Hi, I’m a current junior living in southern California and was wondering where I should start looking in regards to schools. I’m at a large public school (several thousand kids), and as of now my stats look something like this:
Freshman year – 3.1 GPA --> My house partially burned down midway through first semester freshman year, recouping was very difficult. I was moving homes constantly throughout the year, and missed close to 30 days of school my second semester. Grades ranged from As to Cs.
Sophomore year – 3.8 GPA --> 1 - 2 Bs each semester, otherwise straight As. Worth noting that I received As in higher levels of classes I had received Cs in as a freshman (so in Spanish I/II I had received a C, and in Spanish II/III I received an A). High schedule rigor.
Junior Year – 4.0 GPA (sem 1) --> One of the most rigorous schedules possible, including AP Chem, APUSH, AP Stat, and honors english/math courses.
ACT 34
PSAT definitely commended, but also definitely not good enough for California NMSF.
Taking Math II, Chem, and USH subject tests over the next few months.
ECs are fine, but kind of weirdly focused. Some are leadership focused (four year member of two school sports, probably captain of both senior year, and leadership in a handful of speech based clubs such as debate and MUN), and some are more science-based (internship in biochem, some research).
Looking to major in ChemE or Chemistry.
No real preferences on location of school, and family has the ability to pay ~60k/year if need be.
Also, forgot to mention, 11 on ACT writing, and I have not taken (and am not sure if I should take) the SAT I.
–What is your Cumulative GPA?
–Do you know your (current) UC GPA?
–Class rank?
You should definitely check out the UC’s. Your GPA might be a little low for Stanford unfortunately. Chemistry doesn’t have as good a career prospect unless you’re going to med/pharmacy school. ChemE has much better prospects if that’s something you’re really interested in.
Your ACT score is good and opens you up to a lot of schools in the east, west and in between. Narrow down what you really can afford and what type of school you’re into. Big, small, LAC, tech/career oriented…these are things that you’ll have to decide in the next year and a half. Maybe visit some places or take an online tour to get an idea of what you like.
Here is the UC GPA calculator. You have competitive Stats, since your family can pay $60K, look at the UC’s and Harvey Mudd in California.
http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Wow you will have a lot of options! A 34 will open most doors. UC doesn’t use freshman year, so that’s helpful. Maybe Berkeley, if you like to have fun, or UCSD, if social scene is less important. UCI is science-y too. You’re super lucky if parents really want to pay full price. For sure, then the Pomona Colleges. Those B’s sophomore year could be a sticking point for the some top schools. Hopefully you are taking lots of AP’s next year and getting all A’s this year. Your grades are strong, it’s just that kids with 34 ACT’s tend to not have many B’s.
For out of state, you can start with 2 searches: Schools that are strong in Chemistry, and then cross reference it against a list of schools ranked by ACT scores. If your parents would be happy to have you get a scholarship, you will get merit money at schools where the 75% of ACT’s is 32 or 33 for sure. Some schools give no merit aid, and if your parents are well off, you won’t get any need based money.
We’re from a large CA school too, you may be in the same situation where you get very little time from your school counselor. You might try to work with a private college counselor. You can do much of the work yourself, but you could find a counselor who will work with you on a limited basis to come up with some ideas.
Good luck!
Thanks for the help everyone!
I’m probably going to be looking pretty heavily at UCSB (ChemE) and UCLA (Chem). Not particularly interested in Berkeley or the Claremonts. Just from visiting the Claremonts a few times, I really didn’t like the campus–the architectural styles didn’t fit together, and everything just felt kind of haphazardly placed. It’s a really weird thing to get irritated by, but it really bothered me.
With Berkeley, I’ve heard some pretty scary things about the academic culture, especially in regards to their engineering schools. I don’t know how much of that stuff is true, but that degree of cutthroat academic focus is something I’d like to at least kind of avoid (although I recognize that it’s common at many top schools).
In regards to east coast schools, my parents are pretty big on some of the LACs, so I’ll probably check at some of those. I know that the atmosphere is pretty different from UCs (and size-wise they’re completely incomparable), but I’ll probably take a look at Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, and the like (for pure chem).
UC capped GPA is around a 4.15 - 4.2, school doesn’t rank. My cumulative UW GPA after this semester is ~3.65 with and 3.9 w/o freshman year.