UC GPA - No APs

Colleges & Universities University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>My school stopped offering AP courses because the teachers felt as if the College Board curriculum was too restrictive, and replaced them with “advanced” courses that go above and beyond the AP curriculum. Obviously, they can’t use the “AP” registered trademark, so they aren’t considered AP classes.</p>

<p>Because of this my UC GPA is a 3.8; it’s really low in comparison to a lot of other students. The school sends the AP explanation along with all the other school info, but I’m really concerned that this will still adversely effect my admission chances. Do you think it will? Do the admissions officers take these circumstances into account? Is the UC GPA the only measure of grades that the admissions officers use? My other stats are competitive for L&S CS (35 composite ACT, 770 math 2, 700 lit, great extracurriculars with leadership, thoughtful essays), so do I have a chance?</p>

2

<p>You’ll be able to let them know of your special circumstances in your application so yes you theoretically still have a chance.</p>

3

<p>Are the advanced courses UC-approved? If so, you’ll still get the extra point for UC GPA calculation.</p>

<p>Even if not, because Cal uses holistic admissions, your test scores, if coupled with an otherwise strong application, should get you in without a problem.</p>

4

<p>If it is a public or private high school in California, you can use <a href=“http://doorways.ucop.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://doorways.ucop.edu</a> to check which courses count as “honors” courses for the +1 weighting when calculating GPA for UC admissions.</p>

<p>Note that all applicants for L&S are considered together; you will enter as L&S undeclared if you are admitted and attend. L&S students declare major after completing the prerequisites. A few L&S majors are capped (see the # marked majors [here](<a href=“http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/major/majorlist.html]here[/url]”>http://ls-advise.berkeley.edu/major/majorlist.html)</a>) and require applying to declare with a high GPA, but L&S CS is currently not one of those majors.</p>

5

<p>since you are OOS, your app will be read by OOS ‘experts’ who recognize that the UC gpa rules are different from OOS.</p>

<p>Regardless, as a full pay URM, you should be shoe-in if you can write about the diversity that you would bring to campus or any adversity that you have overcome.</p>