<p>Here’s my situation:
I’m an Asian American living in the bay area, attending one of the most competitive public HS in the nation (-100 appeal points to admission officers, we’re seen as academic robots).Thus, I took 5 weighted courses in my junior year (school didn’t offer any weighted courses in my sophomore year, unless if you skipped a year in math). Since I live in California, I plan on applying to at least 3 UCs. (Davis, SD, LA) Considering the courses I have taken (all honors sophomore year and 5 weighted junior) and my corresponding GPA (3.6667 UW, UCs only look at sophomore and junior) and an SAT of 2200, I was fairly confident that I would get into at least 2, if not all 3 of the UCs, since my senior friends got in with around the same gpa. </p>
<p>Here’s the kicker:
After browsing online for the gpa average of those schools, I just realized how screwed I am. My GPA is nowhere near the 75th percentile. <a href=“University of California, San Diego Admissions Statistics and Chances | Parchment - College admissions predictions.”>University of California, San Diego Admissions Statistics and Chances | Parchment - College admissions predictions.;
<p>My question is:
How badly off am I? Do I have to consider lower schools such as UCSB and UCSC? Will my course load difficulty help? Do I have a shot at those 3 schools?</p>
<p>Thanks for reading! </p>
<p>You’re lucky to have 2 or 3 UCs that you like and could get into that are some of the best public universities in the world and that will cost you much less than any of those other world-renowned universities. Your scores are very good. Your odds of admission may be average or above. What a great position to be in.</p>
<p>Are you looking for a sure thing? There are no sure things in life, and no one can promise you any. Lesson learned? </p>
<p>You’ll get a very good to world class education at any one of the five UCs you have in mind. And you’ll do it relatively inexpensively. I’ve got a lot of envy but not a lot of sympathy for you, OP.</p>
<p>@jkeil911 haha thanks for the comment! It’s just that my school views UCs as meh schools. I’ve been conditioned to think this way too. It might seem ridiculous to an outsider, but that’s how our school operates. That’s why I’ve been aiming for the top UCs, like LA, SD, and Davis. My only concern is that my GPA may not be up to par with those of the 3 schools that I have mentioned. Is my concern validated? <- that’s my ultimate question.</p>
<p>If your GPA is in the 25th-75th percentile you have a decent chance given your ACT/SAT is also in the 25th-75th percentile range. There is your answer</p>
<p>Calculate your CSU/UC GPA, see link: <a href=“Cal State Apply | CSU”>Cal State Apply | CSU;
If you are 4.0+ using 4 of your weighted classes than you are a High Match for these schools.
Also check the common data set for each school and see where your Unweighted GPA and SAT scores fall. Like mentioned above, if your higher than 75th percentile your are looking good. Below the 25th percentile, would be a reach. You should also add some safety schools to your list such as UCD/UCI/UCSB. They are all great schools and highly thought of regardless of what your school peers think. </p>
<p>Parchment is garbage. It is not a statistically valid sample, and I think students inflate their stats out there or don’t come back. My kid got into 2 schools last year that Parchment said she had a 12% and 17% chance of admission to, respectively. Agree you need to calculate your CSU/UC GPA. Use @Gumbymom’s approach above, and ignore Parchment completely.</p>
<p>@Gumbymom @intparent well apparently, my UC GPA is 3.87. Is it really that low? I tried self calculating too, and it came out to be a 4.08. My calculation:
Sophomore year:
1st semester: (4+4+4+4+3+3)/6
2nd semester: (4+4+4+4+3+3)/6
Junior year:
1st semester: (5+5+5+4+4+4)/6
2nd semster: (5+5+5+4+4+4)/6
I then added these up all together and divided by 4.</p>
<p>@tguan916: If you used the CSU/UC calculator link I provided and put in all your grades from your a-g courses 10th and 11th grade then added up to 8 points for “qualified” honors or AP classes and you got 3.87 then that is your UC GPA. Remember you only get a maximum of 8 points for (8 semesters/4 year long AP or Honors courses) although you may have taken more.<br>
A GPA of 3.87 is not low but for UCSD/UCLA & UCB, the average UC GPA is above a 4.0+. You do have a chance at these schools, but do not pin all hopes on them. You will need 2-3 Match and 2 safeties, so you do not end up being shut out.</p>
<p>It might help to look at the decision threads for the schools you want to go to. I live in San Diego, and everyone down here knows the UCSD really goes by the numbers, and they don’t try to hide it. </p>
<p>So in sophomore year, you had 4 A’s and 2 B’s, and in junior year, you had 3 weighted A’s, 1 unweighted A, and 2 weighted B’s? That’s the only sense I can make of your original statement that you took 5 weighted classes junior year and you showing three 5’s and three 4’s in your post above.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to say that at all of these schools, you will be competing against people whose grades are nearly all A’s. However, you say you are at one of the most competitive public high schools in the nation (btw I live in the Bay Area too and I would love to know the name of your school, just out of curiosity), so presumably it’s harder to get an A there than at other schools? Your high SAT score seems to bear this out as well. In that case, you might want to focus more on schools that have “holistic” admissions. I <em>think</em> UCLA does, and so does Cal, and of course private schools do as well. Schools that admit purely on the numbers may not be your friends here.</p>
<p>What do you want to major in? All the top UCs seem to be much more selective for STEM subjects than for humanities. Someone else (ucbalumnus?) will know more about which majors in particular have different selectivity than the university as a whole.</p>
<p>Does your school have Naviance? It will probably help you to see where other students from your school who have similar stats to yours have been admitted versus where they were rejected.</p>
<p>Is cost a factor? Private schools can be as affordable as UCs if you get financial aid there (either merit or need-based).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Parchment predictions are garbage, but their scatterplots are surprisingly accurate for me. Their scatterplots are useful because there are so many different functions to play around with. You can change the x-axis and the y-axis. You can use filters to zoom in on the data. You can also use filters to disregard old data (for example, you can choose to only look at the years 2012-2014). Parchment scatterplots are extremely useful for figuring out whether GPA or test scores are more important for a certain college. The scatterplots can also be used to see how the selectivity of a certain college changes over the years.</p>
<p>When UCD and UCI waitlisted me and UCB, UCLA, UCSD, and Cal Poly SLO rejected me, I was very surprised. I had a 2300 SAT score, a 3.66 UWGPA, a 4.29 WGPA, and a 4.00 UCGPA. Parchment told me I had an 81% chance of being accepted by UCD (which was totally inaccurate). Yet, when I looked at UCD’s scatterplot, I saw five other red dots next to my red dot, which meant that there are people with similar stats to mine who were also rejected/waitlisted. I also learned that UCD and most of the other UCs care about GPA much more than SAT scores. Now, I am no longer surprised by my rejections and waitlists.</p>
<p>You definitely have to consider schools like UCSB and UCSC. Your 3.67 UWGPA is too low for most UCs. Before I learned my results, I thought that in the worst case scenario, I would have to attend UCD. I did not even consider UCSB and UCSC as worthy safeties for me. Fortunately, I applied to them anyways.</p>
<p>@dustypig Thanks! Your analysis of my grades are correct. I was thinking the same thing as well. That’s why I’m also aiming for colleges like Boston College, CMU, and Vandy. My ECs are pretty significant. I’m planning on majoring in either design or bio. Cost is not a factor and my school does have Naviance. I go to the notorious MSJHS. Where 90% of the population include over achieving Asians. </p>
<p>@Mangiafuoco well…crap. What do you think your weak point was? </p>
<p>@tguan916
To be honest, I do not think I had any weak points other than GPA and lack of leadership. I had good ECs but did not have many leadership positions. I took IB classes, so my class rigor is not too bad. My essays should not be too bad either.</p>
<p>@Mangiafuoco hm…odd…where did you end up going to?</p>
<p>@tguan916
UCSB.
I do not think my rejections/waitlists are odd. I got rejected/waitlisted by most of the UCs because my GPA is too low, and the UCs do not care much about SAT scores.</p>
<p>@Mangiafuoco Did you try any private schools? You might have had a better shot. </p>
<p>Hopefully Naviance can show you where students at your school who have stats like yours have been admitted. I’d start there. You’re lucky to have plenty of options since you don’t have to consider cost, and your stats are still very good! Be smart about putting together your college application list, and you’re bound to get into a good school.</p>
<p>@dustypig Thanks for the advice! How do I search up previous year’s statistics on Naviance? </p>
<p>It depends on how your school does it, I think. Our kids’ school goes back about 5 years, I think. So a “dot” on a Naviance graph could be anyone from the past five years from our high school.</p>
<p>@intparent yeah, this is our first year of Naviace. Woops. Well, thanks for the help. I think I’ll be focusing more of my energy on private schools like Boston College, Tufts, and CMU. I have stellar ECs and leadership roles, so that’s what I’m banking on. </p>