Chance Me: UCs, NYU, USC, and more. CA resident, 3.83 UW [3.85/4.05/4.49 for UC], possible NMSF, for English/History/Philosophy

Chance Me / Match Me
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hii im still a junior, but seeing as im applying to colleges this year, im wondering what you guys think!

Female, White (not quite sure if i could say Middle Eastern, as the Common App does seem to have its own category for that now. so take that as you will.)
Southern California
HIGHLY competitive magnet school
Both parents were educated in Syria, Dad did medical school there but did his research at USC, residency at Indiana University, and fellowship at UVA. Mom has an associate’s degree in finance from a community college.
Upper-middle class.

Intended Major: Considering applying differently depending on the college, but all humanities subjects. English/History/Philosophy are my main choices for now.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.83/4
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.39/5
  • Class Rank: Class doesn’t do it, as far as I’m aware.
    Almost entirely As, a couple Bs here and there but mostly in weighted classes. No Cs or below. I took 7 classes every year and plan to take 7 again for my senior year.
  • ACT/SAT Scores:
    Haven’t taken the SAT yet, but I’m scheduled for the May 4th and June 1st dates. But I mostly applied to UCs, so I’m not too worried about this ngl. I did do the PSAT twice and qualified for the National Merit Scholarship, but they’re not releasing the results until mid-May for who’s a finalist, so we’ll see.

Coursework
9th: AP World (5), AP Compsci Principles (4), Honors Cambridge English 1, Geometry, Spanish 1, Biology, PE
10th: AP Euro (5), AP Lang (4), Honors Cambridge Compsci 2, Chemistry, Spanish 2, Algebra 2, Dance
11th: (havent taken AP tests yet. all 7 weighted classes ) APUSH, AP Precalc, IBSL Philosophy, AP Biology, IBSL Spanish 3, IBHL (Yr 1) English 3, IBSL Business
12th: (predicted) AP Literature, AP Calc AB, AP Psychology, AP Gov & AP Macroeconomics (my school makes it so that you finish each one in a semester), AP Environmental Science, Empowering Entrepreneurs Honors, and Academic Tutor (basically a free A that gives me an hour of community service every day)

Awards
Basically nothing. AP Scholar with Honors award. Probably going to get the AP Scholar with Distinction award in the summer, if all goes well. Principal’s Honor Roll every semester of highschool. LOL

Extracurriculars

  • Going to complete a 150 hour unpaid internship in the summer at UCI Health, working with a trauma/emergency medicine surgeon. I mostly got roped into this by my dad, because he was keen on me applying as a bio major despite how many times I told him I had no intention of doing so. I would much rather do an internship related to law, but it’s a bit late now.
  • National Honor Society (never seen that one before!)
  • Volunteering, over 100 hours at different places. But mostly at a nonprofit organization that helps refugees/ex-cons/immigrants (I helped organize a huge gala for them in which 500 people came, including the Mayor of Irvine and the LAPD sheriff). I also have been consistently helping to plant a butterfly garden at a local park, volunteering at Discovery Cube, my local library, Peet Tutoring Club.
  • Piano for 7 years. No certificate of merit, because I don’t really care. It sucks the fun out of music for me.
  • Guitar for 3 years.
  • im semi-active in a bunch of clubs but no leadership roles. Muslim Student Association, Key Club, FBLA, Orthodox Christian Club (i like to explore, ok), Legal Underground, STEAM for All, Care Mission Club
  • Thinking about starting a March on Dimes chapter at my school, but I think starting a club in senior year might just look like I’m trying to buff up my application. Same with a nonprofit.

Essays/LORs/Other
I’m generally a strong writer, and I manage my time well, so I anticipate my essays will be one of the stronger points of my application. Plus, I’m mostly applying to UCs, so I’ll prioritize the supplementals for them first and foremost.
As for LORs, I’m planning to ask for one from my APUSH teacher who I have a great relationship with and my philosophy teacher who also taught me English last year. No STEM teachers, I know, but I don’t really care at this point. I know these two teachers the best, and I trust them with the letters. I’m not sure if my school lets students see their letters of rec, but regardless, I think it’ll be fine. I’m generally well-liked by most teachers, so if they end up unable to write them for me I’ll ask some other teachers.

Cost Constraints / Budget
Might be problematic. I’m high income, but my parents aren’t really planning on paying high tuition, especially for a private school. And I know I won’t qualify very much for financial aid. My parents don’t want me to go out of state either. But we’ll see, I won’t let anything deter me from applying for now.

Schools
Safety:

  • UC Riverside
  • Calstate Fullerton
    (i know that these aren’t guaranteed admissions, but i’d rather just go to community college instead of a really low ranked school that i have no interest in.)
    Target:
  • San Diego State
  • Chapman
  • UC San Diego
  • UC Irvine
  • UC Santa Barbara
  • UC Davis
  • UC Santa Cruz
    Reach
  • UVA (EA. this school holds a lot of sentimental value for me)
  • USC (EA)
  • UCLA
  • UC Berkeley
  • NYU (EA)
  • Cornell
  • U Penn
  • Tulane
  • UChicago
  • Duke
  • Yale (insane reach, i know. but for the meme)

It would be awesome if anyone had any ideas about what I could do last minute to improve my application a bit before I apply. And also, feel free to let me know if there are some schools I should probably just not bother wasting my time and money applying to. Thanks!

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Before you start plugging in your reach schools you need to have a serious talk with your parents about how much they can afford to give you for four years of schooling.
If your parents tell you that they’re not going to pay for your out-of-state tuition, then believe them.

Who’s going to pay the bill?

$80,000 a year is a lot of money. I hope you don’t think that the financial aid offices will be footing your bill.

Students who attend these schools are supported by the Bank of Mom and Dad.

How much money do you think the federal government actually has to give you?

Full rides are RARE. Loans are not going to happen unless your parents decide to loan you the money.

You are allowed to have about $5500 a year in federal loans. The total, over four years, is $27,000. That’s it. That’s all the government will loan to you in your four years of study. $27K is ~1/4 the cost for one year at some of these schools.

Most financial aid is need-based which means if you don’t think you’re going to qualify for financial aid, you probably won’t.

If you apply Early Action, you are telling that university that, come hell or high water, you’re going to attend and pay their full fee bill. (NYU/USC) They will expect to be paid and bound to them paying $90,000 a year.

Financial aid offers do not come with early action acceptances. With that early action application you’re telling them you’re paying.

Scholarships? Too competitive, generally for small amounts and you currently don’t have the GPA and you don’t have an SAT test score competing with hundreds of thousands of students trying to find money for college.

Speak to your parents get a straight budget and check the net price calculator, (NPC) at each school that you plan to apply to and see what they expect you to pay. Each college or university has a net price calculator so that you can get your estimate of costs.

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Can you calculate your 3 UC GPA’s? GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub

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Please don’t use text talk in your posts. What do you mean?

Do the best you can in your academics. Continue the activities you like.

I’d suggest checking the net price calculators for those privates OOS. See what number you get with your parents. If they say that is out of their price point, then so be it.

You are fortunate to have many many CA publics at instate costs.

As an FYI…NYU is over $90,000 a year now.

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I think you mean Early Decision. EA is non binding.

And NYU doesn’t have EA, only ED. OP incorrectly listed NYU as EA.

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If you apply early decision to NYU, your parents, school counselor, and you will need to sign the ED agreement which basically says that if you are admitted, you WILL attend. You are expected to do your due diligence regarding costs before you send an ED application. Which is binding.

If your parents won’t pay the $90,000 or so a year for NYU, then you really can’t agree to this…right? You say your one parent is a doctor and the other works as well. I believe NYU also considers primary home equity which in CA can be quite high.

Think twice before you apply ED.

What was your PSAT score?

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Hi, yeah. It totally slipped my mind that NYU doesn’t do EA. My bad! But yeah, I won’t be applying ED anywhere because it just seems a bit too risky.

Also, my PSAT score was a 1490.

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Yeah, my UC GPAs would be Unweighted 3.85, Capped Weighted 4.05, and Uncapped Weighted 4.49.

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You are a strong candidate- but I’d move all your UC’s (except Riverside and probably Santa Cruz) down to the reach category. Check out this year’s admissions threads and you’ll see students with stronger profiles denied from UCD, UCSB, and UCSD.

Don’t start or do things just for an app - do what you enjoy.

And echo that if your parents won’t pay don’t apply ED. It’s only going to cause a lot of stress this time next year.

Good luck!

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Just an FYI, the National Merit Semifinalists for Class of 2025 won’t be announced until September. The finalists won’t be announced until early 2025 and the scholars in Spring 2025. Your 1490 PSAT may not qualify for NMSF in California, which has a higher cutoff than most states. So don’t put any of this on an application until it actually happens.

If it does, there are many schools that offer great scholarships for NMSF. None on your current list however, except for USC.

Good luck to you!

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This is a helpful source which shows the admitted UC GPA by UC campus for your HS to give you an idea of where you stand along with the # of students that applied, admitted and enrolled.

The UC GPA listed is the Capped Weighted UC GPA.

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Whew!

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Forgot to add that Chapman is also a likely reach, and, along with the other privates on your list, definitely WAY more expensive than the UC/CSU’s.

Your best bet, before you send in any application, is to sit down with your parents over the summer and really discuss price and location.

If they are adamant they don’t want you going out of state, why would you apply to NYU? If you got in and they still felt that way, how would you pay?

Please don’t assume they will just change their minds if you are accepted, that’s a total recipe for failure. Save yourself and your family the stress, and go into application season all on the same page about how far you can go and what they will pay.

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Exactly. With our kids, we all agreed on their application choices. This included cost and location. But we all agreed before the applications were sent. Then when acceptances came in, our kids knew any of the options could be chosen by them.

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Thank you all so much. I realize I probably need to sit down and have a lengthy conversation with my parents about this instead of doing whatever I want. Thanks!

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I agree that all/most UC campuses are in the reach category -especially UCSB and UCSD from the target list. I also think SDSU is possibly in the reach category as well. Good luck!

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Find out what their limit is and run (or have them run) the net price calculators on each school.

Where the results are unaffordable, and there are no realistic merit scholarships that can make them affordable, do not waste time and money applying.

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