<p>Hey CC</p>
<p>I am a HS senior and recently attended COSMOS at UC Davis this past summer. I do remember them mentioning at the closing ceremony that alumns will receive extra “points” on the UC application.</p>
<p>Here is my concern:
<p>2) How many points do we receive and is this added to the UC GPA or something else? </p>
<p>Bump</p>
<p>Bump</p>
<p>Bump</p>
<p>These are, more or less, all the categories: <a href=“University of California Counselors”>University of California Counselors;
<p>It’s basically a way of ensuring kids don’t get in based on numbers alone. Basically, say you’re a 4.1 kid with a 2000 SAT from a poorly performing (low API) school with lots of A-G classes and a bunch of leadership roles. You’ll get, say, 4100 points for your GPA, 2000 points for your SAT. Then you’ll get points for going to a bad school, the extra A-G classes, leadership, etc. You won’t get points for the categories you don’t fill, but you won’t be penalized either. In the end, if you get enough consideration in enough areas you gain admission.</p>
<p>At one point at least some of the UCs used actual algorithms (300 for leadership, 200 for top 10%, etc), but I don’t know if they do anymore. They still use this guideline though. You can google the point system spreadsheets that are passed around CC but they might be totally off base or out of date. It’s also up to the admissions committee to decide if you actually fill a category (say you’re secretary of 12 clubs, or president of a single massive one. Adcom decides if you’ve done enough to deserve the leadership consideration.)</p>
<p>COSMOS would fall into “Completion of special projects” (also known as “Participation in educational preparation
programs”). You get the same consideration as you would for EAOP, Upward Bound, and other approved programs or projects.</p>
<p>According to the NY Times, campuses still used a specific algorithm as of the Fall 2012 admit cycle. Applicants earn points in each category and are admitted if they earn more than the base “cut off” score.</p>
<p><a href=“Insight into Admissions at the University of California - The New York Times”>Insight into Admissions at the University of California - The New York Times;
<p>@Autumnal Thanks!
So does it mean that we do indeed receive extra points for doing COSMOS?</p>
<p>Yes, but it’ll be worth around the same as any other significant extra curricular. The benefit of doing COSMOS and other UC approved programs is that you don’t need to hope adcom will consider them significant; you already know they will be.</p>
<p>@Autumnal Oh okay that makes sense. I know they mentioned something about 200 added points. Idk if that still applies or not. </p>
<p>Thanks for the links btw, it gave good insight on the admin process itself.</p>