Chance me: Do I have a shot at these colleges?

I would say yes to all besides UCLA NYU and UCSB (and a little to UCD) really those I can't say until test scores are final and then it would say you have a chance but for all top tier schools its always a crap shoot, while these aren't ivies / MIT / Stanford /etc they still are great schools and can still be crapshoots

Assuming you meet the projected SAT scores, you should be able to meet the UC entrance requirement, but that doesn't mean you get into the campus you apply for. UCLA and UC Berkeley may get more applications than any other universities in the country, and getting into those campuses is very difficult. The average GPA for UCLA is over 4.0 and UC Irvine is just under 4.0. Personally, I'd rather get admitted to UCSD than UCR any day.

If you get into a UC campus and if you are a California resident, look into the Blue and Gold scholarship which you can find under admission/financial aid. You should be able to attend free based on what you said about your financial position.

First: Find someone to edit your admission essay. Your writing is terrible.

Second: It is unlikely that UCLA, UC Berkeley, NYU, UCD will accept you.

If you're Mexican and claim that as your ethnicity, you're a shoo-in for any of 'em. If you're illegal, you'll probably get even more financial aid.

visitawritingcenter wrote:

First: Find someone to edit your admission essay. Your writing is terrible.

Though such a nasty tone isn't required, I second this remark. Poor word choice (Is "chance" really a transitive verb? Are car accidents ever "expected"?) and nonstandard punctuation are not going to impress admissions committees, especially if you're intending to pursue an English major! (I realize it's just a post on a message board; but seriously, if your objective is an English major you need to get in the habit of proofreading *everything* you write. Spelling, punctuation, and word choice *do* count.)

If your SAT score truly is 1800/2400, then you should do pretty well in admissions. It's a good score, and your ethnicity will make it a very good one. (This is just the reality of college admissions, with which I was involved for 20+ years.) I understand that California public schools are supposed to be ethnicity-blind (ha!), but NYU--a private university not in California--is not bound by that law.

I've had some dealings with NYU admissions and I think your chances there would be a bit better than others have said, although a lot of Cali kids go to NYU and you'd be facing a fair amount of competition. Do this:

1) Prep *seriously* for the SAT. Scores that start with "6" will carry vastly greater weight than scores that start with "5." (For non-URMs, substitute "7" and "6" here.)

2) Have every part of your application proofread by one, or preferably two, knowledgeable people. Solecisms show that you're ignorant or sloppy or uncaring; none of those is a quality adcomms want to see!

3) Go easy on a laundry list of extracurricular activities--one or two years of JV participation in sports won't impress any adcomms--and spotlight a very few activities that you pursued with *long-term commitment*, preferably in a leadership role.

4) Get letters of recommendation that back up those spotlighted activities--and that back up your story of achieving academic success as you've overcome a difficult family situation.

5) Reading between the lines, it sounds as though you've struggled a bit in your IB program. An IB credential is impressive--unless it's accompanied by mediocre grades! Work *hard* on your courses and *actively* seek assistance from your teachers. If your grades initially took a hit when you started the IB program, you *must* show an upward trend in GPA from semester to semester. (This shows how you once again "responded positively to a challenge"--a theme of your essay and your LORs.) Your grades at the end of this spring and in the fall semester are likely to be crucial.

Good luck. Nail the SATs and be very serious about your grades. Ask others for help. Get your applications in early. And please keep us updated about your results in the admissions cycle.

Why are you spacing before a period or a comma? "I've"? Do you not know how to use contractions? I began to list all the other mistakes but your whole post contains so many that I decided it was not worth it. English? Seriously?

We just went through this with my oldest. His stats are almost identical to yours - he also has won a lot of awards in band, and he was a good (but not great runner - all region all 4 years, but not all state in XC). He holds school records as a swimmer, too. His SAT was 1900 and his ACT cumulative was 29. So, again, good, but not stratospheric.

He got in everywhere he applied except Michigan which was out of state (and we never could have afforded...) although I went there so I thought he might get a legacy boost. He did get in to Fordham, Centre and William and Mary (where he's going probably ) and got pretty good aid packages everywhere.

So, I'd say if your scores are what you think they will be, only UCLA and NYU might say no. Everyone else on that list will admit you almost for sure.

USNWR is not a perfect measure, but, probably, you should get into any school not in the top 50. Anything in the top 20, probably not. In between...?

What somebody up above said about it being a little bit of a crap shoot is dead on. A friend of my son's got wait listed at W&M even though his GPA was higher - the only explanation we could come up with is that my boy took a couple of harder classes (calculus being the main difference) and had a lot more extracurriculars.

Who knows, though... Both were probably pretty marginal and the decision was more a function of what the admissions guy had for breakfast.

Give the kid a break, English doesn't seem to be his first language. He wrote pretty well for that case, as we can easily discern what he was trying to say with each sentence.