Chance Me/Match Me For UCs as an Econ major (MAJOR UPWARD TREND) [CA resident, 3.83/4.17/4.25 GPA for UC, economics, political economics, cognitive science, data science, business, computer science]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • Us Citizen
  • State: CA
  • Public High School (pretty competitive, ranked top 60 in CA)
  • First Gen student
  • Current Junior

Cost Constraints / Budget
I’m in state for UCs, so I’ll get good aid

Intended Major(s)

Econ/Political Econ/Cognitive sci?/Data sci?

I’m not too sure, but ik I want to do something with Business or CS

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.83 (UC GPA)
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.17 (UC GPA)
  • Freshman GPA 2.5
  • Sophomore GPA 3.7 (No APs due to bad freshman year)
  • Junior GPA 4.67 (5 Weighted/AP courses)
  • Class Rank: (pretty bad due to freshman year grade)
  • ACT/SAT Scores: None

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: Regular English, unfortunately, hopefully AP Lit next year.
  • Math: AP Precalc(junior), probably AP Calc AB/BC and AP Stats next year
  • Science: APES
  • Social Science: APUSH, planning AP US Gov and AP Macro
  • Language other than English: Vietnamese, 2 years only, maybe 3 if I take it next year
  • Visual or performing arts: Honors digital media(senior year)
  • Other academic courses: APCSP, Honors Accounting

College Coursework (Transfer Applicants)
(Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)

  • General education course work:
  • Major preparation course work: Micro(senior), Accounting 102 (managerial accounting and junior year)

Awards

Seal of Civic Engagement, Some business seal I got freshman year (idk what it’s called), Student Athlete Award

Extracurriculars
My best EC: Cofounded a Pokémon business with my brother, managing 3-10k of revenue per show. Profits 25K+, projected to scale to six figures by the end of my junior year.

100+ hours of community service for my club

50+ hours of Catechist Assistance teaching kids about God

Sports: Varsity Basketball, Football, Track

Schools
UCI, UCSD, UCSB, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Cal Poly, CSUF, SDSU, USC

Please help me find some more schools to apply to next year. I’m considering only in-state because of my poor freshman grade.

Questions:

How can I improve my ECs

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This is the easy part. For ECs, do what is right for you. Whatever you do, do it well. Treat people well. To me this sounds like what you have already been doing, and it is the right thing to do.

Leadership is not about being the boss or getting your way. Leadership is about helping other people, and doing the right thing.

Starting a business that is actually successful is a very good EC. Community service is a very good EC.

This makes good sense for multiple reasons. California has very good in-state public universities. My understanding is that on the most part they do not care about your freshman year grades. Also, in-state public universities are likely to be relative affordable for you.

You have a good list of schools to apply to. The only question I have is that I am not certain whether or not it contains a safety. Your guidance counselor should know whether or not some of the schools on your list are safeties. If not you might add one or two other in-state public schools.

My other comment is that given the excellent quality of your many in-state public universities, you should be focused to a large extent on finding a school that is a good fit for you. Rankings do not matter. Finding a good fit does matter.

I think that you have come back very well from a poor freshman year, and you are doing very well. Congratulations on the strong uptrend! This is going to help you a lot in the long run.

Best wishes.

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Hi! Thank you for your response! The only safety I have on my list is CSUF, which has a 90% acceptance rate, so I think it’s reasonably easy to get into. Thank you for your advice!

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If I’m not mistaken, Cal Poly and USC do use freshman year grades in their GPA calculation. I’m not 100% sure, though, so definitely double check that.

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4.17 is weighted capped or fully weighted for UC?

Also, there are three Cal Polys and two CSUFs. You may want to specify which ones.

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Sorry for the misunderstanding. 4.17 is capped uncapped is 4.25. CSUF= Cal state fullerton and Cal Poly Slo

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You noted you’ll get good aid.

Are you open to out of state ? What is your budget ?

You could go OOS, sometimes cheaper than a UC.

Will you test (you have USC) on your list?

If you just want CA schools for wanting to remain in state, no issue.

But if budget is the reason, you might find cheaper elsewhere.

I don’t know your level of need. Why I’m asking.

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Yes ofc open to out of state! I really don’t have a budget in mind but i would say 15k is around the upper limit I did net cost for most of the ucs and its expected that I have to pay 9-10k. Yes ill likely test this summer (SAT) I’m predicting in the range of 1300-1400.

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Ok - $15k likely staying in state. You are counting room & board in that UC cost ? You have access to WUE but in most places room and board alone is $15k.

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I don’t know how accurate is the net cost calculator on the school website, but I put in the on campus housing option and it came out to around 10k.

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Good luck - being low in Freshman year, UCs are the right place to be!!!

Good luck.

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Cal Poly SLO and USC consider 9th grades in their GPA calculations.

Cal Poly Pomona and Humboldt do not and calculate out the CSU GPA like all the rest of the CSU’s with 10-11th grades.

Since you are a Junior, you still have a full year of course/grades to complete to calculate out your 3 UC GPA’s, your SLO GPA and your CSU GPA’s. An Upward grade trend is a plus.

Below is some Economics/Business Economics UC and CSU admit data and admit GPA ranges just to give you an idea of which schools to target.

Campus Economics/Business Economics major UC GPA
UC Berkeley 15% For the College of Letters and Sciences. Campus Weighted uncapped 4.32-4.68 Capped weighted 4.15-4.29. Weighted UW 3.90-4.00
UC Davis Admission by College: 37% for Economics Campus Capped weighted 4.00-4.27. Unweighted 3.79-4.00
UC Irvine 33.4% Economics/Business Economics 26.4% Campus Capped weighted 4.04-4.28. Unweighted 3.83-4.00
UCLA Admission by College/Social Science Discipline 9.3% Social science discipline Weighted uncapped 4.41-4.76 Capped weighted 4.20-4.30. Unweighted 3.95-4.00
UC Merced 81% Campus Capped weighted 3.54-4.15
UC Riverside Economics 99%/Business Economics 96% Campus Capped weighted 3.65-4.16
UC San Diego Estimated 23% Economics/13% Business Economics Campus Capped weighted 4.11-4.28 Unweighted 3.84-4.00
UC Santa Barbara Admission by College: 37% for Economics (pre) or Economics and Accounting Campus Weighted Uncapped average 4.29 Capped weighted 4.09
UC Santa Cruz 67% Economics Campus Capped weighted 3.83-4.20
Campus Economics CSU Capped weighted GPA
Cal Poly SLO Projected 13.5% 4.04-4.25 SLO GPA
San Diego State 55% Average Campus CSU GPA overall 4.06
CSU Fullerton 86.8% for the College of Business and Economics Average Campus CSU GPA 3.68

Good luck and come back to update when you apply next year.

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Below is some Economics/Business Economics UC and CSU admit data and admit GPA ranges just to give you an idea of which schools to target.

Edited the quote so the campuses are listed along with the original post.

Campus Economics/Business Economics UC GPA
UC Berkeley 15% For the College of Letters and Sciences. Campus Weighted uncapped 4.32-4.68 Capped weighted 4.15-4.29. Weighted UW 3.90-4.00
UC Davis Admission by College: 37% for Economics Campus Capped weighted 4.00-4.27. Unweighted 3.79-4.00
UC Irvine 33.4% Economics/Business Economics 26.4% Campus Capped weighted 4.04-4.28. Unweighted 3.83-4.00
UCLA Admission by College/Social Science Discipline 9.3% Social science discipline Weighted uncapped 4.41-4.76 Capped weighted 4.20-4.30. Unweighted 3.95-4.00
UC Merced 81% Campus Capped weighted 3.54-4.15
UC Riverside Economics 99%/Business Economics 96% Campus Capped weighted 3.65-4.16
UC San Diego Estimated 23% Economics/13% Business Economics Campus Capped weighted 4.11-4.28 Unweighted 3.84-4.00
UC Santa Barbara Admission by College: 37% for Economics (pre) or Economics and Accounting Campus Weighted Uncapped average 4.29 Capped weighted 4.09
UC Santa Cruz 67% Economics

for these stats, what schools are they for? or is it just like the average of every ucs

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Sorry, did not realize that the campus column did not post into the table. I have updated the table.

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I still don’t see the school…or am I missing something?

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I edited the original post with the campuses but OP quoted the non-edited version and asked the question about the missing information so now my original and quoted posts should match. Having some issues with my computer. Sorry about that.

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I see it now - much thanks!!