Chance and Match me as a CA resident with a 3.6 UW but strong ECs going into premed! [3.8 in college DE courses]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics:

• US domestic student (African American)

• State of residency: California

• High school type: Public charter college-prep

• Special factors: Dual-enrollment student (obtaining 4 AA degrees in May 2026), first generation

Intended Major(s): any of these work!

BioPsychology, Biological/Medical Anthropology, Public Health, Health Sciences, or Biological

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores:

Unweighted GPA: 3.6 (mental health challenges during sophomore year but I brought my grades back up during my junior and senior year)

Weighted GPA: 4.1

Rank: 40/105 (top 40 percent)

ACT/SAT: Didn’t take and not reporting any scores/test optional

College GPA: 3.8

High School Coursework:

English:

• AP English Language

• AP English Literature

  • Critical Thinking/Composition

Math:

• Elementary Statistics (college)

• Precalculus & Trigonometry (high school & college)

• Integrated Math 3 (completed summer)

Science:

• Biology

• Chemistry

• Physics

• Principles of Biomedical Science

• Human Body Systems

• Medical Interventions

• Human Biology (college)

• Anatomy & Physiology (college)

• Biopsychology(college)

• Intro to Bio, Gen, & Organ Chem (college)

History/Social Science:

• AP World History

• AP US History

• Sociology

• African American Culture (college)

• Social Problems (college)

• Social Psychology (college)

• Intro to Sociology (college)

• General Psychology (college)

Language Other Than English:

• Spanish 1–3

• AP Spanish Language

Visual/Performing Arts:

• Music Appreciation (college)

• Art Appreciation (college)

Other Academic Courses:

• AVID

• Logic & Critical Thinking (college)

• Interpersonal Communication (college)

•Intercultural Communication (college)

• Child Development (college)

• Intro to Chicanx Studies (college)

• Intro to Race & Ethnicity (college)

i have more but i’m taking them next semester/in january

Awards:

• Gold Presidential Volunteer Service Award

• Sociology Award

• Directors’ Honor Roll

• Golden Eagle Honor Roll

• Most Compassionate Player (Volleyball)

Extracurriculars:

• CEO & Co-Founder, SEAtheChange (health equity group that sends medical supplies to Sierra Leone)

• President, Red Cross Club

• Blood Donor Ambassador, American Red Cross

• Member + PR Intern, Californians For Justice (education equity)

• Volunteer, Real Options Obria Medical Center

• Student Representative, ASB & Campus Voices

• Tutor, Learn-It Program

• Center Assistant, Kumon

• Editor, Yearbook

• Volunteer, Food Distributor & Acolyte Coordinator

• BSU Vice President

• Acts of Random Kindness Treasurer

Essays/LORs/Other
My personal essay is really strong, let me know if you want to see it!

Schools
Early Action: Baylor, Howard, Northeastern, Rutgers, Santa Clara, Spelman, Stony Brook, UNC at Chapel Hill, UOregon, UPortland, USanFransisco, Xavier University of Louisiana (I’m thinking about adding Chapman and UWash in Seattle but lmk!!)

Regular Decision: Columbia, Princeton, George Washington, Emory, Loyola Marymount

UCs/CSUs: UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, SDSU, Cal Poly SLO, SFSU

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First of all, if your screen name is your real name, please change it to protect your privacy - here’s how: How Do I Change My Username?

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First, do not send your essay to people who request it. There is a process on this site for having your essays reviewed by people who are vetted to help. Sending your essay to random people could result in it being copied and you being accused of plagiarism.

Second, you didn’t give a budget. Can you afford all these schools without financial aid? If so great. If not, money is going to play a factor in acceptances (some schools are need aware) and in whether you can attend as some schools aren’t very good either financial aid.

Finally, this is a very reachy list for someone with a 4.1 weighted, no SAT score, and top 40% of class. Do you know your unweighted GPA? ECs don’t make up for stats. What is your safety? Many schools require test scores. Did you check to make sure these all still allow test optional. I’d drop the ivies. They are way out of reach and it’s not worth the effort to apply.

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Why? Are these DE enrollment courses? Please keep in mind that if you took any of the required courses for medical school admissions as part of your high school DE courses, you likely will need to take higher level courses in those areas as an undergrad. @WayOutWestMom

My opinion. I think EA you will see some acceptances. I would guess NOT to UNC CH, or Northeastern. UWashington in Seattle is a reach, in my opinion. You have plenty of those on your list already.

For your regular decision list, I think Loyola Marymount will be an acceptance but will it be affordable?

Are you applying to all of the UCs or just the ones you listed?

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It’ll be cheaper and faster for me in the long run and yes I mentioned that they are DE courses.

I’m applying to those four that I listed

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My unweighted GPA is above the weighted GPA. Yes I am aware of the schools that are test optional which is why I am applying to said school.

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Your unweighted GPA is higher than your weighted? Are you sure, because usually this means you have taken a less aggressive course load.

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Your most accurate “chance me” is going to come from your high school counselor. What do they think about your list?

On the face of what you’ve shared, it does not look to me that you would be competitive at your reach schools (Columbia, Princeton, Emory, UNC, Northeastern) and you will likely not save time or cost because your DE classes are unlikely to transfer.

Typically your best option to have DE classes accepted is to stay in state. I would encourage you to apply more broadly within the UC and CSU system.

I do think you will have some EA acceptances to choose from, assuming you’ve run the net price calculator and they are affordable.

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This list has a LOT of reaches. Do you have a budget and is a school such as Xaviar affordable?

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Do you have cost constraints? If so, have you and/or your parents used the net price calculator on each college?

SFSU is a non impacted campus where only nursing is an impacted major, so you should be admitted if you meet CSU minimum requirements and apply to any non nursing major.

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For the UCs, please calculate your UC GPAs. GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

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For the CSU’s calculate out your CSU GPA since the CSU GPA application calculates out your HS and College GPA’s separately and not your total CSU GPA.

DE course grades in the CSU GPA calculations are counted twice with 2 Honors points while the UC GPA calculations count DE course grades once with 1 Honors point.

Also Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th a-g course grades with the 8 semester Honors point cap while the rest of the CSU’s use 10-11th a-g course grades with the 8 semester Honrs point cap.

Are you local to any of the listed CSU’s? https://www.calstate.edu/apply/counselor-resources/Documents/CSULocalAdmission-ServiceAreas.pdf

All CSU’s admit by major so which major did you apply to each campus?

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It’s obvious that you have worked hard at building a college worthy resume. You should be proud of your efforts.

Sometimes, I believe, that students get their signals crossed about how universities admit students.

Based on my personal experience, I think you should meet with your counselor and ask about where your alumni have been accepted and eventually matriculated. It’s important for you to understand this information.

You need to know your budget for college. There are rare free rides because the schools just don’t have the money anymore. They save their dollars to attract top students.

The colleges firstly look at GPA, rigor of coursework, rank and test scores. If the schools accept letters of recommendation (LORs), they expect to hear from teachers who have taught core subjects. They also expect that these efforts result in a high school diploma.

Extracurricular activities may, or may not be considered: “with a 3.6 UW but strong ECs going into premed!”

Unfortunately, your ECs wont make up for rank, nor test scores. A number of universities have returned to require test scores. Why?
The universities want you to be successful. GRADES and test results matter.

The transition to college life is stressful. In “premed”, it’s uber competitive because admissions to medical schools are extremely limited. A number of the colleges you’ve listed are on quarter systems. You have to prove yourself over 10 weeks time. The courses are at a rapid pace. You have to be able to manage dorm/apartment living, finances, daily studying and rest. You are on your own.

Our middle daughter attended medical school and grades/test scores/rank were her top concerns in high school. She was ranked top 10 percent at her 3000+ campus, was an athlete, worked part time jobs, and volunteered. Her SAT was strong. That’s all she had time to do. She got into several UCs and was a recruited athlete.

Our eldest was top 5% (~3900 students) extremely strong SAT, athlete, tutor, part time job and was admitted to almost every school where she applied, including the UCs, Yale, USC, Hopkins, but chose SUNY Buffalo because of their med school alliance.

Our youngest was the #4 student and vying for valedictorian (but didn’t care about that). Missed one question on the SAT. Eagle Scout, part time job, athlete, tutor, and volunteer. Got into the top UCs (UCLA actually gave him full funding), USC, and attended Caltech (they only take ~200 students from around the globe).

This was from more than 10 years ago. The competition has only increased. This is what you face and is why the other posters are telling you that you have a lot of reaches.

I also suggest that you add some Cal States and the local university near your home.

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How do you figure it will be cheaper and faster for you? If you have taken any of the prerequisites courses as a HS student, it’s likely you will be expected to take higher level courses as an undergrad college student.

If you plan to graduate early from undergrad say at age 20…and plan to apply to medical school then, this will not be an advantage. Younger applicants to medical school are actually at a disadvantage. @WayOutWestMom

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My unweighted GPA is a 3.6 and my weighted GPA is a 4.1.

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Thank you for clarifying.

@pinkklover this is what you wrote. You clarified by saying your weighted gpa is above your unweighted.

My unweighted GPA is a 3.6 and my weighted GPA is a 4.1.

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SDSU- Health Communications

SFSU- Biology (Physiology)

Cal Poly- Public Health

CSUF- Public Health

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I believe she just meant “above” in the text of her post.

OP, definitely use the RogerHub calculator and share your unweighted, weighted-capped, and weighted-uncapped UC GPA’s. If your weakest year had been 9th grade, you could expect these to be higher than your general GPA that includes all classes taken. But since your weak year was 10th grade, and your stronger 9th grade year won’t count, I believe that the numbers UC schools will look at will be a little lower than what you’ve posted so far, and that will need to be taken into account. But, do the calculation and see.

IMHO, with regard to UC’s, it would be a very good idea to apply to Riverside. It’s excellent for premed and a better fit for your stats than UCB/UCLA.

You’ll absolutely get into SFSU, and probably several of your EA schools.

You have a long list that includes a lot of different environments. It makes it hard to infer what kind of college experience you’re most drawn to - can you tell us more about what schools most appeal to you, and why? How interested are you in the HBCU’s, relative to the others? They provide excellent support for students with pre-health aspirations.

Also, as someone has already asked, have you screened all of these schools for affordability? You’ve run Net Price Calculators and everything would work, money-wise? Or is that not confirmed?

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It does go back to cost - and you will have some acceptances.

I would not apply to UNC or UW - and can’t speak to the UCs.

I wouldn’t apply to Northeastern either. However, if you can get that you are African American into your profile (they can’t use stated race) for admission, you never know.

TO will hurt you on the non UC, no UW schools.

Congrats on such great accomplishments.

If you have Oregon (easy in), maybe you want to apply to other easy ins? Note, Oregon is $63,477 this year for direct costs - do you have that? That’s why people ask about budget. You also have med school to consider, etc.. and it has cost.

You have WUE schools - a lot - at low cost - from the Nevada schools to New Mexico and other low cost alternatives, in addition to your CSUs, etc.

Another, given you have Spelman, you might consider Agnes Scott.

Best of luck.

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I have listed some CSU admit data and admitted CSU/SLO GPA ranges/averages.

Cal Poly SLO has a projected admit rate for Public Health at 12% and the College of Science and Mathematics SLO GPA admit range (25=75th percentile) is 4.11-4.25.

San Diego State’s Health Communication major had a 73% admit rate and the campus average admitted CSU GPA of 4.06.

CSU Fullerton’s College of Health and Human Development where the Public Health resides had a 85% admit rate with a campus average CSU of 3.68.

San Francisco State is a non-impacted CSU campus so a CA resident with a 2.5 CSU GPA should gain admission.

Good luck and if you calculate out your 3 UC GPA’s and list your applied major, I can post some admit rate and GPA data also.

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