Didn’t read the entire post, but look at Tulane.

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a good student (A- unweighted at a decent but not "top tier" private school outside DMV), strong standard ECs (varsity sport/club leadership, community service), strong SAT (1510).
Major: Undecided social sciences

Has anyone had a DC attend or have experiences at these colleges that you'd be willing to share?
University of Denver
UW Seattle
McGill
UC Davis or UC Santa Cruz
Santa Clara
U Wisconsin Madison

Finally, would these reaches (USC, BU, tufts, NYU, UCSB, Michigan) be too high of a reach for this profile student? He's interested in applying but I'm afraid they're too reachy.

This is a great list. Of the reaches, I would give Michigan a maybe - need strong essays - especially why Michigan. I agree with the PP that gave advice on the potential major/interest. I don’t work in admissions, but I have to imagine it’s like when I am looking for a handful of interns that could be working in very different tasking for a related set of majors. I am comparing resumes of the people that have similar skill sets/interests so there are times where maybe 20 resumes have one thing but only 5 of the other and we need one person for each task …while also realizing there is some flexibility where people might help put on an adjacent area on the team.

For Tufts, BU, and NYU there is likely a bump applying ED. But honestly, your family would need to feel very comfortable possibly giving up UC in-state tuition and not being able to compare offers from other schools where your DS might get some merit or would be a lower cost than those reach private universities in major cities. Applying RD to Tufts, NYU, or BU, besides being more competitive than ED, he won’t get a decision until late March/early April while other schools on his lists have EA. Under other schools to look at I would add Pitt.

Also they have to look at their list in terms of schools that offer EA, when the decision would be in, and if demonstrated interest matters. I think McGill and Santa Clara could all have December decisions if applying EA and Pitt could be prior (it’s rolling). My kids both had a ton of EA schools so they had to be done with majority of applications by Nov 1 if not slightly earlier - this included visits if possible and having strong Why x school, if needed.

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a good student (A- unweighted at a decent but not "top tier" private school outside DMV), strong standard ECs (varsity sport/club leadership, community service), strong SAT (1510).
Major: Undecided social sciences

Has anyone had a DC attend or have experiences at these colleges that you'd be willing to share?
University of Denver
UW Seattle
McGill
UC Davis or UC Santa Cruz
Santa Clara
U Wisconsin Madison

Finally, would these reaches (USC, BU, tufts, NYU, UCSB, Michigan) be too high of a reach for this profile student? He's interested in applying but I'm afraid they're too reachy.

If you like USC, with those stats and an undecided major, I would try going EA.

the first few pages of this thread are useful!

following ...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP if you are white and your son is not a recruited athlete then apply to private universities. The UCs really do not want white males.

My in state white male DS applied to 3 UCs and got admitted to 2 of them (Davis and Santa Cruz).

High performing white male students at his HS got into Cal and UCLA, and 2 of them got into both.

My instate white male with tippy top stats applied to 7 and got into 4 UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara , UC Santa Cruz and UC San Diego, waitlisted but didn’t get off at UC Irvine, rejected at UCLA and rejected at Cal. He was the ONLY non athlete recruited white male to get in from his school. He had a lot of AP and DE courses 40+ all As and 12 semester units of regular summer session Cal classes with straight As. I’m guessing this helped overcome his demographic and gender disadvantage.

His class was 50% white, 30% asian, 20% Hispanic and other. It was really weird but apparently the norm for our school. Especially since several of the white male students offered only UC Merced got into to private T15 schools.

What was your DS's UC weighted GPA? They are test blind so they don't count his SAT/ACT. I agree that no standardized tests disadvantages all male students according to data as males have better test results on average.

4.0 UW, can’t remember weighted for just sophomore and junior year he took the max APs allowed at our school, 1 honors and 1 AP, junior year he took 4 APs mix of AP Calc BC, APUSH, AP Lang, AP Physics. Our school is really restrictive on how many APs and what year you take them because they always have staffing problems. He would have loved to take APUSH and AP World his freshman year but never allowed here, sigh. This is why he did a bunch of DE classes his senior year. There were no math options beyond BC, not allowed to take both AP Gov and AP Macro, no Micro available etc. Should have bought a house a few streets over and been in a different school system, oh well. Not sure if UC factored in his summer Berkeley unit since they were between junior and senior year.

I think it doesn't matter what APs you'd be allowed to take in freshman year, since UC don't count anything from grade 9 at all. As I understand it, they have a formula for only your grade 10 and 11 classes. They only count A-G classes for those 2 years. For weighted UC GPA they give an extra bonus only for AP (not honors) classes or the private-school equivalent of APs for those 2 years, but it's capped at 8 semesters total (or 4 full-year classes at AP-type level). So it doesn't incent taking more than 4 full-year AP-type courses total over grade 10 & 11 together. That becomes the only GPA they look at: the weighted UC GPA. It won't matter what your school's unweighted or weighted GPA is. I don't know how they treat DE classes so maybe those wouldn't help? I do know that Essays and ECs matter..

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP if you are white and your son is not a recruited athlete then apply to private universities. The UCs really do not want white males.

My in state white male DS applied to 3 UCs and got admitted to 2 of them (Davis and Santa Cruz).

High performing white male students at his HS got into Cal and UCLA, and 2 of them got into both.

My instate white male with tippy top stats applied to 7 and got into 4 UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara , UC Santa Cruz and UC San Diego, waitlisted but didn’t get off at UC Irvine, rejected at UCLA and rejected at Cal. He was the ONLY non athlete recruited white male to get in from his school. He had a lot of AP and DE courses 40+ all As and 12 semester units of regular summer session Cal classes with straight As. I’m guessing this helped overcome his demographic and gender disadvantage.

His class was 50% white, 30% asian, 20% Hispanic and other. It was really weird but apparently the norm for our school. Especially since several of the white male students offered only UC Merced got into to private T15 schools.

What was your DS's UC weighted GPA? They are test blind so they don't count his SAT/ACT. I agree that no standardized tests disadvantages all male students according to data as males have better test results on average.

4.0 UW, can’t remember weighted for just sophomore and junior year he took the max APs allowed at our school, 1 honors and 1 AP, junior year he took 4 APs mix of AP Calc BC, APUSH, AP Lang, AP Physics. Our school is really restrictive on how many APs and what year you take them because they always have staffing problems. He would have loved to take APUSH and AP World his freshman year but never allowed here, sigh. This is why he did a bunch of DE classes his senior year. There were no math options beyond BC, not allowed to take both AP Gov and AP Macro, no Micro available etc. Should have bought a house a few streets over and been in a different school system, oh well. Not sure if UC factored in his summer Berkeley unit since they were between junior and senior year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP if you are white and your son is not a recruited athlete then apply to private universities. The UCs really do not want white males.

My in state white male DS applied to 3 UCs and got admitted to 2 of them (Davis and Santa Cruz).

High performing white male students at his HS got into Cal and UCLA, and 2 of them got into both.

My instate white male with tippy top stats applied to 7 and got into 4 UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara , UC Santa Cruz and UC San Diego, waitlisted but didn’t get off at UC Irvine, rejected at UCLA and rejected at Cal. He was the ONLY non athlete recruited white male to get in from his school. He had a lot of AP and DE courses 40+ all As and 12 semester units of regular summer session Cal classes with straight As. I’m guessing this helped overcome his demographic and gender disadvantage.

His class was 50% white, 30% asian, 20% Hispanic and other. It was really weird but apparently the norm for our school. Especially since several of the white male students offered only UC Merced got into to private T15 schools.

What was your DS's UC weighted GPA? They are test blind so they don't count his SAT/ACT. I agree that no standardized tests disadvantages all male students according to data as males have better test results on average.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP if you are white and your son is not a recruited athlete then apply to private universities. The UCs really do not want white males.

My in state white male DS applied to 3 UCs and got admitted to 2 of them (Davis and Santa Cruz).

High performing white male students at his HS got into Cal and UCLA, and 2 of them got into both.

My instate white male with tippy top stats applied to 7 and got into 4 UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara , UC Santa Cruz and UC San Diego, waitlisted but didn’t get off at UC Irvine, rejected at UCLA and rejected at Cal. He was the ONLY non athlete recruited white male to get in from his school. He had a lot of AP and DE courses 40+ all As and 12 semester units of regular summer session Cal classes with straight As. I’m guessing this helped overcome his demographic and gender disadvantage.

His class was 50% white, 30% asian, 20% Hispanic and other. It was really weird but apparently the norm for our school. Especially since several of the white male students offered only UC Merced got into to private T15 schools.

Anonymous wrote:Why is this useful thread being derailed by the anti-UC mob?

Sorry OP!

It’s relevant because her son has an A- GPA, 1500 SAT, good ECs and plays a sport but is unlikely to be admitted to the top 6 UCs because he is qualified and from the Bay Area. It’s sad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UCs are trying to mirror the state. They can’t match it exactly but there is a crazy gap between what achievement is required from a Latino student vs what achievement is required for an Asian or white student. The top six UCs have substantially increased their % of Latino students while reducing the % of white students despite state testing showing a wide gap with Asian/white students scoring higher. It’s clearly a goal as every year each of the top six schools immediately releases a PR statement on how many more Hispanic and FGLI students they admitted.

A white or asian 4.0 kid WTH 1500+ SAT who took actual rigorous courses in a difficult school, scored 5s on APs, had great ECs ends up with UC Merced or Riverside as their choices . A Latino kid from Watsonville, Modesto or Stockton who is handed a 4.0 from their high school while not even achieving middle or elementary school math proficiency and is unable to write a term paper gets a free full ride to Cal, UCSD and the rest.

As California has a two tiered in state college system, this is just ridiculous. The unqualified and unprepared students could easily go to their regional or other Cal states or go to community college to address their remedial skills and then transfer.

As a voting group Latinos voted against reinstating affirmative action. This is solely the UC regents and a minority of people in the state and UC system orchestrating this.

UCs became test blind in 2020 so they can not look at test scores at all. So state testing results by demographic group is not relevant for test blind schools.

lol UCs are intentionally test blind so they can admit unqualified students! Originally UC planned to replace the SAT with the CA state tests but found that the Latinos were scoring just as low on those tests. UCs know they have a bunch of unqualified students and despite budget cutbacks now have to create remedial classes for these students. These students belong in community college or maybe a Cal state not wasting resources at the top UCs are taking spots from qualified students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:add Georgia and V Tech

V Tech is far from the city though.

And athens is a small town

Why is this useful thread being derailed by the anti-UC mob?

Sorry OP!

Anonymous wrote:UCs are trying to mirror the state. They can’t match it exactly but there is a crazy gap between what achievement is required from a Latino student vs what achievement is required for an Asian or white student. The top six UCs have substantially increased their % of Latino students while reducing the % of white students despite state testing showing a wide gap with Asian/white students scoring higher. It’s clearly a goal as every year each of the top six schools immediately releases a PR statement on how many more Hispanic and FGLI students they admitted.

A white or asian 4.0 kid WTH 1500+ SAT who took actual rigorous courses in a difficult school, scored 5s on APs, had great ECs ends up with UC Merced or Riverside as their choices . A Latino kid from Watsonville, Modesto or Stockton who is handed a 4.0 from their high school while not even achieving middle or elementary school math proficiency and is unable to write a term paper gets a free full ride to Cal, UCSD and the rest.

As California has a two tiered in state college system, this is just ridiculous. The unqualified and unprepared students could easily go to their regional or other Cal states or go to community college to address their remedial skills and then transfer.

As a voting group Latinos voted against reinstating affirmative action. This is solely the UC regents and a minority of people in the state and UC system orchestrating this.

UCs became test blind in 2020 so they can not look at test scores at all. So state testing results by demographic group is not relevant for test blind schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:doesn't your kid's school have a guidance department? how the hell are we supposed to know what the school's reaches are? we know nothing about the school -- not even where in the country it is.

DS is a junior so college counselling starts after the new year and I wanted to do some research prior to that meeting next month.

Have them ask / "push" for help from the department or administration. Sorry to hear the school doesn't support kids as early as 11th grade - our private starts at 9th with sessions for kids and parents.

Anonymous wrote:My DS is a good student (A- unweighted at a decent but not "top tier" private school outside DMV), strong standard ECs (varsity sport/club leadership, community service), strong SAT (1510).
Major: Undecided social sciences

Has anyone had a DC attend or have experiences at these colleges that you'd be willing to share?
University of Denver
UW Seattle
McGill
UC Davis or UC Santa Cruz
Santa Clara
U Wisconsin Madison

Finally, would these reaches (USC, BU, tufts, NYU, UCSB, Michigan) be too high of a reach for this profile student? He's interested in applying but I'm afraid they're too reachy.

We were transplants too! Some things that I did not realize about UC admissions as a transplant. Public schools and maybe private schools have CSF and other designations for community service. If you didn’t start this because you weren’t here lean into community service on your application and in the other section write about how you moved here.

UCs will recalculate your grades as whole grades. Sucks if you had a 89 but awesome if you had an 80. Your gpa may be lower or higher than you thought.

If you are in Santa Clara County, the Peninsula or Fremont be aware that public school kids in your area are racking up DE credits in addition to in school courses and APs. Some have been doing it since 8 th grade. Some even do programs where they take honors level CC courses. If your kid is interested and willing and can get an A take some in the spring, summer and fall. Look at the general ed requirements for the UCs you want and take courses that transfer, especially courses that overlap GE and major pre reps.

UC and Cal state give extra rigor points for lab sciences.