Chance me for UCLA, UCSD, UCI, mcb or human development major, CA resident, 3.83UW, 4.00 (UC GPA), 1410SAT

Chance Me / Match Me
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From all of my research into similar questions, for Cal Poly SLO it is strictly major based. You can look up how many students applied last year, how many they want to target, then multiply that by 2x or 3x because of their yield rate is estimated at 1/3. One thing I have found in my research for the same school is that some majors have high yield so the admittance probably wont even be 2x, for others it will be higher.

For UC my research showed me a few things.

  1. The most important factor to UC acceptance is to apply
  2. The next most important factor is how you actually fill out the application to tell your story. People who really articulate their story well in their PIQs and activities get accepted to UCLA and UCB even with GPAs much lower than the 25%-75% they show. That’s why it is 25%-75%. Its after December 1st so its after the application deadline but for anyone else reading this for next year, control what you can with your grades, but start thinking about your 20 activities and awards and how that all reflects what you intend to do. Do these relate to your major, start thinking about that.
  3. GPA is also important, but the least of the factors since everyone seems to have very high GPAs, thats why the way you write the application and the activities is so important. Use every character and tell the important stuff. Tell the impact and reflect, not just what you did. They want to hear your genuine voice, and in all the feedback I received it was always “ATFQ” as my dad who was a Marine Corps staff sargent would always say before he passed. Its an interview, not an essay. Someone is going to spend 8-10 minutes evaluating something you will spend months on, or at least something you should spend months working on.

Good Luck to all applicants. I am excited to see my results and hope you all see value in whatever results you achieve. I don’t have “perfect” grades but I am proud of my grades and am hopeful my work on the various aspects of the application will show my strengths and who I am. The UC app was the most satisfying to work on because I felt like it actually reflected me, as opposed to the CSU app which is really unfortunate in how they disregard the whole applicant and just focus on GPA and course rigor.

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