Hi! I’m ash, an incoming junior. As I’m going into my junior year, I wanted to get some insight on what I should do to improve my application within the next year. So far, I’ve won a national award, a state award, and several regional awards for science fair and Science Olympiad. I’ve also published a poem and had it win an honorable mention in the regional round of the Scholastic National Art and Writing Awards. I’m a columnist for a small writing collective as well. I’m also the president of my school’s March For Our Lives Club and treasurer for the ARK Club.
I’d love to get into UCLA and Columbia. Any suggestions?
Get good grades and keep doing what you’re doing! UCLA loves students that have good grades and something interesting about them.
You are doing a great job, research some other schools that may be a safety school and could be a interesting place to learn for 4 years. What do you hope to study? Why UCLA and Columbia? Could your family afford to pay for these full price?
Are you in or out of state for UCLA? Make sure you understand that these schools not only have high bars to reach but accept handfuls of students. Columbia has an admit rate around 5% and a middle 50 SAT of 1480-1560. UCLA has a 12% admit rate, the middle 50 SAT diverges quite markedly between in state (1300-1530) and out of state (1440-1550). So even for top students no one can rely on admission to these schools. By all means have them as reaches, but have a good spread of match and safety schools as well. Your awards are great, keep going with those activities too as well as getting good grades. Good luck!
I hope to study engineering in the future, particularly robotics.
I’ve talked with my family about attending these schools and they’ve agreed to pay the price as long as I try to get a job during the summers.
Thank you everyone!