<p>I am currently a sophomore at an Illinois high school. I haven’t taken honors courses yet, although I will be taking honors Chemistry next year (and that will probably be the only honors I can ever take - don’t ask). I currently have a culmulative unweighted 3.76 GPA and I am in several extracurriculars. I haven’t taken the ACT/SAT’s yet. I am aware that admission for UCLA is much more difficult for an out-of-state applicant. From this point, what should I focus on or do to potentially gain admission? All I can think of is getting an extremely high score on the admissions tests, but I’m sure there are other things I can do. Also, I know AP exams help place you in higher level classes, but do they help you gain admission as well?</p>
<p>I would recommend deciding on which SAT II subject test(s) you plan on taking (besides Writing and Math), and study for those test(s) in advance over the summer. I don’t think good AP exam scores will help you gain admission nearly as much as good SAT II exam scores will. It’s hard not to see an applicant with multiple 5s as well prepared for college, but I think UCLA is trying to downplay the AP tests as much as possible to level the playing field to underprivileged schools without many AP curriculums…</p>
<p>UCLA is getting crazier year by year, as well as the other UCs… except for Berkeley, somehow. I know a bunch of kids at my school that didn’t get in UCLA, UCSD, or even Davis and Irvine that made Berkeley.</p>
<p>Basically, if you have under 4.00, you have a very, very small chance. Even people IN state have a 6% chance with under 4.00. Good Luck though…</p>