I have an unweighted GPA of 3.64 and UC weighted GPA 3.85, CSU weighted 3.89. Taken good enough AP/honours classes.
Have an ACT score of 33. What are my chances to get into UCSD/UCI/UCLA or CalPoly?
Forgot to mention that I am planning to apply for Engineering specially Computer Science.
UCI: Match/High Match
UCSD: High Match/Low Reach
UCLA/ SLO: Low Reach/Reach
Alhough ACT is competitive, GPA is a bit low. What about CS related EC’s? Many of these schools have a <10% acceptance rate for CS. If you have aattend a competitive HS, then your GPA may be overlooked. Write some stellar essays and your chances could improve. Good luck.
Thanks. I was Teachers Assistant during Junior year in CS dept and also taken computer science classes including Data Structures… Also what you mean by High Match/Low Reach?
SLO I meant CalPoly… What are my chances?
SLO is Cal Poly SLO. High Match/Low Reach means that depending upon your EC’s and essays (excluding SLO which does not consider essays), the school could be a High Match (not exactly a match but not a huge reach) or it could be a Low Reach. As stated your ACT is very competitive, but your GPA is below 4.0+ which is the average for all these schools. UC’s and SLO are very GPA focused so this may hinder your chances. Some competitive HS schools will have grade deflation which could explain your lower GPA, so that is why I am hedging my bets with your chances. I do not know how you stack up against your fellow HS students and how your essays will be received by admissions.
CS and most engineering majors will be very competitive, so you want to have better than average stats. Your uW GPA is also on the low side. To be competitive, for SLO/UCLA/UCSD, you want an uW GPA of around 3.8-4.0. I do not know if you have any other schools are on your list and you do have a decent chance at UCI, but you need to have some solid matches and safeties. I suggest you consider UCSC/UCR/SDSU/CSUF/SJSU and Cal Poly Pomona to name a few.
I think you have low chances at UCSD and UCLA even for non impacted majors. You maybe ok chances for UCI and UCSB and possibly SLO.
I’m sorry to say this, but I think all the schools you’ve listed are reaches. The UC’s care tremendously about your GPA; the average Riverside last year was 3.77 (which is kinda high for the level of prestige the school offers in my opinion). I don’t agree with @DrGoogle and @Gumbymom that your chances at UCSB and UCI are ok; I think you should look for some CSU’s and maybe some privates. The reason I say that is because I was an applicant this year and got rejected from Irvine with a 4.0ish UC GPA and a 2130. The only UC I got into was UCSB, and when I went to their orientation, I believe the Dean of Engineering said that over 50 percent of the engineering applicant had over a 4.0 (or something like that… I don’t remember what he said exactly). I got waitlisted at Davis, Irvine, and SD only to be accepted off the waitlist at Davis. Cal Poly is also a reach as their average engineering GPA was about 4.1.
I suggest you try SJSU as it has a good engineering department and a lot of mediocre students get in their engineering programs. Maybe look towards some privates like SCU or Pepperdine.
Jack, even match schools means you get accepted and may not get accepted, it means 50% chances and not 100%. There was one poster posted he got accepted to UCLA with much lower GPA than the average. He was Asian but decided to focus on the essays.
Jack, does “reaches” mean the chances are very less, that is what I understood from the rest of your comments? Do you think it will make a difference if I apply for early decision in CalPoly?
ED may help at SLO, but only ED if SLO is your #1 choice and are willing to attend regardless of the financial package offerred. You will have to make a decision by January if you ED and will not have your admission decisions for the UC’s until March.
Reaches means less than 25% chances or lower.
@DrGoogle @Gumbymom Yeah my apologies. Op, can you please list some of your ec’s to help us better chance you.
Yes, reach means your chances are slight (low). I agree with gumbymom. Only apply ED if you are 100 percent sure you want to go to SLO.
I am planning to write ACT one more time to improve from 33. Will it make a difference?
SLO is difficult to predict. My daughters friend was rejected there with 34 ACT and almost perfect GPA. I believe she had 4.56 GPA weighted. I don’t know what it wants really. SJSU is better in this aspect, more predictable.
SLO admissions criteria is very different than the Cal States and UC’s. They calculate an MCA point score on each applicant which is used to determine acceptances. If copied this off the SLO thread posted by a frequent SLO poster @eyemgh that explains the MCA points. 4500+ points is competitive. CP GPA is the CSU GPA calculation plus 9th grades.
https://secure.csumentor.edu/planning/high_school/gpa_calculator.asp
The maximum GPA they will use is 4.2, even though you can have a higher calculated CP GPA. A 4.2 is worth 2250 MCA points. Thus, multiply your CP GPA by 535.7 and you’ll get your MCA points for GPA.
The next biggest thing is test scores. The odd thing, likely because they wanted it to total a nice round number, is that the max score is 1650, even though the max SAT score is 1600. Multiply the total of your best SAT CR and your best SAT math by 1.03125 to get your MCA test points. If you took the ACT, they convert and vice versa.
The third largest section is the class rigor score, worth 750 points. In this section you get zero points for meeting the minimum admission requirements and adders for more than the minimum. The bonuses in order of power are (min semesters/max total semesters/bonus per extra semester/total possible bonus): math 6/10/125/500 (note: stats and finite do not count), lab science 4/8/50/200, English 8/10/50/100, foreign language 4/8/25/100, visual performance 2/4/25/50, no bonus points for social sciences or electives. As with GPA, you can actually score higher than the maximum, but 750 is the most they will count.
Finally, work and ECs, worth 350 points. Work (hours per week/bonus): 0/0, 1-5/20, 6-10/40, 11-15/60, 16-20/80, 21+/100, add 50 points if work is major related. ECs (hours per week/bonus): 0/0, 1-5/30, 6-10/60, 11-15/90, 16-20/120, 21+/150, add 60 points for leadership role.
There you go. Good luck.
GPA = 2250
Test = 1650
Class rigor = 750
EC / Work Hrs = 350
Subtotal for accademic points = 5000
Parents education = 600
Veteran’s benefit = 700
Zip code= 500
High school = 700
Parent employed by CPSLO = 700
Subtotal for Demographic points = 3200
Max attainable points = 8200
Scores are capped at 5,000
Gumbymom, I think my daughter’s friend would have at least 4650 for academic point. I counted 0 for here EC.
But what do you mean by scores are capped at 5000, please elaborate.
I copied MCA score point information from another poster. The maximum points attainable is 8200 but the capped amount of points is 5000 so even if you have over 5000, 5000 points is what they use. I guess it is similar to the capped weighted UC GPA.
It sounds like she didn’t score well in Demographics.
@DrGoogle: To be truly honest, I really do not think SLO makes all decisions based on MCA points. Take for example my niece whom applied ED for Environmental Earth Science this past admission cycle and was accepted. She had a 3.43 CP GPA, ACT of 30, 6 C’s on her transcript 9-11th with a downward grade trend. She happened to apply for a major with over a 50% acceptance rate. Her MCA score was barely 3800 yet she was accepted and will be attending. Intended major makes a huge difference on your chances.
Thanks Gumbymom. Want to ask one more question, sorry for asking again. Since I am not sure whether I can make it to UCSD (UCLA & Berkely is nearly impossible), I am thinking between CalPoly and other UC colleges. Wondering whether I should consider applying ED in CalPoly for a better chance or try my chances in UCSD/UCI/USC. Based on what I read, CalPoly is good for engineering. What do you think engineering in CalPoly vs UCI or UCSC?