I wonder if in their “holistic” admissions methods, that if Cal and UCLA actually don’t always use actual UC gpas in their final decisions? I say this because a kid can have a 4.0 UC UW gpa with all A-s and another kid can have a 4.0 UW UC gpa with all As and some A+s. I would imagine that with all other things being equal (like they have the same number of honors/AP grades), Cal/UCLA would admit the kid with the 4.0 UW UC gpa with As and A+s instead of the one with A-s. In order to narrow admissions and make things more transparent, I wonder if the UCs will change their gpa calculations in the near future to reflect the minor differences between minus and plus letter grades.
@vineyardview: The UC’s do not consider +/- so when filling out the application an A-/A+ is just an A.
@vineyardview I pulled up the PDF of my son’s 2017 UC application. It looks like it does not show the + or - for grades they enter. (I don’t know whether entering + or - was an option, but he would have if it were.)
The CSU application does show + and - grades, but their formula is numeric only and shows the calculated GPA, which does not appear to use + or -.
I have read that Cal and UCLA look more at the weighted uncapped GPA than other UCs, which can differ more from student to student. The other UCs have been reported to look more at the weighted capped GPA. (I don’t have a source for this information at hand.) All three GPAs are available to application reviewers.
Thanks @Gumbymom. I had assumed that transcripts were sent in with the application for admission. It looks like grades are just self reported.
If the application allows only A, B, C, D, F without +/-, the +/- is not visible to the application reader.
Final transcripts are required for those who matriculate, both to verify self-reported courses and grades and to check that the student met the admission conditions relating to doing well enough in in-progress courses.
Is there any opposition to replacing/supplementing the GPA system with the percentile system? Would this not be more accurate in determining top students relative to their peers? A point system would have to be added as well along with an entire information system so that admissions could simply understand what they’re looking at.
Our school doesn’t report percentages on transcripts. That would be a radical change for most California public schools. And I don’t see the benefit. The UCs are picking the kids they want.
UC financial aid is definitely variable by campus. My 2 kids both were accepted to multiple campuses in different yers and the financial aid was variable. It was not enough of a variation to make a material difference to us in terms of choice of campus – but definitely each campus is making its own determination as to how to allocate whatever institutional grant money was available.
Regents scholarships are certainly quite variable across UC campuses. My daughters were awarded multiple Regents from various campuses. As I recall Davis offered the most, something like $10K/year with Irvine a little less. By contrast, the Berkeley Regents was primarily an honor with very little cash attached - something like $1K/year.
That was our experience also. D got Regents Scholarships from all the UCs. UCSD’s was the richest. UCLA and Berkeley offered something like $2,000.
UCB Regents’ scholarship amounts are:
A. If student has FA need relative to FAFSA EFC, covers all need without student loan or work (for in-state students, effectively an upgrade of about $8,000 over the regular FA; for out-of-state students, a potentially much larger upgrade over the lack of any FA at all in the usual case).
B. If student does not have FA need (or not much), then the honorarium amount is $2,500 for students paying in-state tuition, or the amount of out-of-state additional tuition for students paying out-of-state tuition.
http://financialaid.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/docs/forms/RC_Terms_Conditions_2017-18.pdf
http://financialaid.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/docs/forms/RC_Terms_Conditions_OOS_2017-18.pdf
UCB Regents is a minimum of $2500 per year, but they typically meet all Financial Need for Regents Scholars.
The priority registration and housing guarantee that come with Regents are worth more than $2500 at Berkeley.
I thought the UCs stop discounting for out-of-state students?
No need-based FA for out-of-state students. Even when that did exist some years ago, it did not cover the additional out-of-state tuition.
However, out-of-state students are still eligible for merit scholarships like Regents’ scholarships, though merit scholarships are not that common.
Have kids been Regents at one UC campus and not at another?
Yes. Regents’ scholarships, despite the name, are determined at the campus level.
UC Admissions already gets a version of that, at least for instate students. Teh UC computer in the sky actually ranks all students from the high school that apply to UC that year. So in effect, it puts those weighted uncapped GPA’s in rank order.
But note, the ‘ranking’ is only based on UC a-g courses, and it excludes anyone from that high school who does not apply to UC that year. Obviously, most top kids in state apply to at least on UC campus, but not all do. Perhaps the Val/Sal want to go into teaching, so they focus on Cal State system, for example.
I never associate Berkeley with sports. UCLA for sure. I doubt Berkekey’s rep is due to its sports program. Among UCs, UCLA is the only one I associate with sports. Among top 10 ranked schools according to US News, Stanford the only one I associate with some sports. IMO Duke and Notre Dame reps benefit the most from its basketball program, not that it’s not a good school without it.
Everyone in the know knows CalTech. Arguably, it’s got the smartest students.
It amazes me when I see a kid (someone I know well) with near perfect GPA, 1570 SAT and NMF who never got Regents from UCSD. He graduating from there with almost all As from CS. There must be some income requirement. As for my kid, he only got into Honors at UC Irvine and no Regents from any UC.