Chance Me!

Chance Me / Match Me
1

Hi everyone! I am going to be a Senior this fall and I would greatly appreciate some insight on where I stand based on my stats and involvement in my community. These are the colleges I plan on applying to as of now:

Emory University (Top choice)
Umich- Ann Harbor (Top choice)
UCLA
USC
Johns Hopkins
Vanderbilt

Home State: Minnesota

ACT Composite is 31: 27M 34R 31S 30E. Superscore would not improve any of these sections.

I am not taking the SAT, but I got a 680 for the Biology Subject Test.

I have a 5 on AP Human Geo and a 4 in APUSH. I am not reporting my AP AB Calc and AP Lang scores and am waiting on my AP bio score.

Weighted GPA: 4.058 (17/585 class rank)
Unweighted GPA: 3.923 (22/585)

I am heavily involved in AP and honors classes, am pursuing a variety of clubs which I am committed to, and posses a multitude of leadership roles.

Student Council: I have had a leadership role every year since 7th grade, including being the President both at the Junior High and High school.

Theater: I have done Theater for 4 years and am currently the Vice-President.

HOSA: HOSA is essentially a medical club. I was President Junior year and helped organize and lead blood drive in the school. I also competed and won first place for two events at the State level, and was a finalist at the National level.

I was a nominated delegate at Boys State.

I volunteer 2 hours every week at the Emergency Department of my Hospital (St.Francis).

I know this is not considered a hook, but I was one of the two chosen students in the district to be on the Core Planning Group. The group consisted of the school board, principals, teachers, and community members. I was representing the student body in regards to an addition that was being made to our high school building. I consider this a big thing that makes me stand out from other students, and plan on writing about it for my essay.

My biggest concern is my ACT score. For a lot of these schools, I am in the 25 percentile. I am hoping that my involvement in my school and community makes up for the score, but I am curious to what you all think.

THANK YOU for reading through all this! I know this can be boring information, but any commentary is appreciated!

2

Can you afford UCLA with no financial aid and $60K/year?
Intended major?

3

My parents are willing to cover my costs. Their priority is me finding a college I am happy with. I plan on majoring in either Biology or Neuroscience.

4

ACT of 31 is within range but on the low side for UCLA especially Biology/Neuroscience. You need to calculate your UC GPA (capped weighted) and Fully weighted for UCLA. They only use 10-11th grades for the a-g course requirements. You also get extra honors points for AP/IB or DE courses taken in 10-11th grades since you are OOS.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Make sure you meet all the a-g course requirements if applying to UCLA including the year of a Visual/Performing arts course.

Also make sure your parents realize that UCLA will cost them $240K/year for your undergrad. As a parent, I see many applicants say their parents will cover any costs for a good college education, until the reality hits and they underestimated how much it really costs.

5

It’s umich Ann Arbor not Ann Harbor

6

@Gumbymom how does it equate to 240k a year? The website of UCLA says that average cost is around 60k a year.

7

Sorry for 4 years at $60k/ year not including transportation costs to fly home?? Still a large amount for just undergrad. What are your career plans? Grad school? Professional schools like Law, Medical, Dental etc.

8

I will be an incoming freshman at umich this year and got in with similar stats (31 ACT, 4.1 weighted, 3.85 unweighted.
I took all AP/honors courses and was heavily involved in a variety of activities. Admissions into this school can truly go either way as they get tons of applications from kids with similar stats. I think you have a chance at Michigan and I would let your admissions rep know that Michigan is your top choice! Good luck!

9

@Gumbymom do you know if UCLA offers any form of merit aid?

10

UCLA offers little in automatic merit aid. Regents which is around $2000/ year and goes to the top 1% of applicants. Chancellor scholarships are between $1K-5K/year. Prospective students are invited to apply.
These awards a drop in the bucket compared to OOS costs.
Many of the scholarships have a need aid component only applicable to in-state applicants.

http://www.scholarshipcenter.ucla.edu/scholarship-search/ucla-scholarships/

Run the NPC to give you an estimate of costs.
http://www.financialaid.ucla.edu/Prospective-Student/Net-Price-Calculator

11

@Gumbymom UCLA offers Regents to only 100 applicants out of ~100,000. That makes it about 0.1% (not 1%).

12

@uclaparent9: Thank you for the correct number in regents.

13

@Gumbymom ^ The confusing part is the percentage of “candidates” in most of the UCs (about the percentage you quoted) and the actual percentage offered.

14

@uclaparent9: I am guessing the top 1% qualify but not all are offered the scholarship as proven by the stats you quoted. 100 out of the 100,000.