High School GPA?

Applying to College
1

Hey everyone. I am really worried about my high school GPA. I am a sophomore in high school, and I am aiming for the UCs. I just finished my first semester of sophomore year, and I wanted to know my chances of getting into the middle tier UCs (Irvine, Davis, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz)

Sophomore year (1st semester only):
English 10 Honors: B
Algebra 2/Trig: B+
Geometry: A-
Spanish 3: A-
World History: B+
CP Chemistry: A

Unweighted GPA: 3.5
Weighted GPA 3.67

Extra curriculars:
-Baseball (2 years)
-HOSA (medical club) (2 years)
-Speech and Debate (1 year)

I also go to a high school which was ranked top 80 in the nation, so does that factor in to anything? My freshman year GPA was really bad (3.0), so will this hurt my chances, or will it help it because the colleges will see the upward trend in school? Thanks for your time and opinion.

2

  1. UC’s only use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation and an upward will be noted.

  2. You need to calculate your UC GPA at the end of Junior year. https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

  3. Without test scores, it is impossible to determine your chances at this point.

  4. Intended major, EC’s, HS course rigor and essays will all contribute to your chances. UC’s are GPA focused so having a competitive GPA will definitely help your chances.

Below is a link with the average UC GPA and Test scores for each campus. For the best chances, you want to above the averages. The SAT scores are based on the old SAT score out of 2400 so check for the 2017 Freshman profile next fall.

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/uc-freshman-application-data.pdf

3

Thanks for the reply. But am I on a good track, or should I be working way harder?

4

You need more A’s than B’s since you want to target at least 4.0 UC GPA by end of Junior year along with several AP or IB classes. Your Sophomore year is light with none of these courses. You want to maximize the honors points you get in the GPA calculation.

5

Try to get your UC GPA up as noted above - pretty much imperative to take advantage of the 8 semesters of AP/Approved Honors grade bump that the UC’s give in arriving at the UC GPA - it’s the path to a 4+ UC GPA. Looks like you will need to pick that all up in junior year - see your GC sooner than later re schedule and course selection.

6

My high school doesn’t allow students to take APs until 11th grade

7

@notstressful that’s ok just schedule classes accordingly for next year/11th grade.

8

Agree^^^^. Schedule up to 4 AP and/or UC approved Honors courses for 11th grade to maximize the extra Honors points in the GPA calculation. You can look up your HS approved courses here: https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/institution

9

Honestly. The only way into the schools you listed is and very high SAT or ACT. Also the grades need to be trending up and all A’s in all your junior year. My son two years ago with UW3.6 and W4.2 (2080 SAT) at a very high performance California HS was only accepted to UCSC from many UC applications.

All the UC schools are getting harder to get in. They don’t care about EC just your grades and scores. Hope this wakes you up to.