My younger brother has 3.4 unweighted GPA and 1900 in SAT. As he’s an Asian int’l student (who is always put in a higher standard than domestic students), he probably does not have much chance for many schools which domestic students with the same grades can go to. He probably wants to stay in California for college, but I have no idea which school is the best for him. UC Riverside and UC Santa Cruz are suggested for him by SuperMatch, but all of my international fellows got accepted to them with much higher GPA if my memory is correct. So, if you think these lower UCs are not reachable for him, which schools should he consider? In my opinion, the best path is to go to CC first and then transfer to UC. Cal State is another option, but I heard that transferring from CC to UC is more promising than from Cal State. Is this factor significant enough for him to choose CC over Cal State? I’m concerned about this, since I suppose Cal State has slightly higher academic standard than does CC, and that it is definitely better for him to be surrounded by (slightly but still) more competitive students. Is there any other nice school for him, in California or any other state?
What does it mean that he’s an “international student”? Does he attend high school in California and has done so for 3 years?
Yes, exactly.
Is he a junior right now? The UC GPA will include only his grades from 10th and 11th grade. There are at least three months left in this semester, which is plenty of time for him to work to bring up his grades. To assess his chances, try calculating a UC GPA without the freshman year grades.
Yes, he is. His grades for freshman is already excluded from this unweighted GPA. But since I didn’t calculate UC GPA, I will try to calculate it. I appreciate you for reminding me that.
Use the UC GPA indeed.
Check that he won’t be considered “in-state” if he attended HS in CA and will graduate from a CA HS.
UCI, UCSC, UCR, UCM are all accessible, as are SDSU, CPP, CSU LB.
His odds are okay at LMU, Chapman, good at Redlands, Whittier, and reach but possible at Occidental depending on his curriculum rigor, ECs, and essays.
He’d have a good shot at Willamette, Lewis&Clark, UPortland. Perhaps Whitman but it’d be a definite reach.
Thanks for your list! This is really helpful for him to decide which reach schools to apply to.
The in-state versus international determination will make a significant difference in both his chance of admission and the financial cost. Has he attended HS in CA for the past three years? Is he seeking financial aid?
Yes. As I experienced by myself, this difference is huge. He has attended HS in CA for the past three years. He’s not seeking financial aid.