@ucbalumnus AP Chem seminar, Pre-Calc 2 (actually prly not a seminar), AP Euro seminar, AP Physics C Mech seminar, APUSH seminar, AP Environmental seminar
@ucbalumnus If this info helps, my weighted GPA between sophomore and junior year only is 4.31.
Seems like these seminars and their grades should be included in your GPA calculations, since they appear to be normal parts of your AP courses.
@ucbalumnus These seminars are not a-g courses, and my counselors said that the UC colleges don’t look at them. seminars are in the 3rd tri of the year
I’ve seen published stats for competitive students at UCLA to establish rigor.
9-12th
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47 semesters of a-g classes
21 semesters of UC approved honors classes.
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OP have you looked at your schools stats on UC data info center. This should show you the UC capped GPA for students admitted from your school. In my experience, UCs admit based on the context of what’s available to you.
My kids had much lower fully capped UC GPAs and did well with UC admissions.
Are your AP courses and other a-g courses completed in two trimesters? Is the 3rd trimester reserved for non a-g courses?
The seminars not being a-g courses doesn’t seem right since you (unintentionally) are gaming the UC GPA calculation by making these courses appear as if you took off a whole trimester. If let’s say you got As in all the seminar courses, your UC capped GPA would actually go down quite a bit.
I’m sure your counselors know how the UC calculation works with your trimester system, seminars, etc. Whatever the number is, there’s no point stressing about it since it’s already determined and it’s not going to change which UC’s you apply to; better to work on the Personal Insight Questions and let the numbers fall as they may.
I did want to mention, though, that U of Rochester could be a good school for you to look at. While I know that an interest in photography doesn’t necessarily imply an interest in optics, their Optical Engineering program is unusual and very cool. http://www.hajim.rochester.edu/optics/undergraduate/index.html Its a really excellent STEM school, and they give a lot of merit aid including some robotics-specific scholarships. Schools like Rochester can be nice for students who aren’t totally sure what they want to study, because the curriculum is flexible and it’s easy to move between majors and combine interests - you’d be much less locked into a path than at a UC.
Case Western Reserve is another excellent school that does not admit by major - students can switch into engineering and CS as well as out, which is unusual. They have multiple EECS tracks - CS BA or BA, Computer Engineering, Data Science & Analytics - and there’s a cool Engineering Physics major in addition to MechE… plus the art department offers a photography minor http://arthistory.case.edu/undergraduate/art-studio/minors/
Both of these schools are a little reachy GPA-wise based on the raw numbers, but given the improving trend you could have a shot. If you apply RD they’ll consider your senior fall grades too, unlike UC’s. Both are good as far as meeting financial need too, if that’s a factor.