Can I make it into UCLA?

Question

Will I be accepted to UCLA with the following?
I speak French fluently and I am the first person in my family to go to college. I have a weighted GPA of 4.12 academic GPA 3.7 . By the end of my senior I would have taken 13 exams passing 7 exams. I was the president of the French club and this year I am the president of the European Club. I played in the advanced Jazz band my junior year only because it was difficult( I played the piano). I took two other foreign languages at school. spanish 1-2,3-4,AP Language, this year AP Span lit.(only non-native in class), also took german 7-8 got a B both semesters(studied a lot over the summer). Language and music are my hobbies. However I was not in sports. I have a low SAT of 1630 and ACT composite 23. I did 50 hours community service. Volunteered 150 hours as teacher's aide and outside work. I also went to Long Beach City college in the summer of my sophmore year to take Intermediate Algebra and Spanish 3. As a result I am in AP Span Lit

Answer 1

Your GPA does not even come close to matching your test scores (i.e. your scores are much lower than they should be for somebody with your GPA). If I were an admissions officer, I would assume you're going to a pretty easy high school in terms of grading (your class rank might help contradict this). And passing slightly more than half your AP exams is nice but not an accomplishment that's going to shine. If I were you, I'd have a really good reason for those test scores (and not just "I'm bad at testing") since's it's too late to practice and retest.

On the plus side, you seem to be very fluent in foreign languages and this is something many other applicants will not have. Your extracurriculars and volunteer service are also meaningful and pretty good.

I wouldn't hold my breath on getting into UCLA, there's a lot of competition for those spots. Your A- GPA is okay (probably about average) but given that your test scores are really very weak, I'm afraid they might cost you an acceptance letter. Emphasize your extracurriculars and skills in languages and try to explain (but not overconcentrate) why your test scores don't match your high school performance. That's probably your best shot.

Answer 2

UCLA is all about extracurriculars. I guess Berkeley is looking for a more rounded student. BTW...Berkeley's acceptance rate this year is 22%. So it went down one percent from last year. The UC system is so messed up. I know this girl who has a 3.2 GPA and did not take any AP classes, but she got accepted to Berkeley. It's like a lottery almost.

Answer 3

I got accepted (I chose Cal over UCLA) with similar GPA scores, but a 1290/1600 SAT score. If the ratio sticks, that would have been a 1935 on the new SAT.

The most important factor of making it in is probably going to be if you are a California resident or not.

Answer 4

You should make it in to UCLA with out to much trouble. But if you dead set on going there talk to a councilor about it. They may have a special program to help you get in. Many colleges have special aplication programs that let you inrole to them early so your name is at the top of the pile, but usualy you can not apply to other schools untill after a certin date. also you could see if they have a gureented acceptance program with your community college and go there to get you ge out of the way, that is what I am doing. assist.org has all the agreements between colleges. good luck.