<p>i’m a junior in high school and i’m worried about what UC i can get into. right now i have a 3.7 unweighted/4.3 weighted GPA, barely any extra curriculars, and i’m also preparing for the SAT through a prep class (i predict i’ll be getting an 1800 or so). i also took two subject tests and i’m certain i got high 600’s on both.</p>
<p>what UC’s can i expect getting accepted to?
any advice regarding improvement?</p>
<p>I would do a lot of extra-curricular stuff if I were you if you say you barely have any.</p>
<p>Your weighted GPA is above average which is good, and if you do say you will get those scores for the SAT and SAT II, then even better. I can’t tell you much about other UC’s (I only know UCSD, UCR, and UCI) but I expect they all want their students to have a lot of extra-curricular activities. To them, a high GPA, good scores, and a lot of extra activities are what makes a well-rounded student. </p>
<p>I know UCSD has a point-system and a large amount of points (about 900) are definitely given to extra-curricular activities. You will need every point you can get because even if you are only 5 points away from the “accepted” cutoff, you won’t get in — even if you’re on the waitlist. If I’m correct, they didn’t accept anyone from it this year. It’s also the Top 3 UC after UCB and LA so admission is competitive.</p>
<p>UCR — since it’s a lower-tier school, admission isn’t too hard. It accepts about 70%+ of its applicants and with your potential test scores and if you keep your high weighted GPA, you will probably get in. Increasing your extra-curriculars will help even more and guarantee your admission here. </p>
<p>UCI — From what I heard, UCI also works on a point-system like UCSD, so like UCSD, you definitely need to up your community service/extra curricular stuff. You’ll need all those points! I am assuming (I could be wrong though) that they are more lenient in the point-system though than UCSD.</p>
<p>Also, UC Merced — since it’s new, and it’s expanding, it’s fairly easy to get in here with your stats. You should have no problem.</p>
<p>Good luck! You’re in good standing with your GPA and test scores, so just increase your community service hours and extra-curriculars! Join a sport or some clubs at your school. Be active. :)</p>
<p>definitely extracurriculars.
my extracurriculars and leadership made me one-tier higher for uc’s</p>
<p>As of now, you’re matched with the mid-tier ucs. Get the SAT score up, join a few sports / clubs and you’ll have low reaches with the upper-tier ucs.</p>
<p>You should definitely aim for at least a 1900, if not 2000 if you don’t have any extracurricular activities. </p>
<p>With a score of 1800, you’d definitely get into UCM, UCR, UCSC, and UCR. You can probably get into UCI, UCSB or UCD, depending on your major, ethnicity, adversities you’ve faced, and other things. </p>
<p>If you get a 2000/2100+ on your SAT, then you’d probably get into UCI, UCSB, UCD,or UCSD. UCB and UCLA is a possibility also. </p>
<p>Like I said previously, the admissions system doesn’t have an exact cut-off score or gpa (except the 3.0 req to apply to a uc) such as this. It depends on a lot of other factors, but still, you should try joining clubs, do more volunteer work, and sports if its not too late, in order to enrich your resume/application when you apply.</p>
<p>the thing is that it’s almost the summer before my senior year. should i just commit my summer to community service and possible leadership roles? and then would i have a possibility into upper-tier UC’s??</p>
<p>It may not make a difference. depends on the depth and uniqueness of what you do. </p>
<p>To use UCSD as an example because they are unusually transparent but also rigid in how they assess these:</p>
<p>If you are not in specific leadership roles in school clubs/organizations, i.e. pres or vp, the leadership is not counted. To get full points you need two of these leadership situations. </p>
<p>If you have 99.99 hours of community service, it is given exactly zero points to admission, but 100.00 to 199.99 is all the same, half-points, and 200.00 to infinity is the same full points in the admission formula. </p>
<p>Diving into organizations for a semester or summer, or doing a light amount of activity in many different ecs is much less respected than deep commitment to one or two - sustained involvement and clear commitment and passion. </p>
<p>If you were to envision some specific community service project, bring it into existence, convince others to join, lead it to its goal . . . that is the sort of activity that can make a difference. if that experience links to something you care about or want to study in college and can be the basis for a compelling essay, even better.</p>
<p>:(
i think i’ve come to a conclusion that i’m screwed.
the only leadership that i really consider leadership is Peer Counseling and tutoring through CSF. does this mean i should just try at 100+ hours this summer? and possibly a community service project? how could i start?</p>
<p>The 100+ hours is specific to UCSD admissions. each of the campuses are different, which makes it hard to ‘engineer’ for admissions to more than one. Look for a thread under the UCSD forum on how to predict your admissions chances - it lists the formula, the rubric for recieving points and helps see if you are in, out or close. If close, you then look for the missing factors that you could seize through something this summer or early next year.</p>
<p>Chill, you are not screwed.</p>
<p>[University</a> of California - Admissions](<a href=“http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles.html]University”>http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/selecting/camp_profiles.html)
Click on each of the campus on the left menu. Then click on the link “download detailed ADMIT RATE chart” which will show bar charts of admission rate based on gpa/test score ranges. The new charts for 2010 are not out yet but the 2009 ones should give good ideas of chances.</p>
<p>Based on those charts, it looks like for you
UCSC, UCR, UCM - safety
UCD, UCI, UCSB - match
UCSD - low reach
UCB, UCLA - reach </p>
<p>Your gpa is set. You can study in the summer and try to increase your test scores which will help. It should also be not very hard to volunteer over 100 hours during the summer. Find a project you like and work on it. Over 100 volunteer hours will definitely help with UCSD since you can get something like 150 points for that. For the other UCs, it would help also just not sure how much.</p>
<p>what do you mean by “low reach” and “reach”?</p>
<p>Reach means that the odds are that you will not be admitted. It is a ‘reach’ upwards to apply. Low reach would be a school where you are below the average qualifications of admitted students, but not by a huge margin, thus the school might select you based on other factors.<br>
A reach school might exclude your application from detailed consideration because of you are below some cutoff criteria they use internally, thus special factors and achievements aren’t going to get you an offer.
A student with 2000 GPA and 3.7 GPA, 50th in their high school class, can apply to Harvard but it is a definite reach. Someone with a 3.9 and 2350 whose is 3rd in their class might consider that a low reach, where they might get an acceptance instead of the #1 at their school based on essay, ECs or other factors.</p>