Getting into UCLA

Freshman and sophomore year I’m taking no ap or honor classes, I want to know if I take honor and ap classes in junior year and get a good score on the act/sat if I even have a chance considering I messed up freshman and sophomore year

Obviously anything can happen but it’s a very long shot

I’m very much in the dark on the “right” number of AP classes a hs student should take in order to be competitive for admission to an elite school? Can anyone suggest even a rough numerical range?

I think that would be helpful to op as well as others.

There is no “right” number.

Usually 6-8 AP classes if available are considered to be competitive for most schools. Much will depend upon how many AP’s are offered at each applicant’s HS and how many of these classes are taken by the top students at their HS.

UC’s use only 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation and they cap the # of extra honors points in the GPA calculation to 8 semesters of UC approved Honors/AP/IB or DE courses. This is the capped weighted UC GPA which all UC campuses use in their application review. UCLA and UCB will also consider the Uncapped or Fully weighted UC GPA which is an unlimited # of extra honors points for these classes in 10-11th grades.

Depending upon how many AP classes are offered at your HS, how many the top students take at your HS and if you get all A’s in your AP classes Junior year, your GPA could possibly be competitive along with your ACT/SAT scores.

But UCLA is just not about GPA and test scores, they will review your application as a whole including meaningful EC’s, your HS course rigor and your personal insight essays. If you had access but chose not to take any of the UC approved Honors or AP classes, then you will be at a disadvantage.

My advice is to take the AP/Honors courses you know you can do well in and get those A’s. Do not try to mold your application to just one college, since you will need to apply widely to a variety of colleges and you will need to include 1-2 safety, 4-5 match schools and then you can shoot for a few Reach schools like UCLA.

Here is the Freshman profile information from 2017 for UCLA. The new stats for 2018 should be out this summer but it gives you an idea of your target GPA and test scores. Remember there are over 3000 colleges in the US, so there is a college out there that will want you even if it is not UCLA.

http://www.admission.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof17.htm

I spoke to a Berkeley AO 3 years ago and he mentioned that 8 APs minimum was what was expected for a school that offered a lot of AP (my kid’s school offers 19 classes). I’ll assume the same is true of UCLA. Some HSs are screwy, the HS where we used to live only allows a max of 3 AP classes in junior and senior year, so that is taken into account. My kid’s school had a theoretical maximum of 1 in 10th grade, 3 in 11th grade and no max in 12th grade, though I see many kids somehow go over the limits. I also know some of the kids who are going to Berkeley who took no more than 6 AP classes, so the 8 apparently is not a showstopper.

I realize there is no “right” number of AP courses for one to take to competitive for a selective colleges. Perhaps that’s why I put “right” in quotes in the first place and asked about a potential range…

If you are over the capped AP courses (8 semesters) and if you receive a “B” in the excess AP course, the B will be counted as a 3.0 by the UC rather than a 4.0 by the high school. The 3.0 can drag your UC GPA down.