Chance me for T30, UCs: CA resident, 3.8 UW GPA, 1560 SAT [3.92/4.21/4.33 for UC]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

US Citizen
Bay area, CA
Public school, competitive school district

  • Other special factors:None

Budget: No constraints

Intended Major(s) - provided in terms of preference : Math + CS , Data Science, Undeclared otherwise.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.8 (Expected by Dec 2025)

  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.15 (Expected by Dec 2025)

  • California Unweighted GPA 10-12th grade: 3.93
    *California Weighted GPA :4.44
    *California Weighted capped GPA: 4.23

  • Class Rank: School does not provide class rank. expecting to be in top 10%

  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1560

List your HS coursework
English, Spanish 1,2,3, Algebra, Geometry, Algebra II, Pre-calc, US History,Biology, Chemistry, Physics

AP total : 7 so far, 4 more planned in senior year
CS principles, AP European history ,Calc AB, Physics A, CSA (Junior),Phycics C Mechanics, Physics C E&M
Planned in senior : Calc BC, AP Stats, AP Micro economics, AP Macro

Awards:
3rd place in international chess competition
The College Board National Recognition Program award
School award for having GPA higher than 3.6

Extracurriculars
*Leadership: President and COO for an Educational non profit serving middle schoolers, rising sophomores across 4 states and serve under represented students internationally.

*Research + Volunteering: Foundational Mathematical research focussing on efficient algorithms. This is a research work with intersection of History, Math, computer science. Working closely with a data scientist as a mentor. Looking to submit work for regeron STS or a potential publication. work in progress.

*Data Engineering & Backend summer intern at a nationwide animal shelter organization catering towards animal welfare during natural disasters. Have a pet and was naturally drawn to this effort due to recent LA fires.

*100+ Volunteer hours in local food packaging and distribution center for homeless & low income families

*4 years self taught Piano - cleared level 4

*Self employed Tutor -Taught Spanish for elementary school kids

Essays/LORs/Other
*I expect a strong recommendation from my Math and English teachers who have taught me for 2 years straight. Have a good rapport with both teachers
*expecting a very strong recommendation from my research mentor

Schools
Reach: UIUC, UCB, UCLA, Wash U, UT Austin, Rice, CMU, JHU, Emory, Harvey Mudd, Georgia tech, UMich Ann Arbor, probably 1-2 Ivys which Value ECS and research

Target: UCSD, Cal Poly-Slo, UC Davis, US Irvine, Purdue, UMD, university of wisconsin

Safeties: SJSU, SCU,

Scholarship: Not needed. Can fully fund.

PS: I messed up my freshman grades which brought my GPA down to 3.5 during freshman year. Have had As in Sophomore and Junior year (1 B on AP euro history). feel this will likely kill my aspirations to apply for top schools.

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What is your current GPA? To have a shot at some of these, you’ll need to apply EA and the applications will be due before your first semester grades are complete. Also, the UC schools usually have a RD deadline around Nov 30.

I think your list is properly categorized but you have a lot of reaches and the list could use some trimming. If you haven’t yet identified which Ivies you’d like to apply to, maybe drop those and a few more.

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What was your SAT math score?

I would think UIUC is a target for you. Which Ivies are you considering (Princeton and Cornell)?

Before finalizing your list, do some homework on which schools throw out your freshman year grades (or at least give them less weight). Based on the attached article, several schools on your list throw out freshman year grades.

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Current UC GPA uW is 3.92 and Weighted is 4.33. Capped weighted is 4.21. But regardless, colleges and schools do consider your 1st semester grades on your as part of admission process. Decisions to take that into account…isn’t it?

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SAT Math is 790. I have read the article you have linked, but they seem to be merely speculating on freshman grades to be discounted. I doubt it. As much as I want to feel optimistic, i could not. mt reaalization to do well only stuck me in summer of freshman year. Too late I guess.

I think I atleast have a decent Shot at UCs, but they are also super duper competitive given bay area landscape and the push given by tech parents in general.

Any advise is highly appreciated. Can anyone actually confirm if the university list in the link is true?

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Check the websites of the schools listed in the article. Their policy re freshman grades might be provided there. If not, call the admission offices. What do you have to lose?

I am glad your SAT was weighted towards math; CS programs will be looking for that.

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Sometimes they’ll ask for second semester grades if deferred, none of my kids were asked for them.

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Current uW GPA is 3.73 and i don’t have the confidence of getting accepted with EA in any reasoably good school. Looking to bump it up to 3.8 by December which I believe many colleges will consider. I may be wrong.

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Any schools you apply to early action, they won’t even have your first semester grades. For example, UT Austin’s early action application deadline is usually mid October and their regular decision deadline is December 1. Sure, you can send updates after you receive those grades, but the decisions might have been made already.

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Blockquote Any schools you apply to early action, they won’t even have your first semester grades. For example, UT Austin’s early action application deadline is usually mid October and their regular decision deadline is December 1. Sure, you can send updates after you receive those grades, but the decisions might have been made already.

This will make it more difficult for me I guess given my GPA is ot even in the median range for my reach schools

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SJSU CS has recently had threshold admission scores equivalent to ~4.3 weighted capped GPA, so it would be a reach with your 4.23 unless your high school is in Santa Clara County (bonus points equivalent to +0.25 GPA).

Other majors at SJSU are typically less selective (often much less selective). Data science and math recently admitted down to 2.5 weighted capped GPA (the CSU minimum).

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Santa Clara is likely only a safety if you apply ED/EA. If you apply RD, it’s a significantly harder admit.

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I will start with safeties, because having solid safeties is critical. I am not sure whether SJSU is a safety or not. Your guidance counselor should know better than I do. You need to make sure that your safeties really are safeties, and that you are happy with your safeties.

I thought that the various universities of California did not care about your freshman year grades. I also am not sure whether Stanford cares about Freshman year grades. Freshman year will be less important pretty much anywhere. This might help you.

Stanford would be a reach or a high reach. I might be tempted to add it to the list anyway (and no, it is not “an Ivy”, but it is superb for math and CS).

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UCs calculate their GPAs for just 10-11, but they also have holistic admission and see your whole transcript including 9th grade.

Most CSUs use 10-11 GPA, but CPSLO uses 9-11.

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What does this mean - expected. Many schools are using just 10th/11th.

So where are you currently?

Of course, your SAT won’t count at the UCs.

You’ll get into some - but you have too many to apply to.

You can certainly add safeties with more heft than the two listed - if that’s a thing to you - like UMN, as an example.

Good luck.

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There’s 200+ of these - so expand your list - a UMN, Pitt, Ohio State, ASU, U of A, Rutgers, UF, UGA, FSU, RPI, Penn State - and and many many more including UCs you are missing - all are great schools.

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Also, courses taken in 9th grade need to passed (C or higher grade) to count for a-g subject requirements.

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Not all. UIUC for example does not look at semester 7 grades whether in EA (even though they release decisions end of Jan) or RD. So, get your app in EA. CS alone is a high reach, Math + CS maybe a low reach, could be target (haven’t seen Class of 2029 acceptance rates yet.)

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Not UCs and CSUs for most applicants, since the application deadline is too early for those grades to be visible.

However, admission offers are contingent on earning high enough grades in in-progress courses reported on the application.

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Given that OP hasn’t shared his actual unweighted GPA, I’d still put Math + CS as a low reach for OOS. LORs won’t come in to play there, and they also recommend 4 years of foreign language and social science. I’m not seeing the recommended rigor. This could be an issue at a lot of the reach schools.