I am trying to calculate the UC GPA of my child. I have looked at the general guidance on UC’s website but have some specific questions. Is there anyone who knows for sure what are the answers?
If a student took a music/art class in both 10th and 11th grade, and since UC’s A-G requirement only needs 1 year of art, can we still get to count both the years in the UC GPA?
2.I understand the difference between UC GPA Weighted, Unweighted, and Capped and Weighted. Is there a thing like “Uncapped Weighted” in which you get bonus honors points more than the 8 points if you took more AP/Honors classes? I read on some college advisors’ websites that UC’s consider all of these 3 GPAs, but wondering whether this is true. I mean, this is an indicator of the course rigor, but again, not sure if this is real.
3.Whenever on UC’s website they mention the GPAs of middle third accepted last year etc., which of these above GPAs they mention? They just call it “GPA.”
I believe any college course taken during 10-11th grade can also be considered in the UC GPA. Since the courses are usually 1 semester, do we count it only once, or count it twice (which would be equivalent to 1 year of school course).I read on CSU’s website that they consider it twice (GPA Calculator | CSU).
5.We leave PE out of the UC GPA calculation, right? (Although it is mandatory for the school graduation)
FYI - I have already tried some of the calculators out there but the calculators only work properly if I know which course data to put in. So I am not looking for a referral to calculators, but authentic information about UC’ 's methodology.
You include all grades from the a-g courses taken 10-11th grades even if they are from the same A-G category so you would count both art classes.
Uncapped weighted is unlimited honors points for eligible courses taken 10-11th grades which is the weighted GPA in the calculator. Yes all 3 UC’s are considered. The Capped weighted is most common GPA cited for the UCOP statistics. So on the UC website for the Freshman profile, the capped weighted is the GPA listed.
College courses are counted once and they get 1 Honors point in the calculation.
Thank you. I don’t mean to question your information, but where on UC’s website they mention the uncapped, weighted GPA? I just want to know my source. Their calculation method only points towards 8 honors points max, leading me to believe that they only use capped weighted GPA. (GPA requirement | UC Admissions)
All courses taken in 10th-11th grade that fall into any A-G category are included. So two full years of art taken during 10th-11th grade are included in the GPA recalculation, even though only one full year is required.
In most cases, HS GPAs shown on UC web sites are weighted-capped, but some will be unweighted or fully weighted (e.g. on some UCLA frosh profile pages). UC admission readers will see all three recalculated HS GPAs with the application.
For college courses taken while in high school, a semester college course counts as 1 semester course and grade for UC, but 2 semester courses and grades for CSU. So a student who has taken college courses while in high school, the UC and CSU recalculated HS GPA will be different (and CSU uses only weighted capped).
One CSU (CPSLO) uses 9th-11th grade instead of 10th-11th grade, so if CPSLO is in the application list, the HS GPA recalculation is unique to it.
The freshman profiles on the general UC web site also show the capped weighted GPA. For example here is UCLA’s profile (it looks like year 2019 is listed on this page), showing the middle range as 4.18 - 4.32. You can tell it is is the capped weighted GPA because of the range of the numbers (capped weighted typically maxes out around 4.4):
UCLA and UCB are the only 2 UC’s that usually post their Freshman profile with both of these GPA’s. The other UC’s do consider the Uncapped weighted but mainly use the information for statistical purposes.
The UCOP website in Feb 2024 will post Capped weighted admit rates for the previous year’s Freshman. This is 2022 data:
Capped weighted UC GPA.
Also, I am not clear about what this table is showing. Why the percentages don’t add up to 100%? Is this percentile or some other measure? Curious to know the source. What is the UCOP site?
I see … so this table is showing percentage of students with a certain GPA admitted; compared to applied… it is hard to know without the table header but thanks. So, while Berkeley only admits 17% of those with >4 GPA, Santa Cruz admits 69% of them and so on.
You linked to a page for UC Berkeley. Although Berkeley is fairly holistic and does admit students with a range of GPAs, the GPA you quoted isn’t insanely high; it’s a fairly typical capped weighted GPA for admitted students at this UC campus.
My son applied last admissions season. Just as a data point, his capped weighted GPA was 4.24. He was waitlisted to Berkeley and admitted off the waitlist (and attends).
The table is the overall admit rate based on the Capped weighted UC GPA and is not major specific. The UC’s do not break out GPA admit ranges by major (if admission is by major) except for Transfers but not Freshman. The table just gives an estimate based on GPA but with 13 areas of criteria used for the admission process, no one factor is evaluated within a vacuum. It is a Comprehensive/ Holistic review.
Thanks. Actually, I had a typo in my comment. I meant to say that if these were actual HS GPAs, then 4.28 is very high. I think UC GPA comes out higher than a regular HS GPA if one gets those honors points. But as someone else pointed out, although UC calls these “HS GPA”, these are capped UC GPA.
Not sure what you mean by “regular HS GPA”? Do you mean unweighted? There is a lot of variation in how different high schools compute GPA on their transcripts, which is the reason why UC has a way to standardize it.
Thank you. I have a follow-up question. I am sure someone here can answer this. Do UCs actually do a cut-off of the submitted applications based on grade first; and then start reading essays on the pre-screened application? Or do they first read all applications above 3.0 GPA, which is the minimum cut, and then do some selection magic? If the former, how do we explain the students with low-ish grades being accepted; and students with high-end GPAs being rejected?
By regular HS GPA, I mean the GPA a student gets on his or her high school transcript. A 4.28 GPA is a weighted GPA on a 4.0 scale - which is the most common scale (although there may be other scales). According to some sites, 4.3 ish HS GPA (NOT UC GPA) is 99Percential nationwide; and that’s why I said it is insanely high.
Their calculation method only points towards 8 honors points max, leading me to believe that they only use capped weighted GPA. (