<p>I’m currently a senior and looking to apply to various UC’s, CSU, and Private colleges. Here’s a little about me: </p>
<ul>
<li>1st Generation College Applicant (parents never graduated high school)</li>
<li>Race: Asian </li>
<li>Rank 70/479</li>
<li>Cumulated GPA Unweighted: 3.5</li>
<li>UC GPA (10, 11) - 3.59</li>
<li>Private Colleges (9,10,11) - 3.9 </li>
<li>ACT - 27 (retaking)</li>
</ul>
<p>SAT II
Math IIC - 600 (retaking)
Lit - 550 (retaking)</p>
<p>ECs - pretty solid.
-Over 250 hours of community service.
-UCSF Biomedical & Health Sciences Summer Internship.
-SEMI High Tech U (got to have dinner with Colin Powell) and also received an award for outstanding leadership.
-Student Government (3 years; head of a committee Junior Year; currently Student Government Vice President ~ ASB VP)
President of two clubs (Speech & Debate, CSF) </p>
<p>So here’s where I stand: average GPA, somewhat average ACT scores, and good-excellent EC’s. Please let me know what colleges I might be a good contender/match for. </p>
<p>Here are the colleges I’m interested in: </p>
<p>Public
UC Berkeley
UCLA</p>
<p>UC Davis
UC San Diego
UC Santa Barbara
UC Irvine </p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO</p>
<p>Privates</p>
<p>USC
Amherst
Bowdoin
Claremont McKenna
Oberlin
Swarthmore
Wellesley
Williams </p>
<p>What’s going on today on CC? There are more and moe totally unrealistic lists and this is one of them. No, there are no matches. The 3 UCs you didn’t include are matches.</p>
<p>With slightly better scores you should be looking at schools in the Scripps and Mount Holyoke range.</p>
<p>thanks for the feedback bobby, but I think I’m at least capable of Cal Poly SLO. I think you should do a little more research on the state schools.</p>
<p>Go to Calpoly SLOs web site. Unless you’re applying for agriculture, average GPA for admits last year was 3.9 (UC weighted) and SATs in the mid 1200s.</p>
<p>I’ve been wanting to go to Cal Poly myself and after nearly a year of browsing the CP forum on CC this is what I have been hearing:
-Cal Poly looks at numbers rather than ECs/CS. Though ECs or work experience in the area of your prospected major (you should mention your Biomedical internship here) will more strongly considered.
-Arch., EE, and BME … especially Architecture are harder to get in than others
-Rigor of classes are considered
-Writing portion on SAT not looked at; writing on ACT “optional”
-They are quite forgiving of low GPA and higher test scores (however… CSU App. are due Nov 30, and require that you know and submit your score by then. If you are retaking on Dec. this won’t make it)</p>
<p>I accept the truth, I know Amherst/Williams/Swarthmore etc is a huge reach for me. However, if you look at what booby100 posts in other threads all he does is criticize people for having reach colleges. I at least expected him to be a little more constructive with his criticism; perhaps he could of recommended other colleges rather than telling me flat that I’m not good enough to go to one of my reach colleges.</p>
<p>UCB/UCLA: VERY academically-based. Will take LITTLE ECs into consideration. NO CHANCE; Please save your $$. </p>
<p>LACs Amherst,Swarthmore,Williams: I really hope you don’t waste your time and your money applying. Do you REALLY think these three emphasize ECs THAT much? I wonder why the majority have excellent GPA, SAT I and IIs, and by that I mean 4.0+, 2100+, 700+ in each subject, respectively. Sorry to break your heart but come on, please be realistic. You have a shot at the other schools that I did not mention.</p>
<p>It has nothing to do with not good enough. It’s simply not having the stats. I would assume everyone interested in a school has looked at the common data set to see how many people with their stats get in. To be blunt, your list shows no sign of having researched what it takes to get into your schools.</p>
<p>I suggest looking at LACs where you are in the 50% range. US News will help. There are many.</p>
<p>my own unweig gpa is only 3.667 and i’m applying to b,la,sd,i,d. and ALOT of reach privates(second-third tiers)…although my weigh uc (4.0)and fully weigh gpa (4.2)and sat 1(1530/2160) and sat 2(710,760,790) r a little bit higher…i believe u should IGNORE what the people above had just said and still apply to any school you wish to apply to. Do not take money into consideration when applying to schools…Good luck! Do not let the average gpa intimidate you remmeber there are alot of schools outthere w/ large inflations in thier gpa ranges…</p>
<p>UCB/UCLA: Large Reach
UCSD: Reach
USC: Reach
Claremont McKenna: Large Reach</p>
<p>^^^These 5 schools are gonna be very tough for you to gain admittance to. Your stats are quite a bit lower than their average admits, as I believe all of them have admit GPA averages well over 4.0 and SAT’s all over 1300 (old SAT), which is pretty high considering UC’s use the single sitting method of computing SAT scores. If you are applying to UCB/UCLA/UCSD/USC for engineering, your chances will drop significantly over what i posted.</p>
<p>UCI/UCSB/UCD: Match-Slight Reach
Cal Poly SLO: Match-Slight Reach</p>
<p>I agree however to apply to all of the schools, as you never know, admissions can be random, especially at top schools. You have nothing to lose other than the application fee. Best of luck!</p>