What do I need to do to make it into UC Davis/Irvine/SD

I’m currently a sophomore with a 3.6 uc/csu weighted GPA, a 1040 on the PSAT, currently taking AP World, H/English, H/Pre Calc, planning on taking AP Bio, AP Lang, AP calculus AB, H/Spanish 3. My extracurriculars are being a captain on Varsity Cross Country (4 years) Varsity Track and Field (2 years) and being a lectoral minister at my church for 2 years. I currently have around 250 community service hours. What would I have to do in order to make it into UC Davis/Irvine/SD?
Any help is appreciated :slight_smile:

get your SAT score up for SD, the toughest of your three. Take slightly less harder courses and focus on getting good grades in them.

Take a rigorous course schedule but as stated above, you want to maintain good grades since UC’s are very GPA focused. You want to aim for a UC GPA of 4.0+ by end of Junior year.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Make sure you do some test prep for the SAT or ACT and depending upon intended major, consider taking 2 SAT subject tests. Continue with your EC’s and check out the Freshman Profiles for each UC campus which are updated each August on the UC website.

it can be tough to balance course rigor and GPA but, honestly, it plays the largest role at LA and B. Even there, a super hard schedule won’t offset a GPA in the 3s. It may feel like you are sandbagging but, seriously, a relatively slack 4.1 beats a really tough 3.6 - even with a bunch of ECs.

I would suggest you back off your AP count next year and retain your sanity while target straight As, while maximizing the AP bonus (remember, they cap the UC and CSU GPA with just 8 semesters in Soph and Jr years - you already have 6 of them).

You will also need to boost your SAT pretty significantly.

With a 3.6, and and 1040, UCM is probably your only shot. A 3.8 and 1200 would open up Riverside and Santa Cruz. For Davis, Irvine and SB, 4.0 and 1300 will put you in the ballpark. SD, LA and B - think 4.2 and 1400.

Take classes you can excel in and do your best - and remember to have some fun. See where you are in a year.

I’d also encourage you to Cal States like SDSU, CSULB, Sonoma and Chico - they are very good schools and, in many cases, provide a better under-grad experience than top UCs.

Good luck.

Also, don’t forget to look at potential majors. It matters a great deal. The average GPA and SAT scores can vary wildly for each major. My son got into Cal Poly SLO as an English major with eight Honors/AP semesters in 10th and 11th, a 3.9 weighted GPA and an SAT of 1210. One friend was turned down for kinesiology with almost the exact same stats and another friend was waitlisted for Engineering with 10 honors/AP semesters and a 4.1 weighted GPA.