How are my chances for UCI?

oceanpartier
Thu, 23 Jan 2014 20:03:54 +0000

I’m going to say your chances for admission are extremely low…but I suppose weirder things have happened before. Of course, grades and test scores are just numbers…but nonetheless a huge factor they consider when making decisions. The UC in general tends to place more weight on GPA, and yours is really subaverage. For UCI in particular, a 4.0+ weighted GPA and an 1800+ SAT score seem to be the golden combo for admission, based on previous years. You seem to have a pretty average amount of AP courses for HS kids these days so that may help your cause a bit. Major is irrelevant for admission unless you are applying for Engineering, Nursing, Business Administration, Art, ect; basically anything that is more competitive/talent based.

On the personal statements, its a bit unfortunate that you decided to focus on grades when “describing your world.” I think they meant more like your interests, what drives you to do what you do…ect. I am also very sorry to hear about your mother’s health problems, but if I were an admissions officer, I would not admit you out of sympathy alone. Unless you’ve proven through your activities and volunteer work that you have a passion/interest for medicine, its just not a very convincing argument. As for the second prompt, I really just don’t see the connection between you playing basketball and helping "people in general."Okay, so you were the captain, and your team set new records. That a great accomplishment…for your team. Hopefully, you’ve discussed what you did personally that led to this accomplishment and demonstrate that your leadership made a difference. Otherwise, it may just come off as a lot of ego driven bluffing. I mean obviously I have not read your statements, nor am I an admissions officer but I’m just pointing out some possible pitfalls…incase you were hoping that your statements alone would merit admission.

With all of that said, sometimes, its just a really random process…so you shouldn’t give up hope necessarily. Just try not to feel too severely devastated or anything if a rejection is thrown your way. You are already guaranteed (short of you failing a class or something) a spot at a great school. TBH, you’re really luck to have gotten into to UCR especially since admission standards to that school have become increasingly stringent in the past few years. It’s still a very good school. Good luck! I hope that did not come off too harshly.