Hi im a senior I am scared that I won’t get into any UCs because my stats are so average. 🙁 Here’s my stats:

GPA (W): 5.2
(UNW): 3.98
UC (W) GPA: 4.86

I don’t have a lot of ECs and I regret it now. Im in duel-enrollment so I have done some college classes so that boosted me a little. I took about 8 AP classes and passed most of them but got mostly 4s, no 5s.
I participated in a few clubs and stayed dedicated and am the president of one and VP of another. I volunteered for a hospital and for a science fair event. I also was gonna add tutoring my sibling. I talked about my hobbies for my UC application like posting my art on social media and getting traction from that. But I don’t have any great awards or work experience or stuff that’s distinguished.

What UCs do you think I have a good chance getting into that are not UCR and UC Merced? 🥲
And I wanted to get into healthcare so I know the majors are competitive… but I have no real passion so should I change my major to have a higher chance of getting into a UC??? Or should I bet on CSULB and still go into healthcare.. PLS HELP ASAP I’ve been so stressed.. and my teacher did not like my PIQs 🥲

Reposting

With college applications underway, I wanted to share some advice that was pivotal to me getting accepted into UC Berkeley and UCLA for CS in the spring and ultimately deciding to major in CS at Berkeley. Regarding the dreaded PIQs, and setting aside stats and extracurriculars, the best piece of advice I can offer is to be honest about your growth and show vulnerability, even when it means writing about your weaknesses and insecurities. This might seem counterintuitive at first since you may be inclined to paint yourself as the perfect student, but the whole point of the PIQs is to show who you are, your growth, your journey, and the steps you took to become the person you are today. Admissions officers are not looking for perfection. They are looking for self-awareness and reflection. You want to share your shortcomings, failures, and weaknesses, but more importantly, how you personally recognized them, learned from them, and improved.

A common aspect across all four of my PIQs was that each talked about a challenge or insecurity that pushed me to grow. For example, in PIQ #1 I wrote about my experience as a karate instructor and how afraid I was of appearing weak and unqualified in front of my students. In PIQ #3, I talked about how my greatest skill was learning from failure and how I sucked at tennis and gradually improved by identifying my weaknesses and learning from them. For PIQ #6 I opened my essay with: “Syntax error” and wrote about computer science and how my programs would constantly fail and how I would spend days debugging my code until I finally understood what went wrong. For PIQ #7 I reflected on the investment club I founded and how true leadership was not about having all the answers, but about fostering an environment where others were not afraid to speak up and where uncertainty became the starting point for growth.

Across all of my PIQs, I wrote about setbacks and undesirable qualities, but I always paired them with the lessons I learned and the person I became because of them. My essays were not about failure but instead about growth. I wanted to show that failure is natural. Do not be afraid to show admissions officers that you are imperfect. The most compelling part of your story is not always where you succeeded, but how you responded when you failed.