HS junior in Bay Area, Chinese female, very competitive high school, I know some of you guys from my school lurk on ts subreddits and I have a super weird and distinctive story so uhhhhh maybe softdoxxing with this ngl. Warning: A whole lot of yap.
GPA: 3.5UW 3.71W (ts prob gonna be maxxed out at 3.55 or some bullshit), using UC/CSU calculations 3.79W 4.14W (10-12). Decent upward trend so far but still not groundbreaking (Freshman 3.43/2.83, sophomore 3.8/3.8, junior 3.8/?; increasing rigor load)
Note: My grades have been all over the place this semester so I have no idea if my GPA will go down soon. At the very least, total cumulative and weighted shouldn't go down.
SAT: 1500 superscore (770 R&W 730 M, planning on retaking to get a better math score)
PSAT: 1460 (710 R&W 750 M, qualified for NMSC but I probably won't make it ngl cuz Cali is competitive and I have a C and D. The D wasn't in a college prep or A-G course and it happened for a really dumb reason. I'm going to remedy it because the class itself is actually easy but it won't be replaced, just added and averaged out.)
Desired major: Something bio related, probably biophysics ("physics with concentration in biophysics" at most schools I think) or biochemistry or maybe computational/systems biology? (I want to go into R&D; I know biochemistry is a very impacted major due to premeds; I enjoy math and physics a lot despite being mid at them)
ECs: Not great tbh- lots of community service with some awards and small leadership role, tutoring SAT/biology/maybe calc in the future, a couple research related projects and one pretty good selective program (good involvement and depth but I'm not going to be nearly as involved with it as most others since I'm starting summer before senior year), speech and debate (public forum; novice semis award + generally pretty high ranked speaks in JV), art (won 2 local contests with a monetary prize lol), organized and led fundraiser for cancer research at a nonprofit, I have an online publication where I post creative writing and reports on interesting research rabbit holes I fall down, a few other things that are super tentative for now so I won't divulge much into them
AP exams: 5 in AP calc, 4 AP Chinese, taking bio + stats + lang this year (I'll probably get at least 4s and 5s definitely aren't implausible lol) and chem + physics C mechanics + calc BC next year (maybe psych?)
(I also am planning on doing concurrent enrollment for calc 2, modern world ((need a credit for graduation and thought I'd like the college gen ed cred too--long story but basically I've switched schools a lot and my old school put me in the wrong history class)), and computer science. If the CE calc 2 works out, I prob won't take BC then. I don't know if I should take some other supplementary CE math classes cuz my counselor isn't letting me take a school math course next year and my mom agrees. I kind of want to but I feel like at that point it wouldn't be worth the effort, plus this frees up time for my school classes and high commitment ECs.)
Other weighted classes: I got a C in HPC freshman year which I then dropped and I'm also taking honors physics. I got an A- first semester and I miiiiight be kind of cooked atm but I'll probably get an A- this semester too.
Rigor, passions, weird extenuating circumstances? (no A for effort): So this is where it gets kind of weird. I'll split this into a few paras.
I took 1 semesters honors precalc freshman year but got a C and dropped it and I basically just gave up on math and got a B second semester regular precalc lol. Basically was a B- average student because I had lowkey given up on life. Had a lot of physical and mental health issues that were severely mismanaged, plus I was bullied really badly and had a garbage relationship with my family at the time.
Transferred schools, got As in calc AB but Bs in *regular* chemistry (switched teachers in the middle of the semester cuz the old one straight up left and got one that had beef with me).
Transferred *again* and this school didn't have calc BC so I took AP stats + AP lang... Something I will not disclosehappened at that school and I had to transfer *again* in the middle of a semester and this school had such a strict stats teacher that I lowkey would have straight up gotten a better grade if I had started there in the first place and signed up for BC initially. Good thing was this school had better options for science so I started taking honors physics and caught up fine to that and everything else (Lang, USH) fine.
Ended with As in everything (A- physics) and a B- in stats. I also decided to take AP biology with an online course because it's important for the major I want, but I kinda regret it cuz I had to rush through and now I'm probably going to have a B+ and A-... yeah I probably shouldn't have taken that first midterm when I was already having a bad day. Maybe my instructor will round the B+ to an A- cuz it's pretty close idfk prob not. Dropped stats and am taking the second semester online, should end it with an A. I also am taking a PE course this year as I still don't have all the graduation credits I need, and I'm going to have to take art next year because they couldn't find enough room for me in the art classes this year.
My other school classes will be AP physics C mechanics (school doesn't offer E&M), biotech CTE (Another reason I'm sad I didn't start 11th grade at this school!!!!!!!! Biotech at my school is much better as a two year class cuz more time to develop research and stuff!), English 12, gov/econ.
I am not being allowed to take any additional APs at school by my mom or counselor--basically I have an IEP for my health issues and one of the requirements is an additional tutorial period. If I took the full semesters gov and econ, I would need to add an extra period to my school day, which is no bueno for seniors. The IEP team has also convinced my parents to not let me take any additional weighted courses.
I'm still going to enroll in an online AP chemistry course (honestly thinking about taking the first semester in a summer session then waiting until winter to take the second semester so that info is fresher in my mind before exams and has less of a chance of lowering my GPA).
So my school + online + CE courses will push me to basically max rigor on STEM courses, but the performance is scattered to say the least... I'm also lowk fighting an uphill battle because my parents and counselor do NOT believe in me and I often get told I should just do an "easier major." The thing is, I had this mindset throughout the first half of high school, even thinking that I wouldn't go to college at all at one point. This just made me so demotivated and I felt like I had zero passion for anything.
I am genuinely interested in the major I want to do and it's not like a strict Asian parent force-selecting me into a certain path or something (if anything, it's the opposite). I feel like not self-selecting into something as high commitment as a math and physics heavy major early on is really shooting myself in the foot, though. I set myself up for super failure and basically bricked any of the better options I have lol. I discovered my actual interests around the first semester of junior year and my grades and extracurriculars really do reflect that. Obviously no one expects kids to have their shit figured out at 13 but people have explicitly told me that most people studying biochem or physics have had their shit figured out by 13, lmfao.
Planning on applying to: All the UCs (going to pray for UCSD or at least UCSB/UCI; safeties covered with UCR/UCM/UCSC), Cal Poly SLO, and SDSU for in-state. Maybe USC as a reach. For OOS: Purdue, UIUC, CWRU, Wake Forest, URochestor, Rutgers, and then a couple higher reaches especially for ED? (I feel like half of this list is already lowkey reaching lmfao)
I can probably get a good LoR from an EC or two, if not I could ask my physics or biotech teacher next semester. I highly doubt my counselor will vouch for me, she lowkey hates me and thinks I'm an idiot.
Does anyone have any suggestions or advice? Just write a great essay and put the fries in the bag if it doesn't work out next year? Go to CC or a safety then transfer? I know going to a non-CC is terrible for transfer but for R&D I feel like even a bad 4-year confers some advantages over 2 whole years CC...and then if transfer doesn't work out I can just count my blessings that I didn't peak in high school and try harder for a good grad school program...? I feel like even though I'm working hard right now I'm just in this unwinnable rat race against my 13-15 year old self.
I'm sure something or other will work out even if I don't get into one of my top choices, but I just feel really confused and stuck. Sorry for the massive yap if you've actually read this far lmfao!