CA resident - Pharmaceutical Science major [3.88 GPA, 1520 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics: US Citizen, California, Public HS

**Intended Major(in order): Pharmaceutical Sciences/Medicinal Chemistry - Fall 2026

GPA : 3.88/4.15 school does not rank

Course Work :
Math: AP Calc AB, Trig, Geom, Algebra II
Science: AP Chem, Physics H, Chem H, Bio, Astronomy
Other APs/Honors: AP Lang, Spanish 3H

Test Scores : SAT 1520 (RW:740, Math:780)

ECS : Volunteering (SAT Tutor, Second Harvest Food Bank), LaCrosse, Stanford STEM Workshop, Summer Pharmacology program
Awards: Nothing
Essays and LOR: Essays OK; LoR OK.

Cost Constraints: none

Safety: ASU, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado
Target: UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, Ohio State, Penn St, Texas A&M
Low Reach: Purdue, NC State, UCSB, UIUC
High Reach: UCSD, USC, UW, UT, USC, Michigan, Duke

Please suggest whether I have the right idea on my targets and reaches and whether there are additional schools I should consider. Thank you!

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Just following up with UC calculated GPAs: UW 3.82/capped weighted 4.18

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I’ll let @Gumbymom give you the stats for admission with a 3.82 capped UC GPA.

The UCs do not look at your SAT or LOR. That means that your Personal Insight Questions need to be more than “OK.” Make sure they tell the reader who you are, where you came from, what inspired you, how you impacted others, what you’ve learned, etc. Start working on them now. Write, get feedback, re-write, repeat as many times as it takes so that they much more than “OK.”

The Activity & Awards section has room to list 20 extracurricular activities. This can include additional coursework, volunteer work & community service, employment or other activities that you participated in outside of the classroom. Each listing has room for applicants to go into detail about the organization and what they did. Make sure you tell what you did, not just describe the organization. Sell yourself. You listed four above. What else do you do when you are not in school? Try to fill at least 15 of the spaces for A&A.

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Thanks very much lkg4answers. For various reasons, I don’t do much outside of school that’s worth putting on that list of activities and awards (except what I already listed). While I’m applying to UCs (since I’m a resident), I’ve long understood that they will mostly be out of reach for me. This is why I have all those OOS schools on my list - mostly looking for schools where my minimal A&A won’t hurt so much. I will get to work on those PIQs though! Thanks for the push there.

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University of Wisconsin, Madison might be worth your consideration, for its excellence in chemistry and life sciences, and an outstanding School of Pharmacy as well. In your search, be mindful that pharmaceutical science can bear many names: medicinal chemistry; pharmaceutical chemistry; chemical biology, computational biology. You are a competitive candidate for any of the schools on your list, and it is a good list.

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Here is the 2024 overall admit rates based on your Capped weighted UC GPA of 4.0+ or higher and major specific:

Campus 4.00+
Berkeley 17%
Davis 64%
Irvine 46%
Los Angeles 14%
Merced 97%
Riverside 94%
San Diego 43%
Santa Barbara 57%
Santa Cruz 92%

Surprised you do not have UC Irvine on the list for Pharmaceutical Science.

Below are some admit rates and (25th-75th percentile) UC GPA admit ranges for Pharmaceutical Science major or adjacent major or discipline.

UCSC: Biochemistry/Molecular Biology admit rate 55%. UC Capped weighted GPA 3.9-4.25

UCD: Medicinal Chemistry admit rate estimated 60%. UC Capped weighted GPA 4.00-4.26. Campus unweighted 3.80-4.00

UCSB: Pharmacology/Enter as a Pre-Bio/MCB major admit rate 34%. UC Capped weighted GPA 4.07-4.27. Campus unweighted average 3.91

UCSD: Pharmacological Chemistry major/Discipline admit rate 32%. UC Capped weighted GPA 4.13-4.30. Campus unweighted 3.84-4.00.

UCI: Pharmaceutical Sciences admit rate 40%. UC Capped weighted GPA 4.12-4.29. Campus Unweighted 3.83-4.00.

Good luck.

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Thank you tgl2023 - I’ll add Wisconsin for sure. And thanks for the input about the various names for these majors. It does make searching more difficult. Most of all - thanks for the note that I’m a competitive candidate. This whole process feels designed to make a person feel inadeqaute!

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Thank you gumbymom. I’ll definitely be applying to UC Irvine - all the UCs I guess. I just thought it was out of reach! You seem to have an incredible wealth of knowledge about the different Pharmaceutical-related majors. Thank you for that detailed breakdown. So very helpful. :slight_smile:

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