<p>@afourally I went, but didn’t ask anything haha. Must have been another Nicole. By the way, you literally are applying for the same clusters in the same order as me :D</p>
<p>@yongki you have really great stats, but there’s probably two things holding you back. First off, Davis biomed is THE most competitive cluster on all 4 campuses. Second, priority is given to incoming seniors, then juniors, then sophomores etc. I know that at ucsd they only allowed one incoming freshman in last summer. It’s not a maturity issue or something of that sort, just that older students need it for college apps more, and incoming 9th don’t have meet the prerequisites. I’m not saying to NOT apply, because an eight grader did make it, just that your chances are probably going to be much slimmer.</p>
<p>does anyone else feel terribly inadequate filling out the application? i know that half the people on here have outstanding stats but I just started taking physics this year and just discovered my interest and passion in it so I have never been in any competitions or anything…</p>
<p>will it be appropriate for me to put that i did 5 yrs of choir for the “academic activities” section? I’m a section leader and I only ahve NHS, CSF, Science Alliance in that section. ahhh…</p>
<p>Let me tell you guys a secret I learned. The only thing that really matters are your essays really. If you don’t have that much extracurriculars don’t trip about it. Let your personality and love for science/math shine through your essays. Don’t be worried about GPA, teacher recommendations, etc. If you can prove that you are devoted to science/math, and stand out, it’ll be fine. However, I’m not saying grades/recommendations don’t matter and if anything, extracurriculars don’t matter at all. For God only knows if an individual is lying and what not. I’m sure the admissions office isn’t stressing out on extracurriculars.</p>
<p>if I have a cluster as a second or third choice, will it effect my chances of being accepted into that cluster?</p>
<p>@lalalove7: If you don’t have any more EC’s, you may as well add choir. Apparently the admissions officers like seeing music, especially if you have a leadership position. It can’t hurt. (:</p>
<p>@afourally, Thanks for that. I go to a charter school that doesn’t offer these sorts of programs, which is fine by me, but every time someone posted about their inadequate EC’s (which were amazing compared to mine) I started to worry a little more…</p>
<p>@cosmogony thanks for the advice. Yeah I’m just gonna add that in. </p>
<p>Also anyone ever heard of business round table or student recognition project?</p>
<p>I’m passionate about math and science but it’s so hard to show that through ink and paper :(</p>
<p>@jesskidding: do you have any cosmos advisors on your campus? Luckily, I have one and they’re hosting a meeting for questions about the essay. If anything, you should really email someone from cosmos and ask for clarification and ideas. Or if you know anyone that participated in cosmos last year.</p>
<p>Whhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Lucky you…A friend who got in last year sent me her essay and it was so generic. It was essentially “I like math because I like solving puzzles”. ._. She is Hispanic, if that makes any difference.</p>
<p>important question:</p>
<p>I know people say that acceptance rates/difficulty depend on individual clusters i.e. UCD Biomed, but can anyone rank the four campuses based on general difficulty?</p>
<p>I know that UCD is usually considered the most difficult, but what about UCSD, UCSC, and UCI?</p>
<p>I am trying to find the numbers of 2011 applicants on their site, but since they altered their layout this year, it is a bit hard to navigate (more familiar with last year’s) :)</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore applying for UC Davis and I’m looking for some advice on what to put in my activities boxes.
For the activities, I have so far:
HOSA Club outreach officer, ACSEF (science fair), NASA INSPIRE OLC, Medical explorers/medcorps (just a member), and school newspaper writer.<br>
Last year I got awards in Science Olympiad regionals, and was also on the ocean science bowl team, and I’m wondering if I should swap these in for the school newspaper/medex, since they might seem more relevant. However, my school can’t participate in SciOly or Osci this year, so everything from those was last year. Suggestions?
Also I have a dilemma with the school GPA. It says to put in weighted gpa exactly as it shows up on the school transcript, but my school doesn’t weight gpa on the transcripts. I have a 4.0 unweighted but if my school weighted, I’d have a 4.43. What should I put in? Anybody run into this problem?</p>
<p>@kairoux
Ooh, I’m applying to UCD too! What cluster is your top choice? Mine is Cluster 8.
At the open house that I went to at UCD, they said you just put in your unweighted gpa for your weighted if your school doesn’t do weighted and that you shouldn’t try to calculate your own weighted gpa. Also, I would put SciOly in. It’s much more relevant, and I put down SciOly stuff from middle school since my high school doesn’t offer it. D: (I’m also a sophomore.)</p>
<p>I’m really stuck on deciding which campus to apply to…
I already ruled out UCSC but the other ones… not so much
UCD:
- Biomedical Sciences
- Mathematical modeling of biological systems
- Chemistry of Life</p>
<p>UCSD: </p>
<p>UCI:
- BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES–CLINICAL TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE: THE NEXT GENERATION OF BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH
- TISSUE AND TUMOR BIOLOGY AND MATHEMATICAL/COMPUTER MODELING
- THE WORLD OF MOLECULES: THE HEART OF CHEMISTRY</p>
<p>UCSD:
- Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine
- Bioengineering/Mechanical Engineering: The Amazing Red Blood Cell
- Biodiesel from Renewable Sources</p>
<p>I’m leaning towards UCI because the first two are really interesting to me… but UCD the stuff I chose are like the exact same as UCI. Which one is more competitive?
Because I don’t think I’m a very competitive applicant. My GPA sucks butt and my EC’s are not THAT great.</p>
<p>And for UCSD the first choice is VERY interesting to me but the other two are like meh.</p>
<p>AHHHHH!!! what should I do?</p>
<p>@cosmogony
My first choice is biotech which is really ambitious but oh well 
After that I put mathematical modeling and computers in biophys.
Thanks for the help and good luck!</p>
<p>Ok, since this seems to be the main concern at this moment:
UCD is considered the most difficult to get into. UCI is next. And UCSD and UCSC are pretty much tied.
But it’s not the campuses that are necessarily why they’re competitive. It’s mainly because UCD and UCI offer a “medical” type cluster. THOSE are the cause of competetion.
But, honestly, choose something that you’ll love doing, after all, you’ll be spending practically the whole summer in it :D</p>
<p>UCI comes after UCD?
Why do other threads say UCI is the least competitive then…</p>
<p>@nicole
is the Tissue Regeneration cluster of UCSD as competitive as the other medical clusters, such as UCD Biomed/Biotech?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>"Ok, since this seems to be the main concern at this moment:
UCD is considered the most difficult to get into. UCI is next. And UCSD and UCSC are pretty much tied.
But it’s not the campuses that are necessarily why they’re competitive. It’s mainly because UCD and UCI offer a “medical” type cluster. THOSE are the cause of competetion. "</p>
<p>OK this pretty much mean I’m screwed.</p>
<p>@momentum I’ve been researching like crazy, and it seems like the majority of threads put UCI in second. Plus, the stats from a few years back show a smaller acceptance rate. I’m not sure about the tissue engineering cluster at UCSD, all I know is that it’s my first choice XD
@quidditch you’re not screwed! Just prove you’re passionate. It’s just good that you’ll be walking in on the application completely ready. (:</p>