(Reposing bc I didn't get enough answers the first time) (also I made it a discussion instead of a question lol)
Hi, I am an South Asian student in California coming from a semi-high income neighborhood, I moved around a lot before 7th grade and then COVID hit where I fell behind on Science & ELA due to bad teachers. I am going into senior year with a 3.83/4 UW/4.44W. It may go up due to 2 college courses which will be articulated.
SAT 1530(750ELRW/780Math) taken once. I will take the SAT a few more times if I can and try the ACT.
POTENTIALLY Ntional semifinalist for NMSQT, I got 217 or smth as my SI but Cali is normally 218-220.
Academics: 14 community college courses(All As but only some articulated to HS), Bs in both semesters of Honors Bio, HChem, and HPhysics, HEng9, and B 1st semester of AP Lang. 9 total APs, with 5 in APHUG in 10th. 11th I was super sick during exams and got 3 AB (Prereq for BC at our school), 3 Lang, 3 CSA, and 4 Stats.
For some ECs, I have 600+ Volunteer Hours, with PVSA Gold and 2 years at a COVID vaccine drive. CommonApp about the drive.
I work for a nonprofit providing middle schoolers with the opportunity to learn and compete at math comps. 3rd place at Stanford Math Tournament as a sophomore, no other math comp bc of access issues.
Led my community's first 3 5K runs, free for the first 2 and raised 2000+ dollars on the third, 500+ participants total. The club (SMAP Youth Club) also raised 300 lbs of food per year for 3 years.
Self study on 4 languages not including English.
Water Polo (JV,JV,JV,Var). and Swim 4 years (JV,JV,Var,Var) and got top 3 finishes at every final tournament for swim. Did lifeguarding partitme and taught kids how to swim for about 8 months, was lead lifeguard for my city's public swim program for a total time of about 30 hours (It was only a week long)
Went to CA State and National Spech and Debate Tournament, won straight 1st and 2nd at League level in my events.
Looking to publish math research.
Hook: 1st gen US immigrant
Dream School: HYPSM - (Yale & Princeton) + Columbia
Poll: What schools should I apply to realistically? Keep in mind I am in-state for UCs.
1. T10/Ivy
2. T20/UCLA/Berkeley
3. T30-50
4. You're 100% cooked
a) How cooked am I?
b) If I do good on ACT Science (34-36) can that make up for my bad science?
c) Do I work on GPA (Not much I can do), SAT (Will probably go up 20-30 pts.), or ECs (And what if so)?
Thank you!!!
fingers crossed lol
It's almost certain that you'll get into UCLA or Berkeley as you're in-state, but above that, your SAT score is not nearly enough to compensate for your GPA. Try to get it as close to a 1600 as possible, but keep in mind it's a little unlikely you'll get into a T10/HYPSM/Ivy.
To keep this community safe and supportive:
so actually i think you could go to harvard if you wanted!