Online, the UC website states that a minimum GPA of 3.4 is required. I’m not quite sure of my GPA from high school and I’m awaiting that information now. I know my weighted was in the 4.2 range or so, but every class in sophomore through senior year was IB or AP, so the UC GPA might be sub 3.4 from the 8 class cap. I was wondering if any exceptions were known of UCs accepting applicants of a sub 3.4 (I am stationed in California but not sure if they will count me as in state application).
To pretext my application:
I am receiving an honorable discharge for service related injuries and I have a pretty competitive application package besides the possibly low UC HPA. The only reason I’m asking is because I can’t find any information on exceptions. Does anyone have thoughts to contribute?
Thank you
Contact the VA office at the university you hope to attend. If you were stationed in California for a specific amount of time, they may give you instate residency.
The only issue would be your GPA, but again, you really need to speak to the VA office at each school you hope to apply to and see what they say.
Take a look at the Davis link: https://registrar.ucdavis.edu/tuition/residence/students-new/military.cfm
Thank you for the speedy response.
Thanks for your service.
Great advice above because all the CA public’s have veteran specific programs so, it is certainly worth asking. I think you will find that a 3.4 still won’t be competitive at any of the UCs. Assuming you have all the a-g courses and a solid SAT, you’d be a shoe in for most of the CSUs. Or, you can transfer into a UC from a CC as a JR. I imagine you are starting with lots of AP credits so, that could be just a 1 year process via TAG.
Just to give you some perspective on admit rates and the UC’s.
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.00-3.39
UCB/UCLA/UCSD: 1%
UCI/UCSB: 2%
UCD: 4%
UCSC: 18%
UCR: 38%
UCM: 67%
Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.40-3.79:
UCB: 2%
UCLA: 3%
UCSD: 6%
UCD: 15%
UCSB: 14%
UCI: 13%
UCSC: 59%
UCR: 78%
UCM: 92%
Best of luck to you.
@gumbymom - you are always a wealth of info so, I have a follow up question if you have time - Do you know how UCM reflects the ELC applicants that get referred but didn’t apply?
my reference is a little dated but, this 2014 article suggests about 9000 referrals were to be offered in 2015, That is a little less than half of the applications they received but, nearly 80% of their total admissons.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-me-uc-guarantee-20141225-story.html
Since well nearly half of Merced’s applicants come from the ELC referral which are all accepted regardless of their GPA/SAT, that could have a huge impact on the admit rates, average GPA etc. lots of the people in there forced pool have really high stats. Any idea how the direct applicant pool looks? Do they need well over the mid point GPA and SAT to earn a spot or, is the average skewed higher than it is at other UCs?
As you know, the local preference at some of the top CSUs has a similar effect - though probably the opposite direction. .
@NCalRent: You bring up a good question that I cannot answer. I did look at the UC Merced Freshman profile and for 2016, they had 842 referrals with 683 admitted and 123 that enrolled so I do not see that ELC referrals would have a large impact on the statistical data (SAT/ACT and GPA). Since only 683 of the 842 referrals were admitted, I would assume that UCM has a threshold/cutoff even for the referrals.
http://irds.ucmerced.edu/docs/facts/UC%20Merced%20Profile.pdf
Thanks @gumbymom that is interesting, I thought ELC was a guarantee, apparently not. This is just a curiosity but, I didn’t see that data anywhere and I am almost certain there are closer to 9k referrals.
@NCalRent take at look at page 2 from the link on the Undergrad admissions graph. The last bar graph shows referrals.