They definitely evaluate applicants within the context of everything they know about the school. But not all schools participate in ELC.
Here is information about the ELC program. Local guarantee (ELC) | UC Admissions
How does UC calculate my school’s historic or benchmark GPA?
- UC uses transcripts that your school has submitted for the top 15 percent of your high school’s junior class, after final junior year grades are entered.
- Based on these transcripts, UC establishes a historic, or benchmark, GPA representing the expected GPA for the top 9 percent of the students from your school.
- Schools are periodically asked to submit transcripts so that we can monitor and adjust benchmark GPAs.
I believe that parents opt in to have their students’ transcripts sent to UC as part of this benchmarking process. But I’m not sure about that.
Some schools also do not participate in ELC. For strong schools with many students in the top 9% statewide, there is little benefit for participation, because all of their students eligible for ELC will also be eligible for the statewide guarantee.
However, I think I might be veering off topic for this thread. Hope this isn’t too much info. Just wanted to give you the info about ELC 