<p>I am very interested about going to UCB.</p>
<p>My grades are not incredibly good - 3.6 so far. Is it true that admissions for UC don't look at freshman year?
In addition, how bad will a "C" look in Calculus BC (cause my teacher is incredibly hard) and a C alg/trg honors? I got a B first semester, but dropped second =/. Also, would taking 4 Ap classes and reciuving a 3.6 GPA compared to 3 Ap classes witha 3.8 GPA be be worse or better in terms of admisssion?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>delirious_tree:</p>
<p>Assuming you are a California resident,
UCB: Slight Reach</p>
<p>You can get in with a 3.6, somewhat doable, but below the cumulative average of accepted students (3.8/4.3 weighted). I'd risk the 4 APs, simply because the chance of the higher weighted grade is worth it. At this point, Berkeley appears to be a reach IMO, but other factors may affect this. And yes UCs do not look at freshman year grades. As long as you pass the AP Calculus BC test, a C grade would be acceptable, that class is a cooker for sure.</p>
<p>oo yeah. I forgot to mention. That 3.6 is UW. I am not sure for the weighted score. How do you calculate that again?</p>
<p>It's very difficult to get in to UCB with 2 C's and a B. Are all your other grades A's ?
To calculate UC weighted gpa just add one point for every honor/AP course and use only soph and junior years.</p>
<p>Other than AP courses, only Honors Pre-Calculus and certain Honors English courses are worth 5.0.</p>
<p>Do note that while UCs don't use freshman grades to calculate UC GPA, UC Berkeley still looks at freshman grades and makes a decision off of it. You can use the additional information box to explain if you have mitigating circumstances for it.</p>
<p>You do have a chance if you can somehow explain why your grades are somewhat low and write an excellent essay, now that UC Berkeley (along with LA and Irvine) use holistic admissions. It would probably help if your math teachers wrote letters explaining the difficulty of their course.</p>
<p>An amazing essay would do it, but I'd still say, even if you are a California resident, that Berkeley is far more than just a slight reach with 2 C's. Possible, but not likely.</p>
<p>Mehhh I don't think UCs are all about the grades. Class rank is also important. I've gotten 7 Bs and one C+, and I'm number 9 in my class. I got into Berkeley.</p>
<p>One things UCs do not have access to is class ranks.</p>
<p>From what I gleaned from descriptions of the process, transcripts from the various high schools are compiled into a universal format, with UC GPA compiled.</p>
<p>The admissions officers never see your class rank, as it is UC policy not to go by ranks. They do, however, see the context of your school, but not your specific rank. So if lots of B's and C's is strong academically for your area, then it will help. Otherwise, however, class rank is correlated with acceptance, not causing acceptance, as high class rank is usually also means exceptional academics.</p>
<p>Don't the UCs have an upper limit of 8 semester of honors when calculatin weighted GPA?</p>
<p>They look at, and strongly consider, rigor of classload.</p>
<p>If you load up to just reach their threshold of GPA calculation, you'll be strongly knocked on having a less rigorous classload than you could have.</p>
<p>I'd advise ignoring the UC GPA calculation AP limits (as said above... most honors are not UC certified 5.0, even though many high schools weight them interally as 5.0), at least in regards to UC Berkeley, and just go for as difficult a courseload as you can handle.</p>
<p>mmkay never mind then. they don't haev access to rank. </p>
<p>what else did i have then?
Leadership. A *****load. And a LOT of awards.
Essays are also very important.</p>