<p>Hello,
I am currently a Sophmore in HS. Last year as a freshman, I got a 4.0 both semesters; I also was very sick and was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. </p>
<p>This year I am doing much better; for sophmores the advance classes they offer are: AP World History, Honors Chem, and English 10Accelerated(no grade pt.) I am not taking any of those, I am just taking regular classes. I really want to get in to UC Berkeley ... so will since I didn't take any APs/Honors this year jepordize my chances for Berkeley? I have a strong GPA this year - 3.86-4.0. Next year (junior yr) I plan to take: AP US History, Algebra 2Accelerated, and English Honors - will this make up for my mess this year? I am really worried! I will also take AP Gov, AP Spanish 4, AP Lang. & Composition and maybe AP Statistics Senior yr.Plz. Help.</p>
<p>UCs, including Berkeley, only take sophomore and junior grades into account in the initial admission decision. They will compute the GPA based upon the key courses (meaning they don't count courses like Health, Teaching Assistant, Physical Education, etc. which aren't academic in nature). They will count the first eight semesters of honors courses in computing the "UC GPA". What this means is figure your total grade points the regular way using only the academic courses, then add one extra grade point for each of the first eight honor courses you took (honors, APs, or IB courses). Then divide this new total by the total number of academic courses you took. You need about a 4.17 GPA (in-state) and about a 4.3 GPA (out-of-state) plus around a SAT total score of 2010, and two SAT II scores that add up to about 1200 to get into UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>Also, if the GPA is slightly lower, but the SATs slightly higher, you may also get in. They also consider if you are from a lower economic background, whether your parents went to college, and if you have any unusual situations (like Crohn's disease) that you had to overcome.</p>
<p>Then if they are still undecided they look at the freshman grades (which in your case would help) and how heavy a courseload you took (which would hurt you).</p>