<p>Formula for UC GPA appears to be (4a+3b+2c+d+min(8, #HonorsClasses))/(n = a+b+c+d).</p>
<p>1) The formula penalizes a student doing many honors courses.
E.g.
8 Honors Classes + Straight A => GPA is 5
16 Honors Classes + Straight A => GPA is 4.5</p>
<p>What is the rationale?</p>
<p>2) Is capped UC GPA the prime criterion for academic performance for scholarships (e.g Regents invites) and Admissions? Wondering why an unfair formula becomes the core basis.</p>
<p>Sometimes, I see capped and uncapped GPA are reported - what is the significance of capped GPA? When does it come into picture?</p>
<p>The rationale is that they don’t want to punish kids whose schools simply didn’t give the opportunity for harder classes. However, beyond that, we get into rumor territory. RUMOR is that they only use that to calculate UC admissibility, system wide (the 3.0 instate 3.4 out of state part). UCLA specifically says it looks at capped and uncapped, and tells us who of which got admitted. Berkeley’s admissions officers at the tour/event I attended with my sons say they give an extra point for every AP. I don’t think you get so many above 4.0 without using uncapped, and I believe the rumor that uncapped is typically used, but schools vary in how they weigh things, so it may be different at different schools.
However, note that HONORS only count for gpa purposes with the UC system if they are on the list of UC certified honors courses at your particular high school. They don’t certify many honors courses. They do, however, still look at ‘course rigor’ as a separate element.</p>