Hello! I would just like to see what possible schools I may or may not have the chance of attending or what schools I should consider applying to. Thank you!
Demographics
California In State Student
First Generation Student
School does not offer any AP’s or sports, only CC courses and regular HS courses.
Intended Major(s)
Chemistry or Data Science
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
3.97 Unweighted
4.23 Weighted
17/76 Rank
Not submitting test scores.
College GPA: 3.946
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: ENG CP (4 years)
Math: Math 2 CP & Math 3 CP (2 years)
Science: Biology CP & Chemistry CP
History and social studies: American History CP, World History CP, American Government CP, Economics CP
Language other than English: N/A
Visual or performing arts: N/A
Other academic courses: none
**College Coursework ** (Include college courses taken while in high school if not included above.)
General education course work: ENG 1A, DRAMA 10, COM ST 1A, SPAN 1, SPAN 2, ANTHR 2, CIVIL 3 (there are some more but this most of them)
Major preparation course work: MATH 38A, MATH 38B (precalculus sequence), CHEM 3A, CHEM 1A, CHEM 1B (current) (chemistry sequence), MATH1 (next semester)
Awards
Associates in Arts and Associates in Science by May 2025
Extracurriculars
President of Volunteering Based Club (4 years involved)
Student Government Treasurer (3 years involved)
Student Government Historian (3 years involved)
Yearbook Committee (1 year)
Science Olympiad Coach (1 year)
Red Cross (4 years)
(these are some of the main ones, but clubs are big because there aren’t many other things offered)
Schools
*UCB, UCLA, UCI, UCD, UCM, UCSD, USC, Cal Poly SLO, Cal Poly Pomona, and SJSU
For the more competitive UCs, average PIQs probably won’t cut it. They can be pretty important to your admissions chances, so I would definitely invest additional time making them as good as you can.
I would also add that Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation so you can use the CSU GPA calculator and add in 9th grades to get your SLO GPA.
UCs and CSUs expect frosh applicants to have high school year 2 or equivalent or higher in language other than English. Heritage speakers would have to show some proof of proficiency (AP score of 3 is one way). If SPAN 1 and 2 are Spanish in college, that should fulfill.
UCs and CSUs also expect a year of art in high school, or a semester college course in art for frosh applicants. If DRAMA in college is performing arts, that should fulfill.
Hello! Just coming back to update about acceptances!! I applied as a chem major to all of these schools except UC Santa Barbara (ChemE) and UC Riverside (Data Science)
CSU (California State Universities)
Cal Poly SLO - Acceptance
Cal Poly Pomona - Acceptance
San Jose State University - Acceptance
Sacramento State - Acceptance
UC (University of California) (I’m still waiting on UCB, UCSB, and UCLA)
UC Irvine- Acceptance
UC San Diego - Acceptance
UC Davis - Acceptance
UC Merced - Acceptance
UC Riverside - Acceptance
USC… My application for that was really not my proudest work so we can take that off the list.
Hi! Thank you so much! I think UC Irvine/Davis are in the lead for me! Summery weather with UCI and Davis is pretty close to home which is convenient! I’m also considering a pre-dental advantage program with University of the Pacific as well!
I like UC San Diego but I go to a dual enrollment focused school and for students at my school UC San Diego doesn’t really like accepting the credits we’ve accumulated at a Community College (especially for science classes which makes sense since they want ‘their education’ and I would rather not do general chemistry again)
You should check the requirements for dental school. They may want the same, like UCSD. And retaking will likely get you better grades and make you more competitive. DE classes will likely not be as strong as college classes even though that’s what they’re intended to be. So as you adapt socially and to life, that repeat may be a blessing in disguise.
UCI is known as a suitcase campus. Does that bother you ?
Thank you for the additional advice! I don’t think UCI being a suitcase campus really bothers me too much as of now since I tend to be more of an at-home person, but I think it would be better for me to branch out more. I think retaking would get be better grades for certain classes but at the most I would be retaking classes for one or two B’s. GPA is really important for dental school though so that really would help improve it. I don’t think I’ve delved that deeply into the dental school requirements, but I will check that out soon! Do you happen to know any dental schools that are more or less against dual enrolled CC credits?
@WayOutWestMom, do you know if dental schools have similar protocols as medical schools in terms of the views about courses taken at community colleges, repeating classes, etc?
The vast majority dental schools include every college level class ever taken in GPA calculations. i.e. do not allow grade replacement.
AADSAS (the centralized application service for dental schools) instructions are here: Transcript Entry - Liaison
RE: community college classes–this is school dependent. Some will accept CC classes; some won’t. Those that do accept CC (or AP or IB) coursework for pre-reqs, strongly recommend that those classes be supplemented with additional UL electives in the same department.
And, no, there is not a single, complete listing of dental school policies. A student will need to check the website of each dental school they plan to apply to.
Of course, then there is the more complicated task of checking on dental school policies regarding community college courses and repeating courses.
Different dental school policies can put you in a no-win situation, such as one dental school not accepting community college courses (so you have to repeat for that dental school), while another dental school looks down on repeated courses as grade grubbing.