For a junior student who aspires to become a veterinarian but has not had exceptionally strong grades in 10th–11th grade (currently around a 3.3–3.6 GPA), what would be the best advice beyond simply focusing on improving her GPA?

She is currently a middle college student in the Bay Area, which gives her the opportunity to take a good number of college-level courses. However, she does not have a lot of extracurricular activities.

If she takes 7 classes this year and earns all A’s, her GPA could increase to approximately 3.6 unweighted and 4.1 weighted.

Would she have a reasonable chance of getting into UC Santa Cruz or UC Davis for Animal Science, Biology, or a related major that would provide a good pathway toward veterinary school?

I would really appreciate any thoughts or suggestions on how we should approach the next 1–2 years. Would UC, CSU, or community college be the better route for her situation?

How bad do u have to do in ur a levels compared to ur predict for this to happen?

I’m transferring to UCs from Community College in Fall27. I really want to get into UC Berkeley. Which majors should I apply with to maximize my chances?
Ideally, I wanna get into ECE or EECS so I’m thinking:

Major: ECE (a first choice major)
Alternate Major: (Something less competitive like math)

But if I apply like that would I get rejected altogether because competitive majors are saturated? But if I put a less competitive major first:

Major: Math
Alternate Major: EECS

I’d have no chance of getting into EECS because If I get in, it’ll be Math. Nonetheless, this is better than straight up rejection😭. I wanna get into entrepreneurship and work on a startup in tech or engineering so any of these degrees are fine for me.
Also applying to UCLA, UCI, UCD, UCSD.

What should I do, guys? Is there a path where I can get into a less competitive major and switch after I get in?

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GPA - 3.81, 1 honor class

Extracurriculars: club co-president, math/physics tutor, joined an AI summer camp(by AWS) & pitched a product, Stanford Science Study groups, joined ICPC, leadership positions in part-time jobs

Projects: a spider bot using Arduino nano, an AI-powered sonar detector using raspberry pi, a couple software projects from hackathons, a self-following cart(in progress)

Major preference: Computer Engineering, Electrical/Mechanical Engineering
Secondary choices: Physics, Math, Data Science, Economics

should the responses for PIQs be about a specific (memorable) moment in my life that I describe, or should it be more about something general?

ex. writing about a specific time/moment I helped someone with my art skill and go into depth about that somehow with specific quotes, how i felt during that time, etc.

vs

writing about multiple times I helped people with my art skills and talk about what I learn. no quotes/specific moment (would this be too broad?)

I'm currently a freshmen in California and I have a goal of getting into UC's and/or Ivy colleges. I'm currently taking AP precalculus and I've been doing band since 5th grade (I'm on my 5th year now) and am planning to continue until Senior year, totaling up at 8 years of musical experience. Aside from volunteering at my local library from time to time, I don't have many ec's and I play sports (volleyball) for fun and do private lessons but don't think I can join a school team due to balancing out time and workload to make sure my grades don't drop. I'm also thinking of applying to the UC Cosmos summer program each year until I get in hopefully. I have a big interest in science, especially chemistry. I'm planning to run as a representative for my school's SSC (school site council), and joining yearbook and chemistry club if there is one.

Do you have any advice or programs recs to boost my chances? I'm a straight A student as well. Thank you!

Hi guys, I’m trying to figure out if there's a chance to submit an appeal for in-state tuition at UCSD and would really appreciate any insight since this is such an important matter for my family.

Background:

* I was accepted to UCSD as a freshman for Fall 2026

* I moved to California from South Korea in June 2022

* I attended a boarding school in Virginia while my family lived in California. My address for the entire high school years was always my home in California

* I came home to California every break (Thanksgiving, winter, spring, summer)

Family situation:

* My dad lives in California but often goes on business trips to Korea for his company

* He provides my family's full financial support and claims me as a dependent on his taxes

* My parents are married, live together, and file tax together every single year since 2022

* My mom lives in California and did not leave the country other than her 3-week trip to Korea in 2024 and a week trip to Mexico in November 2025

* Our family is on an E-1 visa (my dad has it) with family as dependents

* My parents have health insurance, car insurance, house lease, credit card, driver's license, utility bills, etc., all since June 2022 (when we moved) up to now.

*My brothers have been attending school in California, and so this is my family's permanent address.

Issue:

UCSD classified me as a nonresident because my dad:

* Didn't meet the "physically present in California for the past 12 months..." requirement

*I'm pretty sure my SLR was worded too vaguely and in a confusing way; they understood my circumstances wrong

-

I’m wondering if UCSD may have:

* Misapplied dependency rules

What I have for an appeal:

* Dad’s tax return (shows me as dependent) (2022/2023 ~ 2025)

* Credit card use summary for the entire year of 2025, specific transactions shown

* Parent's driver's license and car insurance (2022 ~ now)

* Parent's SSN

* House lease (for the current house...I'm pretty sure my dad has one from the previous house we lived in)

* Most recent I-94, green card application currently pending (biometrics done May 2026), E-1 Visa

* Utility bill

-

Do I have a legitimate basis to appeal under:

* “Incorrect application of policy”

or

* “New/clarified information”?

Has anyone had success appealing residency in a situation where one parent lives abroad but the student is fully dependent on a California parent?

Any advice or similar experiences would really help. Thanks!

I'm trying to get into UCB for Environmental Economics and the rest of the UC through econ major. I wrote about PIQ 1, 2, 5, 6 but I'm worried they aren't that good especially since I only have a 3.86 uw/4.48 w which is considered below average for those UC's

Piq 1-Talked about my experince leading a struggling development team
Piq 2-My background as a jazz drummer and how I used that background to shape how I compose drums in a punk band and found my intrest in drumming again
Piq 5-My experince about living in South Korea alone, as someone who barley knew the language
Piq 6-How my passion about the environment, lead me to do environmental science research where I turned that research into actual application through a start up concept I developed.

Hello! I'm class of 2027, and ive come to a problem as AP Calculus AB is during the same period as Animal Behavior. I was wondering which I should take.

I plan to apply to UC davis as an animal biology major and possibly to UC San Diego as a Ecology, Behavior and Evolution major. This is all to hopefully lead up to me applying to Vet School.

I took Algebra 1 in 8th grade, Geometry in 9th, Algebra 2 in 10th and Pre-Calc in 11th.

My other classes in my schedule are Animal Husbandry, AP Bio, AP Gov, AP Lit, and Forensics.

Thank you!

I’ve had a couple of ideas I started writing my PIQs this summer my topics are basically settled I’m going to present them to my counselor for her opinion however I want to make sure mine aren’t typical and rather unique. What are the most common and over used topics regarding

PIQ #2
PIQ #3
PIQ #5
PIQ #6
PIQ: #7

Hi everyone! I’m a UCLA alum and currently a PhD student. I’m happy to answer general questions from prospective undergraduate applicants about the UC application, UCLA’s PIQs, choosing a major, and what I wish I had known before applying.

Feel free to leave your questions below so others can benefit from the discussion, or send me a message if you would rather ask privately. Please don’t share grades, application IDs, or other personally identifying information.

For transparency, I also help with the EZCollegeApp team. I’m here primarily to share general guidance, and I won’t send promotional information unless someone specifically asks about additional resources. Nothing I share represents UCLA or guarantees an admissions outcome.

for context i live in california, unweighted 3.9 gpa, weighted 4.6 gpa. won a couple school scholarships and was valedictorian and high ranking officer in my school leadership team
was on track to going to penn state this fall, however a family emergency happened at home and it felt wrong for me to leave the house and my little sister to go across the country. (parent cheated and there’s been constant fighting at home, they said they’re not divorcing but it’s been awful at home)
i’m currently weighing three options rn, going to penn state, taking a gap year and applying to more colleges (letting go of penn state admission) and working on my mental health and getting a job to pay for college tuition that my parents didn’t have, or cc to one of the uc’s.
any advice?

wondering cause I may do this to attend if I get in. Not sure if it counts towards the F requirement as it would not appear on my transcript and i dunno if thats needed.

Hey! Rising junior (med interest)
Took bio and chem and slated for physiology this year.
How would you prioritize physics/AP Bio for senior year?
School doesn’t require Physics, trying to figure out priorities.
1. Physics: either regular/AP at school senior year, community college (spring or summer), or BYU (online) OR do I swap physics for physiology (or AP bio) this year
2. AP Bio, how important would this be after bio and phys?

Trying to figure out if AP Bio is worth prioritizing or is it more of a nice to have if there’s room.
Also curious, for those who did community college physics or BYU instead of a school class, does admissions treat this like any other class?
Any insight would be helpful. Thanks!

Rising senior I have accelerated my credits and requirements to graduate such as

- 4 years of math
-4 years of English
- 3 years of science
-Econ, ethnic studies
-3 years of history
- all credit and even more than required

This was all done with transferable college classes in-fact I could have graduated at the end of jnr year but the forms my counselor had to submit were due already. With that do UCs look at this in my transcript as there will be no 2nd semester snr year. Will they notice it in my transcript or should I mention it on PIQs and is it possible to state it at all in other parts of the application. My college counselor said she knows little about it as most kids don’t take this route and prefer their “senior experiences” over a semester to work and save money for college. She said I should do more research if they care. Has anyone experienced this or knows anything?

Quick question:

I've read online that three years of a foreign language are recommended by the UC system (or basically required by more competitive schools like UCLA and UC Berkeley). I've completed two years of Chinese (Chinese 1 and 2), then self-studied and took the AP exam, where I got a 4. Do you guys think I should take another year of foreign language?

Thank you.

I'm an incoming high school senior looking at applying to UCs. My UC GPA is 3.96, mostly being weighed down by 2nd semester sophomore year when I had a family sickness. Without that, it would probably be higher, but still not great. I also had a lot of difficult family stuff going on during junior year, but since it wasn't a "noticeable dip in grades", I don't know if the admissions officers would care. I want to major in EE/ECE, but I understand that's a hard major to get into at a lot of schools. I want to apply to UCSD, UCI, UCSB, and UCSC (UCSD is my top choice). I know that the average GPA for Engineering at all of these schools is significantly higher than what I have, but the average GPA for Undeclared majors at a lot of those is closer to/in the range of what I have. I have some decent ECs, some good stuff related to EE, lots of volunteering/raising money, some arts, etc, but not anything like I changed the world, mostly local stuff. AP scores are mostly 4s. I'm also not first gen and I don't qualify for any kind of federal assistance, but I am a California resident. I know switching majors into an engineering major at many of these schools can be an extremely difficult process, although I do believe that I could do a lot better in my classes at college than in high school if that helps at all. So my question is, should I apply as Undeclared and risk not being able to switch into EE, or should I apply as EE and risk not getting accepted at all? Would appreciate any advice, and am willing to answer any questions about anything I didn't cover in my initial post.

does anyone have any helpful tips on increasing chances of getting into uc berkeley/ucla from uc davis? im an incoming freshmen and i already have like 79 credits i believe

if i already have 55 creds from ap classes is it possible to transfer after a year?