What are my chances to these UC's? (A sad story of a desperate & hopeful reformer)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm the honest average joe nobody hoping to get into a decent UC. =&lt;/p>

<p>**SAT I<a href="last%20taken%20June">/b</a>:</p>

<pre><code> Critical Reading - 540

Math - 630

Writing - 570

Essay - 8

</code></pre>

<p>Total - 1740 (Raised from 1640 in Jan 07. I hope to raise my SAT to 1800, hopefully 1900+ this Nov, but it is really hard to tell.)</p>

<p>**SAT II<a href="last%20taken%20May">/b</a>:</p>

<p>Chem - 560 (give up on Chem... maybe I should take again?.. I've forgotten everything by now)
Math - 570 (shall retake this Dec)</p>

<p>**HS GPA UW - 3.4
HS GPA W - 3.7</p>

<p>Extracurriculars**:</p>

<p>sports:</p>

<p>HS swim team (winter season and summer since 2nd grade)
club swim team (JV in 06, varsity spring 07/08)
wrestling team (winter 07)
taekwondo, black belt 2nd degree (6 years)</p>

<p>music:</p>

<p>middle school school band, saxaphone (1 year)
private guitar lessons (06-08)
mtac certified piano lvl 9
mtac honors piano recital 2005
mtac piano senior award</p>

<p>leadership/clubs/volunteering:</p>

<p>Interact
Key Club
Vietnamese whatever
Crab Feed activity
Christmas in the Park
Homeless shelter
(40+ hours)</p>

<p>jobs:</p>

<p>lifeguarding</p>

<hr>

<p>I realize I majorly screwed my chances at UCB and UCLA. </p>

<p>What are my realistic chances to UCD, UCSB, UCSD, and Calpoly (State, San Luis Obispo)?</p>

<p>I plan to major in computer sciences and minor in business. I'd love to go to UCD or Calpoly... Screwed?</p>

2

<p>For Calpoly & UCD, I think you have a shot. My friend had lower test scores than you did (~1650 SAT) and GPA (3.3 W !) and he got accepted into both UCD and Calpoly for Aerospace Engineering. His EC's were decent, varsity track/XC captain, a bunch of volunteering and clubs. I think what sealed the deal for him was his essay, it was full of spelling and grammatical errors but he talked about his parents' divorce when he was little and how he dealt with the pain through running, clubs and school spirit.</p>

<p>No, you're not screwed yet for UCD/Calpoly, just make sure your essay is killer!</p>

3

<p>First off, your HS GPA isn't the one the UCs use. You can see from the other chance threads that there's a UC GPA as well. If you want to know what that is, post all your grades/classes from 10th~11th grade on the board and someone can calculate it for you, because most of the time it's different. Second off with the GPA, from that number alone we can't deduce anything. Do you have an upward trend? A downward one? That could be a big difference. </p>

<p>As for other things, EC's are decent, but average. SATs (all of them) need to go up A LOT if you still want to look at 'SD. Break 2000, and break 650 if you want a realistic shot at the mid tier UCs.</p>

<p>UCLA/UCB: High Reach
UCSD: Reach
UCD: Reach/Low Reach
UCI/UCSB: Low Reach/Slight Reach
CP SLO: High match/Match</p>

<p>The major caveat to taking that ^ to heart is again what I mentioned earlier. Until you have a UC GPA and your final SAT scores, things are still very fluid with your chances. Realistically, that's what you're looking at in the conservative fashion that chances go on in CC, but you're certainly at a point where you can consider the top UCs as the luck of the (albeit incredibly small) draw. </p>

<p>Good Luck.</p>

4

<p>Update to initial post.</p>

<p>My grades (10-11) have an upward trend. Sophomore year and first semester Junior year was pathetic.</p>

<p>Sophomore</p>

<p>Honors Chemistry: C C
Drawing: A A
PE (doesn't count.. but w/e): A A
Alg2/Trig: B C<br>
Spanish 2: B B
English 2A: A A</p>

<p>College Courses:
World History B B</p>

<p>Junior - First semester sucked.. but I think I improved in everything besides physics.. which I actually dropped a grade.</p>

<p>Honors English: B B
Physics: A B
AP Chemistry: B A
Spanish 3: C A
Philosophy (one sem): A
Psychology (one sem): A
Hon Pre-calculus: B B</p>

<p>AP Chem test score: 3... =&lt;/p>

<p>College Courses:
US History: A A
Algebra 2: A A (to make up for C...)</p>

<p>Senior year schedule:
1) Photography
2) American Government/Economics
3) Digital Art
4) AP English
5) AP Calculus BC
6) Journalism</p>

<p>***Just to note, I'm taking a lot of art related classes this year because I plan study in college business/marketing with relation to computers. I've always been a more creative type of person, and I was thinking to incorporating this into my UC Personal Statement.. how I've always have had a passion for business, computers, design and programming.*</p>

<p>Maybe some these extracurriculars can be added to help my goal in college.</p>

<p>experience in computers and programs:</p>

<p>ruby programming (limited)
adobe photoshop
adobe illustrator
autocad
maya (limited)</p>

5

<p>UCD/UCSB: slight reach - high match
UCSD: reach
Cal Poly: match</p>

<p>Good range of schools.</p>

6

<p>How much of a reach is UCSD? Much should my minimum GPA and SAT scores be?</p>

7

<p>A lot of factors go into admission to UCSD or any top tier UC. To see what your circumstance would be, I suggest visiting this site:
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/kisasong/UCSDComprehensive.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.geocities.com/kisasong/UCSDComprehensive.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Tally up your own scores to see what you would get. It's interesting to note that even a full UC GPA and perfect SATs would not grant admission on their own (although full UC GPA usually means more than 39 A-G beyond classes...)</p>

<p>Oh, this year's cutoff was 7568pts for instate. Roughly guessing from the cutoff given for 2004 on the website, you should be aiming to get 7600.</p>

8

<p>UCSD: Reach
UCD/SB/I: Match-High Match</p>

<p>I got into UCD with similar stats to you last year. I had an 1810 SAT and 3.6W UC GPA. You'll probably be accepted to at least one of the mid-tier UCs.</p>

9

<p>Peppers, Can you not apply if you have a GPA lower than 3.4 for out of state?</p>

10

<p>^^ you can apply, but you aren't eligible for scholarships (3.4 is the minimum for OOSers).</p>

11

<p>Oh okay, so if I got a 7750 on it, good chance I will get in? I'm out of state</p>

12

<p>I don't remember this year's difference between OOS and instate being nearly as big as the one that the website had. If you can bring it up, I'd suggest doing all you can to do so, but if you can't, you're in a good place as it is score-wise.</p>

13

<p>I don't really get the 40+ A-G thing, really confusing.</p>

14

<p>^The easiest way to figure that out is if you have a lot of AP classes. If you have a decent number (ie. 5 or 6), then you're very likely to have 40+ classes. Also, consider that if you took algebra 1/Geometry in middle school, that counts as A-G as well. for most people that took rigorous class loads, you will probably have it.</p>

15

<p>Yea I have been taking Academic Electives pretty much all through high school, have not taken a single elective other than Team Sports</p>

<p>Well if that's the case, My score is close to 8000</p>

16

<p>One final bump for further suggestions/thoughts.</p>