Irvine is definitely not a safety. You might not want to go there, but admissions are difficult. Likewise, CS is one of the most difficult majors to be admitted into. If it isn’t your love, you might look at other majors (ex. Cognitive Science).
You are a junior, so the UC GPAs that you calculated are based off of one year of school. You have this year to work hard, and continue to get good grades.
Which CSU would be considered your local campus? Would you consider attending that campus?
You are just starting junior year. Get to know your teachers.
If you are concerned about freshman grades and your LOR, look at the UCs and CSUs. All of them (except for Cal Poly SLO), don’t use freshman grades, LOR or test scores.
Have you looked at the UC Personal Insight Questions? They are different from the Common App personal statement. Your experiences don’t need to be unique. Each PIQ has a couple paragraphs under it with comments/questions. If you draft an essay trying to answer those questions, it should come together nicely.
Question 1 - Leadership. You could write about your job or maybe your club. You are a junior, so you have a year to identify situations in which you “positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes or contributed to group efforts over time.”
Question 3 - Greatest Talent or Skill. You could write about fencing.
Question 6 - Academic Subject that Inspires You - You could write about Latin or any other subject that you feel fits the prompt.
Question 7 - What have you done to make your school or community a better place? - You could write about the youth community service club or maybe one service activity.
I would also look at the UC Activities and Awards section and start drafting that now (early). Include:
- Award or honor
- Educational Prep Programs
- Extracurricular activity
- Other coursework
- Volunteer / Community Service
- Work experience
Fill in as many of the 20 as you can. Start with the most important. Through out this year, work on identifying things that you can add to your Activities & Awards list.
Finally, UCSB has some very good You Tube videos with pointers on the UC application.