Am I cooked? I’d like to know how much of a reach my schools&majors are.
highschool senior looking for hope CO 2025
STATS!
4.50 W
3.80 UW
4.12 WCapped
calculated from rogerhub uc calculator
and includes summer college credit classes
parents are willing to pay for UC if I can get in.
Intended Major(s) ranked from where i wanna go most
UCSD: cogsci spec. neuro
UCSB: psychological and brain sciences
UCLA: disability studies (still trying to sort out what i wanna apply for as my major here)
UCI: cogsci
UCD: cogsci
SDSU: psych-neuro
Total 10 AP Classes (failed Calc, NO 5’s)
AP Spanish Lang - 4
AP Spanish Lit - 3
AP Euro - 3
AP Drawing - 4
AP Lang - 3
AP Calc AB - 2
AP Calc BC - PL
AP Gov - PL
AP Lit - PL
AP Physics 1- PL
CC:
Intro to Psych- A
Intro to Sociology- A
Human Biology- A (didn’t take AP Bio my junior year so I took this that same summer.)
Intro to Cog Sci- Planned
EC’S
hospital volunteer
food pantry volunteer for church
soup kitchen volunteer / co-vp of soup kitchen club
member of my city’s youth council where we organized a human-trafficking awareness event
mission trip to tijuana
internship at dental office (my main career interest ATM)
shadowed dental assistant
pursued dental radiology/coronal polish certificate during summer
art commissions, raised over $1K in earnings
won women’s club art competition 1st place in my category
leader in summer tennis camp for neurodivergent children
won women’s club art competition 1st place in my category
link crew at my HS
leadership position for weeklong event at my HS
Please let me know my chances! if there’s any information I need to go more in depth on please feel free to leave comments. I believe i have a chance at maybe UCR/SC but otherwise very scared. My ec’s are definitely weaker to many other applicants, hoping I can bank on the essays. I’ll be writing of some of the specific EC’s listen above and going in detail relating to prompt.
Thank you for your time!
Also, forgot to mention
i’ve worked 2 jobs, both food service industries.
One was at a mochi donut store, and another at poke place set up like Chipotle. At the poke place we also make drinks using blenders, shakers, recipes, etc.
also im female immortal in valorant peak 117 rr can i include that (joking.)
Congratulations on a competitive academic record but you have No Assured/Very Likely schools on your list. I would add UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz and/or UC Merced to your list or any of the non-impacted Cal states.
Below are the UC’s and SDSU’s Cognitive Science/Neuroscience or Psychology admit information just to help you gauge your chances.
Campus
Cognitive Science
UC Berkeley
12.9% for College of L&S / Capped weighted UC GPA 4.15-4.29 Unweighted 3.89-4.00 Capped weighted 4.31-4.65
UC Davis
37.9% for College of L&S Social Sciences/ Capped weighted UC GPA 4.00-4.25 Unweighted 3.80-4.00
UC Irvine
31.4%/ Capped weighted UC GPA 4.03-4.26
UCLA
11% for College of L&S Does not admit by major/ Capped weighted UC GPA 4.18-4.30 Unweighted 3.90-4.00 Weighted uncapped 4.33-4.71
Brain and Psychological Sciences 27.9% College of L&S does not admit by major/ Capped weighted UC GPA 4.12-4.29
UC Santa Cruz
78%/ Capped weighted UC GPA 3.81-4.20
San Diego State
Psychology-Neuroscience 39%/ Campus CSU GPA 4.04
Cal State Stanislaus and Fresno also offer a Cognitive Science degree which would be Assured/Very Likely schools for you while Cal State San Marcos offers a Cognitive Science Minor.
Other than adding more UCs and CSUs, you may want to add OOS offering merit. Did you take SAT or ACT? S24 from CA got merit offer from Ohio State and Oregon State, COAs were very close to in state UCs. By Spring, you won’t regret to have more options. Good Luck.
All you can do is apply. You appear to have a good record of rigor and EC’s. Good luck!
If your family qualifies for a CalGrant or the Middle Class Scholarship, please have your counselor submit your transcript.
You’ve done a great job in high school! Congrats on senior year!
I agree you need to add UCR, UCM and UCSC just to be safe - did you take chemistry? For Cog Sci/Neuro my guess is that the competitive UC’s would likely expect to see more of the common STEM AP’s including Chem and Bio (I know you did CC Bio) and your AP Calc was low (did you do ok in the class?) which I think will make it a bit tougher.
I wouldn’t say your EC’s are weak, but they are a little bit all over the place - my advice would be to work really hard on your PIQ’s to expand on the activities that you spent the most time doing/that are the most important to you. Even just reading this I’m not sure what you are interested in - the dental EC’s throw me off -are you interested in dentistry as a career? I think we have a poster on CC that is a dentist who could maybe share some perspective.
I think with compelling PIQ’s if you are able to show who you are and what you bring to the table you have a good chance, and I am wishing you every bit of luck!
I definitely was concerned about the lack of STEM based classes too… I took honors Chem sophomore year and that was about all. I know I got a really bad score on the Calc exam but I did understand it when I was in class and ended up with an A. Yes, dentistry is what I’m interested in as a career and I was going to write about that in one of my PIQs including the radiology course I completed.
First off, I think you have a high likelihood @ the 3 UC’s I mentioned in my last post, so, that’s good news.
I think your choice of major (Cog Sci/Neuroscience/Disability Studies) and your actual interest in dentistry is the disconnect for me, and I worry for you that maybe the UC’s may think that too because we don’t see much evidence of your major interests in your EC’s.
S24 is currently studying Aerospace Engineering in UCD. His ECs were color guard and taekwondo. EC is OK to be not related to major. But the PIQ should be related to the major applying. In OP’s case, they are applying to different major for different UC and then they talk about their interest in dentistry in PIQ. One of the AO may ask what is disability study has to be with dentistry?
You don’t need to talk about career aspirations or major in your PIQ.
PIQ 1 is leadership
PIQ 2 is creative
PIQ 3 is talent or skill
PIQ 4 is educational opportunity or overcoming a barrier
PIQ 5 is overcoming a challenge
PIQ 6 is academic subject that inspires you
PIQ 7 is community
PIQ 8 is anything else you want to share
With the exception of 6, the PIQ don’t really touch on major or career aspirations.
Looking at OP’s list they could choose to write about
Hospital volunteer, food pantry, soup kitchen or mission in PIQ 7.
Youth City Council, HS event or Link Crew in PIQ 1.
Art commissions/art competitions in PIQ 2
CC intro to psych, sociology, cog sci in PIQ 6
They could choose any on their list and write about PIQ 3.
In the A&A section, I would suggest organizing your A&A by importance to you, and possibly type of experience. That might split up your dental involvement into work experience, other coursework and extra-curricular.
My oldest studied Cog Sci with a neuro emphasis at UC Davis. Several people in that major were pre-med. However, Cog Sci at UCI is in Social Studies. After my student was admitted to UCI, we attended an open house and they made it clear that Cog Sci should not be used as a major for pre-med students. This was several years ago, so @fonechip should research if that is still the case before applying as Cog Sci to UCI.
Finally, UC Davis has a great Health Professions Advising department with a very comprehensive website. I suggest poking around on their dentistry page to see which pre-reqs are required for different dental schools. You’ll want to make sure that you will be able to take those courses (without restriction) with a Cog Sci major at the schools you are applying to.
All good advice above. Note that UCLA doesn’t admit by major in the L&S college so don’t stress too much about choosing btw Neuroscience, PsychoBiology, CogSci etc. Focus more on good PIQs that show your personality and passions and what you learned from them.
My S24 is only Ascendant and mentioned Valorant in his common app essay and in his Activities section. Don’t know that it mattered, but he got into his top UCs
Even with 6 you don’t need to talk about your major or career aspirations. My daughter did that PIQ and talked about a subject that had absolutely NOTHING to do with her major (and acknowledged that, saying something like, even though this has nothing to do with my intended major, I hope to pursue my passion for learning more about X at UC).
(joking.)