the lower end imo. And for the UCs that cap GPA (luckily UCLA isn’t one of those UCs), your UC GPA is going to be lower than your weighted (most likely). Your extracurriculars look pretty solid, but unless you’re bringing those stats way up, you might need to do something more extraordinary. However, this may be hard to do now since with your high school experience rapidly coming to a close. You’re gonna have to make your essays killer—maybe you should emphasize your background and struggles, which could help you a lot in the holistic review. I think UC Berkeley claims to have a very holistic review process, although I’m not certain. But even with great essays, getting into these schools is a reach. You should definitely consider lower UCs or other schools, too.
But at the end of the day, I’m also just a student and not an admissions officer, so my advice is just from my own brain. Good luck to you!
@“aunt bea” I agree with you except your statement about chemistry being impacted affecting freshman admission is false. Ucla college of L&S admits by school not major so major choice does not affect admission. Only the professional schools take major into account. Chemistry is impacted but that admission takes place after you are a student and complete the pre reqs needed to declare.
@Mchavy Your SAT score is low. Have you tried the ACT? Some students score much better on that test, plus they have a science section which can really boost your composite score. If your ACT is good, then schools probably won’t care about your SAT.