Chance Me: CA Female Math/CS/Stats, [3.9 GPA, 1570 SAT] Unique ECs and cohesive profile but no big awards

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Demographics

  • US Citizen
  • California
  • Private High School
  • No special factors

Cost Constraints / Budget
Cost isn’t a factor

Intended Major(s)
Math, Computer Science, Statistics

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.91
  • UC GPA: 4.27 capped, 4.78 uncapped
  • My school doesn’t do weighted GPA or rank students
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1560 (800M, 760RW)

List your HS coursework

(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)

  • English: 4 years of English (school does not have honors or AP)
  • Math: Many college level math classes (multivariable calculus, linear algebra, differential equations), AP Statistics, AP Calc BC
  • Science: AP Physics C Mechanics and E&M, AP Biology, AP Chemistry
  • History and social studies: 2 years of history (school does not have honors or AP)
  • Language other than English: Three years of [language]
  • Other academic courses: 1 art class, 1 advanced CS class (above AP CS level)

AP Scores

  • Calculus BC (5)
  • Physics C Mechanics (5)
  • Physics C E&M (5)
  • Statistics (5)
  • Computer Science (5)
  • Biology (4)

Awards

  • 3rd place California Science and Engineering Fair
  • 1st place Regional Science Fair, a few other special awards as well
  • Published puzzle in fairly popular math magazine
  • Presented a poster at an academic sports analytics conference
  • [Language] 2x gold medal, also 1x silver medal
  • Won a retroactive grant of $1600 from an international hackathon-esque thing
  • AP Scholar with Distinction

The science fair awards are for my statistics research on [niche sport]. I might be able to get the research published in an undergraduate journal before I submit my applications

I also think I can qualify for AIME my senior year, as I missed it multiple times by a very small margin.

Extracurriculars

  • Internship at tech company (Summer 2023), did a project that scraped thousands of rows of data from a government website to help them find more clients, also did some encryption stuff on their website. Only high school intern at company
  • Internship at cryptocurrency related tech company (Summer 2024), did a lot of miscellaneous frontend work, extended their business to support new kinds of cryptocurrency, wrote SQL queries. Only high school intern at company
  • Top 40 competitor in [niche sport] (not recruited) (all of high school), peak rank was top 40 in the country, placed 10th at national tournament in my age group
  • National level referee in [niche sport] (all of high school), reached a very high level, probably one of the best referees under age 18, officiated quarter/semifinals at national level events
  • Sports Analytics/Statistics blog for [niche sport] (11th, 12th grade), wrote blog posts that analyzed hundreds of thousands of tournaments and games from [niche sport], thousands of readers, presented one analysis at an academic sports analytics conference
  • Team captain of school’s math team (all of high school), increased participation, managed 50 students, ran club to help students improve skills, school was 5th in the state
  • School problem of the week leader (9th grade), created and presented a math problem every week, graded solutions, gave prizes to correct solutions
  • School [niche sport] club (10th grade), founded a club for [niche sport] at my school, taught over 20 students the fundamentals, would have continued if the school gave me funding (they refused to give any money to help the program stay afloat)
  • Math camp counselor (Summer 2022), assisted counselors, led my own class on a math magic trick
  • Competitive speedcubing (all of high school), can solve a 3x3 in 14 seconds and a 2x2 in 3 seconds, top 5,000 in the country, made some 3D models to improve speedcubes
  • Schoolhouse.world tutoring (11th, 12th grade), tutored a bit online (not too many sessions though, honestly)

Essays/LORs/Other
I’m getting help on my essays, so I think they will be strong? They are unique and have to do with [niche sport], specifically the refereeing and my blog, and how I view the sport analytically. I think my LORs will be good because I have good relationships with those teachers.

Reach

  • Harvard
  • Stanford
  • MIT
  • Yale
  • Princeton
  • Caltech
  • Brown University
  • UPenn
  • Northwestern
  • Columbia
  • CMU
  • UC Berkeley
  • UCLA

Target

  • UCSD
  • UC Davis
  • UCSB

Safeties

  • Michigan State
  • UC Merced
  • UC Riverside
2

You’re a very strong candidate, but you need to check the foreign language requirements at each school. Some will be ok with three years, but a few require four years(Princeton IIRC and maybe others), and many prefer four years of the same language. Is it possible to take a 4th year of foreign language senior year?

3

Only 2 years of social studies?

4

Should I take three years? I can switch out the CS course I was planning for history

5

I’ll let someone else comment on your two years of social studies. Lots of colleges expect four years of the core course areas…and social studies is one of them.

@Gumbymom only 2 years required in social studies for UCs? And CA HS graduation requirements?

ETA…I also don’t see an arts course in your course listings and this is required for the UCs.

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Oh yeah I have art, I forgot to add that (adding right now)

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@thumper1

Only 2 years of Social Sciences are required for meeting the UC requirements although competitive applicants will exceed all the minimum UC a-g course requirements.

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8

@thumper1 @Gumbymom how would you chance me if I were to hypothetically take 3 years of social sciences

9

I think you have too many reach schools on your list…and I’m wondering why. Applying to more reaches does not improve your chances of getting accepted to these colleges with VERY low acceptance rates, some in the single digits. Your applications all will need to be top notch (I’m talking about the school specific essays, for example).

You are a strong applicant, but so are the vast majority of others to those reach schools.

If you are happy with your three sure thing schools…then go for it.

@Gumbymom can post the acceptance %ages for the CA schools.

The rest on your list of reaches are all VERY low. You don’t have four years in all the core areas (you are lacking both social studies and foreign language). But you have some excellent things you have done, and a great GPA…and SAT for the schools that will use that.

I’m going to tag @AustenNut who might have an opinion about your chances. And @Mwfan1921

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10

You’re an excellent applicant for all the schools on your list unfortunately your SAT will only be used for course placement and not for admissions or scholarship consideration.

For CS, I would move UCSB and UCSD to the Reach category but they would be Targets for Math and Stats.

Below are the most recent admit rates for the majors you listed so you can determine where you stand.

Campus CS
UC Berkeley 1.9% 2024 preliminary EECS- 7.6%
UC Davis No data but estimated <20% Selective Major
UC Irvine 16.8%Impacted Major
UCLA 3.1% Impacted Major
UC Merced 91%
UC Riverside 32% Impacted major
UC San Diego No data but estimated 5% Selective Major
UC Santa Barbara Estimated 5% Impacted major
UC Santa Cruz 60% Impacted Major
Campus Applied Math/Math
UC Berkeley 29% Capped UC weighted GPA: 4.15-4.29
UC Davis 37.9% College of Letters and Sciences/ Capped weighted GPA: 4.03-4.27
UC Irvine 33.3% Capped weighted GPA: 4.07-4.28
UCLA 11% for College of Letters and Sciences/ Capped weighted GPA: 4.20-4.31
UC Merced 99% Capped weighted GPA: 3.48-4.08
UC Riverside 98% Capped weighted GPA: 3.76-4.18
UC San Diego No data Estimated <30%. Capped weighted GPA: 4.11-4.29
UC Santa Barbara 32% for the College of Letters and Sciences/Capped weighted GPA: 4.13-4.29
UC Santa Cruz 68.8% Capped weighted GPA: 3.86-4.22
Campus Statistics
UC Berkeley Moved to CDSS. No Data
UC Davis 37.9% College of L&S does not admit by major
UC Irvine Stats minor only
UCLA 11% College of L&S does not admit by major
UC Merced No Stats major.
UC Riverside 94%
UC San Diego No major data but estimated <35%
UC Santa Barbara 32% College of L&S does not admit by major
UC Santa Cruz Stats minor only

Overall UC admit rates based on the Capped weighted UC GPA and not major specific:

Campus 4.00+
Berkeley 17%
Davis 64%
Irvine 42%
Los Angeles 14%
Merced 96%
Riverside 92%
San Diego 39%
Santa Barbara 46%
Santa Cruz 85%

Best of luck.

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11

My school doesn’t allow us to take many classes per year because of how it’s structured (I only take 5 classes a year), so it’s impossible to actually take 4 of the core classes each year. I don’t want to go into more specifics to avoid doxxing myself, but everyone takes only 5 classes per year at my school, and I’m not taking study hall or anything. From 9th to 11th grade I have not taken a single elective or anything; it’s all been “core classes.”

12

I used this aggregator that pulled required and recommended course requirements for some of the colleges on your list. With any aggregator you always want to double-check the info with the source, and this data set hasn’t been updated since the fall of 2021, so it’s not the most recent either. But it provides a quick and dirty snapshot at potential issues.

Here’s a snip that color-codes the areas of potential issues (and I’ll paste in the table afterwards for those using an electronic reader)

image
image702×375 8.99 KB

School Foreign Language units required History units required Social studies units (Required) Foreign Language units recommended History units recommended Social studies units recommended
Harvard 4 2 3
Stanford 3 3 3
MIT 2 2
Yale
Princeton 4 2 2
Caltech 1 1 3 3
Brown 3 2 4 4 2
Upenn 4 3 2
Northwestern 2 2 2 2 2 2
Columbia 3 3 4 4
CMU 2 2
UC Berkeley 2 2 3 2
UCLA 2 2 3 2
Michigan State 2 3 2 3

IF (and that’s a big IF) the data in the aggregator is correct, you will not have met the social studies requirements for Brown, Columbia, Michigan State, and possibly Northwestern (which could have 2 courses required total, or 2 history and 2 social studies for a total of 4, in which case it’s a problem).

With respect to foreign language, it appears as though you’ve met all the requirements, but not all of the recommended units at Harvard, Princeton, Brown, UPenn, and Columbia.

When your school offers U.S. History, for example, it is for one semester only (you get one Carnegie credit) or is it for the whole school year (you get 0.5 credit for each semester and need the whole year to fulfill one unit)?

I’ll post a little later with some chancing info, but if there’s any information you can provide about what you’re looking for in your college experience (size of classes, size of school, preferred locations, urban/suburban/small town/remote, sports enthusiasm, Greek life, etc), that would be great.

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13

Just curious - why Michigan State ?

I like your list. Good luck. I like it because you have several admits - provided you meet the minimum requirements.

Not saying a target or reach comes through. Make sure you are happy with the safeties. Your fine SAT won’t help at UCs.

Congrats on a crazy good record.

14

One of the benefits of attending a private high school is that most have excellent college counseling. Your school counselor would be a good source on your chances…and would have a decent sense based on past students who have been accepted from your high school.

I think you need to have this conversation with the school counselor at your school. Find out how successful previous applicants were who had the level of courses you had at places that seem to require or recommend additional years of study.

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15

Thanks for the info! I double checked on a bunch of those school’s websites and the information is mostly accurate, although there were a few that were marked as required in the spreadsheet that were only recommended on the school’s website (Columbia, for example FAQs | Columbia Undergraduate Admissions). I will ask to take a third year of history next year.
My school’s courses are all full year. I don’t care much about school location that much. I picked those colleges because there’s some professors I’m excited about there. I appreciate the offer though!

16

There are five core areas…and you have five periods of classes in your school day. Were there other classes like PE/Health or arts classes in the mix also.

17

My school’s counseling is kinda weak. Whenever I ask to about doing something because I’m not sure how it will look for colleges, they just say “lol idk it doesn’t matter.” I get support for essays but not for course planning and stuff :frowning:

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Yes, I took one art class to fulfill CA graduation requirements. I don’t do PE because I do sports outside school. Are the core classes really that important? I didn’t realize that until now :skull:

19

Outside of Cal & UCLA, I generally don’t chance the UCs. But as far as the rest of your list, I think that your reaches are low probability schools and that Michigan State (if you meet its required courses) would be an extremely likely admit.

20

I’m seconding this. Even if your school counselors didn’t give you advice about what courses to take, they should be able to provide some guidance about what kind of outcomes students who had transcripts and tests like yours have had.

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