Need help with UC GPA calculation

Applying to College
1

<p>Can someone help me calculate my daughter’s UC GPA. As you may know, for GPA calculation, they consider:
a) courses taken in 10th and 11th grade only,
b) UC a-g courses only, and
c) they give extra weight to honors and AP courses to the maximum of 8 semester worth only.</p>

<p>Also, is it true that all UC campuses have their own way of calculating GPA i.e. UC Berkeley may calculate GPA differently than how UCLA calculates applicants’ high school GPA … and they all reach a different conclusion?</p>

<p>Here are her stats:</p>

<p>Courses taken at a local college during 10th grade summer:</p>

<p>World History 1 - A
World history 2 - A</p>

<p>Courses taken at her high school:</p>

<p>Course Type 1st Semester Grade 2nd Semester Grade</p>

<p>English 10 Honors A A
Spanish A A
Algebra II Honors B B
US History AP A A
Biology AP B A
Chemistry AP C B</p>

<p>Courses taken at local college during 11th grade summer:</p>

<p>Drawing - A
Photography - A</p>

<p>Courses taken at her high school:</p>

<p>Course Type 1st Semester Grade 2nd Semester Grade</p>

<p>English Lang AP A A
Spanish 5 AP B A
US Govt AP A A
Pre Calc/Calc A Honors B B
Marine Biology Honors A A</p>

<p>She wants to apply to both UCLA and UC Berkeley. I was looking at UCB’s last year’s freshman admission profile - Average unweighted GPA 3.89 and average weighted GPA of 4.36 for last year’s incoming class. Mid 50% ACT score: 28-33. Wow! This does not look very promising for my daughter.</p>

<p>While we are at that, she has 31 on ACT and she just retook it this past month hoping to do better. She has taken 8 APs so far (with all 4s and one 5) and will have 13 APs by the time she graduates high school.</p>

<p>Looking at the numbers, do you guys think she might make the cut?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Anyone…?</p>

3

<p>What is unclear is whether the drawing and photography courses from the local college qualify as “f” courses. Thus, I do not know whether to count those college grades or not.</p>

<p>If not, you have 16 semester courses with A grades (4 X 16 = 64), 7 with B grades (3 x 7 = 21) and one with C (2 X 1 = 2), giving a total count of 24 semester courses with total score of 87 or an unweighted GPA of 3.63 (divide 87 by 24). Add to 87 eight points because you have far more than enough APs, honors, and college courses to reach that maximum number of extra weighted points and you get 95 total for a weighted GPA of 3.96 (rounding up).</p>

<p>If drawing/photography courses also count, you have 95 unweighted total points for 26 semester courses and thus an unweighted GPA of 3.65, and adding 8 weighted points you get 103 total points for 26 semester courses or a 3.96 weighted GPA (rounding down).</p>

<p>Those are the GPAs used as part of the formula to determine if you qualify for admission to a UC. If you do you will be admitted to a UC but not necessarily one of your choice as long as UCs to which you apply include places like Riverside and Merced because those could be the ones to which you may be automatically admissible. </p>

<p>In determining whether you will in fact be admitted to the higher ranked UCs, your UC qualifying GPA is just the starting point and they can and will consider that you have more AP and honors courses, the college courses, and can consider freshman courses. My understanding of those published average weighted and unweighted GPAs is that they are based on actual GPAs reported in July by the high school transcripts before the college year starts for those who actually enroll and do not equal the UC qualifying GPA that is calculated for admission. For example, if you do calculations you will learn that it is actually not possible to get a 4.36 average weighted GPA if you used the UCs method of only adding 8 extra points to the unweighted total, e.g., assume 24 semester courses from sophomore and junior year with all A’s, which would give you 96 points to which you add 8 to get 104, divide by 24 and you get a weighted GPA of 4.33; in other words you cannot actually get a 4.36 weighted GPA using the UC qualifying GPA calculation method even if everyone got all A’s. On what you are showing without freshman grades you have a weighted GPA of about 4.57. With a 31 ACT, you should be in the range of those admitted to Berkeley or UCLA.</p>

4

<p>UC Berkeley and UCLA also consider the “uncapped” weighed GPA. The capped weighed GPA (maximum of 8 points) is used for qualification purposes. The uncapped allows any number of extra points based on the honors/AP/community college criteria.</p>

5

<p>If the high school and college are in California, you can go to <a href=“http://doorways.ucop.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://doorways.ucop.edu</a> to see what a-g categories the courses fulfill and whether they are considered “honors”.</p>

6

<p>Thank you guys for your detailed and very informative responses. They were very helpful.</p>