FAQ: UC historical frosh admit rates by HS GPA

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

The following link has a chart that shows historical frosh admission information. You can use it to look for admit rates by campus and HS GPA.

http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary

Under “Select a View”, choose “Freshman Admit Rate”. Under “Applicant Characteristics”, choose “HS GPA”. Then choose the campus of interest.

Very important notes:

  1. HS GPA is weighted and capped the way UC and CSU do it. See http://www.csumentor.edu/planning/high_school/gpa_calculator.asp for instructions.
  2. The UCs appear to consider HS GPA as much more important than SAT or ACT scores. Applicants should **not** assume that an SAT or ACT score significantly higher than the campus' score range will compensate for a lower HS GPA, although higher is always better than lower.
  3. Direct frosh admission to some popular (selective/impacted/capped) majors (usually including engineering and CS, but sometimes including other majors like math or biology at UCSD) may be significantly more selective than overall campus admission stats may indicate. Depending on the campus, applicants not admitted to a selective/impacted/capped major may be rejected from the campus entirely, or may be admitted as undeclared or in an alternate major. See http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/freshman-admission-matrix.pdf for more information on campus policies on major selection for frosh admission. Students enrolling as undeclared or in an alternate major should be aware that changing into a selective/impacted/capped major after enrolling may be difficult, requiring a high college GPA and/or a competitive admission process.
2

Thanks for the great information.

3

Re note #2: Perhaps “much more important” is too strong. Applicants should not assume that a GPA higher than the campus average will compensate for an SAT or ACT score at the lower end of the campus score range.

4

^ I agree with UW! This year, many students assumed their high GPA would compensate for a low SAT/ACT and they were crushed to realize it didn’t!

5

Here is a handy table of 2015 UC frosh admission rates by HS GPA:



Campus  4.20-   3.80-   3.40-   3.00-
        higher  4.19    3.79    3.39
UCB     46%     12%      2%      1%
UCLA    53%     14%      3%      1%
UCSD    88%     39%      6%      1%
UCSB    88%     49%     13%      2%
UCD     89%     53%     11%      3%
UCI     97%     56%     16%      4%
UCSC    95%     83%     47%     10%
UCR     99%     90%     64%     25%
UCM     98%     92%     80%     42%

Note: 3.00 is the usual minimum HS GPA for California residents; 3.40 is the usual minimum high school GPA for non-California residents.

6

Is this table above using UC capped weighted?

7

Yes, http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary from which the table is derived says:

8

Just to clarify again: is HS GPA = UC/CSU GPA or not pls?

9

Re: question in #7

Answer is in #6.

10

Thank you - I saw “Yes” in #6 first word! So, it means this is the GPA using UC/CSU calculator.

11

What if, for international applicants, their schools don’t offer APs, and the highest possible GPA is 4.0???

12

2016 fall admission stats are now posted on https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/infocenter/freshman-admissions-summary .



Campus  4.20-   3.80-   3.40-   3.00-
        higher  4.19    3.79    3.39
UCB     42%     14%      2%      1%
UCLA    54%     14%      3%      1%
UCSD    87%     44%      8%      1%
UCSB    85%     54%     14%      2%
UCD     91%     58%     15%      4%
UCI     94%     65%     13%      2%
UCSC    95%     85%     59%     18%
UCR     98%     94%     78%     38%
UCM     98%     96%     92%     67%
13

So if your school doesn’t offer a ton of AP classes to juice the GPA you’re just SOL?

14

The limit of 8 semesters’ worth of honors +1 points means that UC weighted GPA is unlikely to be more than about 0.3 to 0.4 higher than unweighted GPA on the same 10th to 11th grade a-g courses.

Admission readings may also consider the context of what was available to the student.

15

thanks for the share info. I found it very helpful. I’m brand new to this and just trying to understand. My daughter will be a senior next yr. She is currently enrolled in a college prep HS. Very competitive. So, the admission process includes verification of type of HS (competitive, private, etc)? TIA

16

Hey I know this is another thread but tying into what the man sad does it ~matter~ help if HS is prestigious?
٨
That should be crossed out

17

@college dad 2B im sorry but your kid will most likely not get in with that gpa, so sorry man

18

@ucbalumnus is the GPA on the chart weighted or non-weighted ? for AP classes, do they add 1 point to the GPA, so an A would be a 5 when calculating the GPA ?

19

@theoverseer my apologies for the confusion. I actually never posted any of her scores. She currently has a 3.9gpa and scored a 34 on her ACT. thoughts? TIA

20

Does anyone else think that the 3.8 - 4.19 range is too broad? There’s a huge difference between 3.81 and 4.19. My son has a 3.8 applying to CS and I think this just gives us false hope.