I’m curious about my chances at getting into these colleges. What do you guys think?

I am a pretty good student. Solid GPA and ECs.

Here’s my stats.

I am a a senior in High School. Applied to these colleges.
My GPA as of now is a 3.71 Unweighted and a 4.0-4.2 UC GPA

I have 2 Cs. One in AP Bio (A the second semester) and one in AP Spanish Language (B the second semester + passed the AP Exam with a 5)

My senior-year classes are AP Physics B, AP English Literature, AP Calculus BC, and Gov.

I took Statistics, Drawing and an introductory Engineering course at my local community college.

My SAT scores are as follows:

Test #1:
590 on Critical Reading
600 on Math
600 on Writing (8 on the essay)

Test #2:
600 Critical Reading
540 Math
660 Writing

SAT Subjects

600 Math 2
520 Biology M (They messed up my score. The score report says I took E *sighs* oh well)

My extracurriculars are pretty good I guess. Here they are:

I am in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Pre-College Pipeline program at UCLA.http://www.hhmi.org/grants/query/index.php Basically, I research with a top professor/researcher at UCLA on a certain subject. Mine is on cell signaling and stem cell research. By the way, I work in Dr. Wong’s lab at the UCLA school of dentistry. http://www.dentistry.ucla.edu/faculty/wong/ We have to come up with a large research presentation and well, present it at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Pacific Division to at Ashland, Oregon. It is a 6 week residential program. I live/eat/etc at the dorms.

I am also in the Junior Engineering Technical Society at my school.

I take Engineering classes from the California State university, Northridge (ACCESS program)http://www.csun.edu/pubrels/press_releases/fall07/engineeringaccess.html
It’s mostly Manufacturing and Materials Engineering. Physics is involved.

I voluntarily deliver food to various homeless people many times throughout the year. Also, gather clothes from family members and others and donate them to institutions that serve the needy various times in the year. I’m not sure how this would fare out on the application (credibility and such).

I am a tutor and mentor to autistic brother24/7. It’s a very hard job that takes away lots of time from my studies. I do it though to help my family since it would be very hard to burden my parents with caring for my brother since they both work. I explicitly described this situation on my personal statement and what I learned from my brother and how I want to be a Genetic Engineer to take part in the battle against genetic maladies, etc etc etc. Go to college, help my community, etc etc.

I am a member of the Calculus club in my school.

I am in the UCLA EAOP (Early Academic Outreach Program) and participated in their summer academies. http://www.eaop.org/

I am very knowldegeable in modern laboratory techniques and am trained and qualified to work in BSL level 1-2 labs.

I also wrote a "killer" (according to my AP English teacher) admissions essay so you may want to take a look at that (ask me).

Tell me what you think.

First off, erase the whole concept of "odds of getting in" from your brain. Are you doing your best? Sure looks like it. Have you made a few mistakes? I hope so - you’re a human; that’s your job. No one who will answer your post has any way of knowing your chances of getting in, because they’re not the ones who make the decisions.

If they required a cutoff GPA, certain SAT, etc. - believe me, the admissions officers would make that very clear and tell anyone who didn’t fit that mold not to bother. It would save them literally thousands of hours. But that’s just not how it works. Admissions is something of a crapshoot - just like there are plenty of kids with perfect grades and scores who don’t get in, there are plenty who didn’t do as well as they might have hoped and yet get in anyway. They look at the totality of the situation, and while you may not be thrilled with your SAT scores, (which, I want to point out, were more than good enough for the vast majority of US colleges) I am absolutely sure that it won’t keep you out of a great program. One look at your phenomenal involvement record - PLUS the fact that you care for your autistic brother - and no one in their right mind is going to whine that you got a 600 instead of a 700.

Apply. The worst they can do is tell you no - but that should come from them, not you. Sure, if you try you may not succeed - but if you don’t try, you DEFINITELY won’t succeed - I like "maybe" better than "no" any day, don’t you? Forgive the impending momming here, but: you’re going to meet a lot of people over the course of your life who’ll be more than eager to tell you all the reasons you’ll fail at whatever thing - normally under the guise of "being realistic" - but you don’t have the luxury of giving that negativity even an ounce of your precious energy. Nothing great was ever accomplished by settling for second best. I’m not saying you’ll always get what you want - but successful people are the ones who aren’t afraid to fail. If I had been "realistic" I would never have bothered to apply to UCLA because I’d think I wouldn’t get in… and yet, I did. I went, I graduated, and it was a really great experience start to finish.

The college admissions process is something of a shark tank - not at the admissions offices themselves, but privately, among applicants. It’s absolute insanity - all that stress and anxiety comes to nothing. Who cares what this or that person did, scored, etc.? They’re them; you’re you. Your high school experience is about your circumstances, your effort, your interests. Your applications will reflect that. You’ve already done very well, so pat yourself on the back and take a minute to be proud of all your hard work.

All you can ever ask of yourself is your best effort - and that does not mean you have to get perfect grades or perfect scores. Your record is fantastic, esp. considering you face challenges most kids don’t. You can and will get into a great school. Good luck!