capped or fully weighted GPA

which does UCSD use for admissions?

All UC’s use the capped weighted GPA, but UCLA and UCB will also use the Fully weighted UC GPA. All the UC’s will consider your course rigor regardless.

Wait, does having a higher number of courses actually hurt your chances because of the 8 weighted credit limit? Theortically, this means that a free period is a better choice than a 5th AP class (2 credits per semester). I wanted to take some community college classes and it will help my unweighted and uncapped, but I fear it will hurt my chances since my capped could very well sink below a 4.0. Uncapped it would be around a 4.45-4.6 though. Thing is I’m applying to the most competitive programs: EECS at Berkeley and CSE at UCSD and UCLA.

@PrestigiousNerd: UCLA/UCB also state that they use the fully weighted UC GPA (unlimited semesters of UC approved Honors/AP/IB or DE courses) taken 10-11th plus all UC’s want to see a challenging HS schedule so it may impact your UC GPA a bit, but the course rigor will be noted in the application review. It all equals out in the end.