I live in NYC, I went to a pretty bad hs which offered next to no aps and next to no ec’s. I only really started to understand college admission’s in the summer of my sophomore year (currently in) and I’ve heard it’s to late to start any serious EC’s, I’ve only been in art 9-12 (president) only an hour a week, book club(10-probably till senior year if people stay in the club), soup kitchen probably 11-12 and I’m getting a job. My gpa’s about 3.9 unweighted, top 2-3% class rank out of about 100 (thats not saying much) my grades aren’t inflated as all of my NYS regents are 90+ though I would say that everyone else gpa in my hs are inflated (only ten kids in my class passed the chemistry regents this year, highest score under me was like a low 70) also the school only offers 2 years of foreign language. I’m pretty sure I can hit a 2000 on my sat but my EC’s and classes are weak ( I took the most rigorous course available (aps avalible in senior year) and took extra community college classes) what are my chances at schools like NYU, USC, and Binghmton?
I know my chances aren’t great so should I move to california and try to transfer into a UC? or what should I do?
That’s not true. I helped start a club in my junior year that I definitely believe will help me. I would hold off on chancing you until you have standardized test scores (which probably need to be around 2150+ for NYU and USC, not sure about Binghamton). If you took the strongest course load your high school has to offer, well then you did the best you could and colleges will certainly see that. I would say anything started before you are a rising senior is okay. Try and find some meaningful extracurriculars. That will help you. And do the best you can in your classes. Don’t worry about any thoughts of transferring now. Good luck.
Honestly, it’s best that you get a job in CA and then work for a year, qualify for in-state and then go to CC and transfer up. There are threads about transferring after the first year at CC and then to UCLA.
If you start in CA as a student you will pay out of state rates at UCs. That 55k. They may give you some need aid but they will always charge you at least the OOS supplement plus 8k minimum so that is minimum 32k a year. You would not be able to come up with that likely. Plus meanwhile you will be paying expensive housing to go to a CC with out of state CC tuition. Where is this idea coming from that your think this is workable, who is paying for this?
This is not at all nuanced. To go the ‘work for a year’ route, you need to be ‘independent’ which means not dependent on anyone else and usually means 24+ years old. If mom and dad are covering your healthcare, you are dependent. It is very tough to be truly independent as a CA transplant.
With a 3.9,UW GPA, 2000 SAT, decent ECs and essay, you can probably get into UCD, UCI, UCSB.UCSC, UCR and UCM as a freshman. Depending how those college courses show up on your transcript, they may bump your GPA significantly and could open the door to UCB, UCLA and UCSD. Of course OOS tuition is $55k/yr.
You’d also be in the running for USC.
Since you seem pretty intent on studying in CA, I’d encourage you to look at some other privates that are likely to offer some merit aid. USD, LMU and perhaps Chapman in SoCal as well as Santa Clara up north.
Apply to a bunch and see what happens.
Good luck