Berkeley 23.1%

Davis 58.2%

Irvine 55.4%

UCLA 23.3%

Merced 79.5%

Riverside 75.9%

San Diego 41.1%

Santa Barbara 54.2%

Santa Cruz 81.6%

This information is part of the profiles of admitted students to all UC campuses for Fall 2007 (detailed breakdown of GPA, SAT, ACT, SAT II, and other statistics) at: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/educators/counselors/resources/materials/ITU.pdf starting on page 37.

In general, to prepare for UC schools, you should complete the a-g requirements (ask your counselor for the approved courses at your high school or check online at http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/ ), study and do well in your high school courses and standardized tests (SAT and/or ACT, and SAT II), take as many honors and/or AP courses as you can handle (or take community college courses in the a-g subject areas that are UC-transferable), participate in educational preparation programs available at your high school (see a list on my blog), and commit to one or two extracurricular activities in which you develop leadership skills (more is not better, quality is better than quantity).

UC schools (especially Berkeley and UCLA) will weigh the following components of your application (in the order of importance): 1) your essay (new personal statement prompts will start for the Fall 2008 application cycle: http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergrad_adm/apply/how_apply/personal_statement.html ) about your background, personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution, aspiration and/or experience that highlight your motivation, dedication, and/or initiative to achieve, and any special circumstances like hardship; 2) your grades and any grade trends (improvements are better than just maintaining a high GPA); 3) your test scores, including SAT and/or ACT, SAT II; and 4) number of AP courses completed compared to the number of AP courses offered at your high school. Other factors are taken into consideration, but to a lesser extent.

There is certainly a difference between a lower-tier college and a UC, but within the UCs, or within some of the CSUs, YOUR personal education is more important than the name of the school. Some specific programs at a CSU are better than a general education at a UC. If you want to get more focus on teaching, rather than famous professors, or are interested in certain majors that CSU does well, go there.

As for extracurricular — be yourself. Do something well, that you care about. If you love student government — do it. Don’t join the student government because it looks good on an application. It will show if you have a bunch of vague stuff and you cannot be excited about it or it doesn’t appear in your essay or recommendations. Be a good Boy Scout, or a good bike racer, or a good something. How many applications will a college see that have the same stuff on them. Be able to write about what matters to you, whether or not it is what everyone else has.

Good luck.

“The entrance requirements established by the University follow guidelines set forth in the Master Plan, which requires that the top one-eighth of the state’s high school graduates, as well as those transfer students who have successfully completed specified college work, be eligible for admission to the University of California. These requirements are designed to ensure that all eligible students are adequately prepared for University-level work.”

This is from the general UC System website. If you are not in the top 12.5% of ALL the students in California, you will not get in to ANY of them (California State System is for you in that case).

UC Berkeley generally has the highest requirements. They have the formula posted on their specific site. But they are all pretty much the same.

For all of them, you have to apply in November for the following Fall Admission. (Nov 2007 for Sept 2008)

UCLA

UC Berk

UC SD