Particularly UC Santa Cruz or Riverside.
I also had another question: How can admissions officers see if a class was significantly harder than standard expectations?
What is your UC GPA Capped weighted, Unweighted and Fully weighted?
SAT/ACT scores?
Yes, an SAT Math II of 800 and A’s in CC courses would help but it will come down to how your GPA and test scores compare.
High scores are an advantage on an application, low grades are a disadvantage, both compared to the alternative. They all go into a portfolio of data points that admissions evaluates.
Very few applications are perfect. Each low grade/score has a minor impact - just don’t pile up a lot of them.
AO’s won’t know that a course was “harder than standard” as I’m not sure that has any meaning. Unless there is something extraordinary that a counselor is willing to include in their recommendation (“teacher gave all 20 students C and D grades and then was fired”), don’t try to make excuses.
A
Unweighted GPA: 3.65
Weighted GPA: 4.04
Weighted and Capped GPA: 3.96
SAT: 1430 (650 Reading/Writing, 780 Math, 8/7/8 Essay)
with a very rigorous schedule for junior and sophomore year
(not including two CC courses that I got A’s in, that are both CS related)
I wanted to know if like a 5 on the AP exam shows that my class was significantly harder? (maybe more pity for a bad grade?), Anyways, I didn’t really complain, but I mentioned on my apps that the class was very difficult (considering my schedule). However, I learned from it and chose to challenge myself to success my senior year.
Any thoughts on that?
I would not comment on the difficulty of the course. Having a 800 Math SAT II score and a 5 on the AP Calculus exam basically speaks for itself that you are no slouch in Math. Since the UC’s do not accept counselor recommendations, I would not address this issue yourself.
UC’s will review your application as a whole so if you have done well with your other courses, a few outliers will not be as significant as a downward trend. For UCSC and UCR, you look solid. Best of luck.
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 10%
UCLA: 9%
UCSD: 34%
UCSB: 38%
UCD: 41%
UCI: 38%
UCSC: 70%
UCR: 84%
UCM: 95%
2019 UC capped weighted GPA averages along with 25th-75th percentile range:
UCB: 4.23 (4.15-4.30)
UCLA: 4.25 (4.18-4.32)
UCSD: 4.16 (4.03-4.28)
UCSB: 4.16 (4.04-4.28)
UCI: 4.13 (4.00-4.25)
UCD: 4.13 (4.00-4.26)
UCSC: 3.96 (3.76-4.16)
UCR: 3.90 (3.69-4.11)
UCM: 3.73 (3.45-4.00)
2019 Data:
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT totals:
UCB: 1340-1540
UCLA: 1330-1550
UCSD: 1300-1520
UCSB: 1280-1520
UCD: 1230-1490
UCI: 1250-1510
UCSC: 1200-1450
UCR: 1130-1400
UCM: 1020-1290
I have a similar issue to yours! @Gumbymom would it be fine to comment about how one found a course difficult, but decided to improve and put extensive effort their senior year, or its better not to comment on it (let the scores speak for themselves)
@HighSchoolKid123: I would give you the same advice as @JoeGamer112 and not comment about the course difficulty and let the scores show your proficiency.
i think both UCR and UCSC are matches for you.
Be sure to include a safety or two in your application cycle. SDSU and CPP would be good.