This would make sense based on the logic that higher-earning families (presumably those who are most likely to afford OOS rates) also have more resources for education, test prep (for AP, etc. at least), essay coaching, tutors, and so on.
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I found this information a while ago (CC wonāt let me link to the page) about the UC system when we were searching for colleges: " While the out-of-state acceptance rate is higher, those applicants tend to be better-qualified, and are held to a higher academic standard. The middle 50% SAT scores for accepted out-of-state students was 1440-1550, but 1300-1530 for in-state students. The middle 50% ACT scores were 33-35 for out-of-state, and 28-35 for in-state." I know that the UCs arenāt using standardized tests anymore, but it looks like out-of-state students need higher stats than in-state students in general.
Was this across all UCās, because if it was then itās kind of meaningless. Most OOS kids are applying to UCLA and UCB plus a couple of others which are far more competitive then UCM. Not many OOS families are going to pay OOS rates for UCM or UCR. Also you notice the high end is almost exactly the same, thatās a big pointer. This looks like something (misleading) the UC put out to help justify there OOS admits.
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I donāt know who put out that data, and I agree it might be misleading. I was responding to this quote:
The UC Berkeley admissions page says that the middle 50% SAT range of enrolled freshman in 2020 was 1330-1530. Do you know if there is data that indicates that OOS are getting in with lower stats? I donāt think that GPAs can be used in this comparison because the UCs calculate in-state and OOS GPAs differently.
The last time I saw stats on that, it looked like non-residents had slightly higher SAT/ACT scores and slightly lower GPAs, but the differences were small. Note that the UC weighted and weighted-capped GPA calculations offer the +1 honors points for a more limited set of courses for non-California high schools (i.e. certain school-designated honors courses get +1 in California high schools, but not non-California high schools).
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anyone have data for ucla & uc berkeley unweighted GPA? curious about 4.0 vs. 3.9+
This is overall admits.
UCLA Freshman profile: GPA statistics for admitted freshman students
GPA Median Middle 25% - 75%
Weighted GPA 4.54 4.35-4.72
Unweighted GPA 4.00 3.94-4.00
UCB Freshman Profile:
Unweighted GPA: 3.86-4.00
Weighted GPA: 4.25-4.61
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@Gumbymom I would be interested in your thoughts about how Weighted/Capped GPAs look to the UCs when they are so obviously impacted by the number of classes youāve taken. If you take more classes (whether or not they are regular A-G, honors/AP, or DE that count as honors for the extra point), at some point your GPA is by definition lower due to the denominator (more courses brings it down because you can only add the extra point for up to 8 grades). I sometimes see people saying their son or daughter has a Weighted/Capped GPA up in the 4.3 or 4.4 range and I donāt think thatās mathematically even possible at our school where students take 6 classes per semester. I know that UCB and UCLA look at fully weighted, uncapped GPA too (and Iām assuming thatās whatās referenced above ā not capped)ā¦but in general I find the whole GPA calculation somewhat inscrutable for both UCs and CSUs. In some ways it feels like Unweighted GPA is the only apples to apples comparison across schools.
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None of the three recalculated GPAs is a perfect comparator.
- Unweighted GPA does not account for chosen rigor or encourage choosing rigor.
- Fully weighted GPA may reflect offerings and opportunity (i.e. a larger number of weighted courses available) in addition to student choice of rigor.
- Weighted capped GPA has the problem of reducing GPA for those who take more total courses. (A possible modification for that would be to make the cap be a fraction of the total number of courses.)
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High school grades are up, but test scores arenāt. Why?
- By Matt Barnum
- on March 16, 2022 12:01 am
The capped weighted UC GPA maximum is 4.4 with around 20 semesters of a-g courses all Aās and the 8 semester Honors cap. After that threshold, the UC capped weighted GPA starts to decrease as the # of courses increase. For this reason, the UCās consider all 3 GPAās: Unweighted, Capped weighted and Fully weighted. They do not just look at the grades/ GPA, but the # of a-g courses above the minimum, # and type of Honors, AP, IB and DE/CC courses etcā¦ which is part of the 13 areas of the UC application review.
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This is a UC discussion thread so test scores if you are referring to SAT/ACT are not considered by the UCās so do not see the purpose of your post.
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Gumbymom - Do you know if UCLA also takes into consideration the senior courseload? Weāre OOS and school here only offers honors classes the first 2 years and those donāt count toward GPA for UC schools and my DD is taking a lot more IB classes this year (didnāt realize sophomore and junior years count the most and with school being virtual nobody told her) and weāre hoping they take that into account but it feels like sheās already behind in that sense.
Iām curious do you think the 4 personal statements fall under #10? I would have thought those would have been a little higher.
Honestly, I think my childās weighted/capped GPA benefitted from his school only offering six classes per semester. Heād taken exactly 8 gradesā worth of honors/AP by application time and I believe it came out to 4.38.
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That makes sense ā thanks for doing the math for me 
ā tracks with what I was thinking. The fact that my kids took 6 courses each semester for a total of 24 brings the max possible down a little bit, not that it would matter much if they see all the rest (rigor, courses above the minimum, etc.). Iām not worried about it ā just always found it a little tricky. I suppose the best way to look at it is to do the school by school lookup of FR AVG GPA in terms of who applied, who was admitted, who enrolled. But even then, there could be kids at our school who did a non A-G elective as their 6th class (PE or something) vs. an A-G class. So if your GPA looks right in the middle/AVG for those accepted to a given UC, it could be that another kid at your school has taken a different kind of courseload but isnāt necessarily as competitive due to a difference in rigor. Thanks for the details!
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Remember that a crucial comparison is how the student stands in relation to past and present applicants from the same school. This context is crucial ā also reflected in 9 percent ELC.
And a note on a prior commentā¦the 13 factors for comprehensive review above are not listed in order of importance. PIQs are really important. You can get some sense through the common data set but they donāt disclose how the factors are weighted.
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Last year my sonās capped GPA actually benefited by only having P/F grades from the spring semester of Junior Year (when COVID hit) because that reduced the denominator and otherwise he would have been over the max with honors points. I think the max if you have 24 semestersā worth of grades is 4.33. And looking at the FR AVG (capped) GPA from his (large public HS), the average GPA for kids admitted to UC San Diego was 4.31 which seems darn close to the max/optimized GPA. In theory some of those kids could have taken PE as one of the 6 classes (which would bring down the denominator), getting them to a higher capped GPA. Itās all very fascinating ā and probably splitting hairs. Good thing about holistic review.
Oh absolutely ā Iām certain that strong PIQs were a factor in my son getting into almost all of the UCs last year. Beyond the PIQs themselves, I think the way they tell a story that tracks with the list of activities is super important. And I think the way kids frame and present their activities list matters more than people might expect. It all has to weave together to present a meaningful, coherent picture of a kid.
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Yes. Whatās the fit? Does this kid reflect our values and slot in to our mission and institutional priorities? Is this a kid our professors would like to teach. Super important.
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