<p>So I'm going to be a senior at my high school and I had some questions regarding the UC GPA calculations.</p>
<p>When I looked at how to calculate it, it only includes a-g courses from sophomore year to junior year. Community college classes are allowed and they give the extra GPA boost (weighted as 5 instead of 4) to your UC GPA.</p>
<p>I took a total of 24 community college courses over the last 2 years (in 10 & 11 grade).</p>
<p>Note these are uncapped.
My UC GPA with just school: 4.39
My UC GPA with school + community college: 4.7</p>
<p>Will UC Berkeley admissions look lowly at my application since I took a large amount of CC courses? And when comparing me with other students they will look at the 4.7 when comparing me right?</p>
<p>Note that at most 8 semesters of college, honors, or AP courses will get the +1 bonus point when calculating UC admissions GPA. Community college courses should be UC-transferable ones.</p>
<p>I know that this will sound strange, but, in a certain sense, the U.C. system for calculating high school GPA actually penalizes students who take a heavy course load. Look at it this way. . . if you took only four courses (all advanced) during 10th and only four more (all advanced) during 11th, you could earn a maximum 4.5 GPA (eight of the 16 semester credits would be worth five points and the other eight would be worth four points). If you took six advanced courses during each of those two years you could “only” earn a maximum 4.33 GPA (eight of the 24 semester credits would be worth five points and the other 16 semester credits would be worth four points). </p>
<p>All is not lost, however. If you look at statfinder and do a complex table including HS GPA and number of honors/AP courses taken you will note that the admissions rate for students with a given GPA is much higher if that student has taken a ton of honors/AP courses. In other words (duh), the admissions officers take careful note of how much you have challenged yourself. . . it is not just a question of your numerical GPA. </p>
<p>Hope this helps ease your concerns. Assuming that your test scores are in the ballpark and you have some decent ECs you probably have a very good shot at getting in.</p>
<p>My question was whether the admissions officers will look lowly at me for taking 24 extra community college courses (consisted of Business, Econ, CS, and Math).</p>
<p>Berkeley does indeed cap the numeric UC GPA. </p>
<p>UC Berkeley admission does not deviate from the general UC application, that’s why you just ‘tick’ the schools you want your application sent to. The UC application uses UC GPA, which does indeed cap the number of bonus honors and AP courses which adds more points to your GPA. </p>
<p>I know this because I took way above the cap, and my UC GPA dropped as a result. </p>
<p>Berkeley does not take the time to recalculate your GPA, it just looks at the GPA produced when you enter in your classes/grades in the UC application. </p>
<p>However, they do see the courses you take, so course load is taken into account. </p>
<p>But don’t be fooled, they won’t go through every application (50,000+?) and adjust your GPA.</p>
<p>@APTester: Thanks. That’s what I was trying to convey. Because of the way that the UC high school GPA is calculated, honors/AP students who take a heavy course load end up with a lower UC high school GPA than honors/AP students who take a light course load. </p>
<p>Put another way, the UC high school GPA is capped at 4.5, and obtaining that would require you to take only four courses during sophomore year and four courses during junior year, with at least four of those eight courses being AP or honors. </p>
<p>For the average AP/honors student who takes six courses/year, his or her UC high school GPA is going to be capped at 4.33 (8x5 plus 16x4 divided by 24).</p>
<p>Again, however, if you look at statfinder, you will see how chances for admission are heavily influenced by the number of AP and honors courses taken, so it appears that the “GPA penalty” for students taking a heavy course load is compensated for by the boost received for the number of honors/AP courses taken.</p>
<p>@Vexophous, Berkeley does not cap the GPA and the rigor of your schedule (including AP, UC-approved Honors, and CC courses) is one of the top three factors considered for admission. So while your GPA will flatten out from the high number of advanced courses you have taken, the rigor of your schedule will balance it out. This information is presented in the Cal admissions training sessions for alumni volunteers (to go out to visit at local college fairs), for which I have attended every year in the last 5 years.</p>
<p>I want to clarify for everyone else that each UC campus calculates the GPA differently. Berkeley and UCLA do not cap the GPA, the rest of the UCs either cap the GPA at 8 semesters or have a straight cut-off point (like 4.4 or 4.5). I obtained this information by talking to various UC admission reps when I attended the UC Counselor Conference (in the last 4 years).</p>
<p>I think the confusion is between the written documents on the UC website (UC gpa is capped) and the actual practice at some UC’s (they really don’t). The additional work is considered in a holistic review.</p>
<p>@mrssun: Thanks for the info. You are absolutely correct that the UCB/UCLA admissions officers, when examining your academic record, look beyond your UC GPA (mainly at rigor of program) to decide whether to admit. </p>
<p>As far as “Cap vs. No Cap” goes, while UCB and UCLA may not phrase it as a “cap,” the reality for everyone who takes four classes or more during sophomore and junior years (which, I am pretty sure, includes just about everyone applying to those schools) is that UCB/UCLA GPA will max out at 4.5. If you take five classes/year during Soph/Junior, your UC GPA will max out at 4.4. If your take six classes during Soph/Junior year, your UC GPA will max out at 4.33. </p>
<p>Again, it is still to an applicant’s advantage to take way more than eight semesters of AP/Honors courses during soph/junior year, as the weight that is given to a demanding curriculum more than compensates for the GPA penalty imposed on students who load up on AP and Honors courses.</p>
<p>I am limiting this to UCB and UCLA to avoid confusion: </p>
<p>I re-read your post, and you seem to be saying that UCB and UCLA, when calculating high school GPA, have neither a numerical cap (i.e, limit of 4.4 or 4.5) nor an “eight cap” on the number of semesters of AP or honors “5 point” classes? </p>
<p>So, if I take six courses (all AP/Honors) during sophomore year and six courses (all AP/Honors) during junior year, and earn straight A grades, I would have a 5.0 UC GPA for UCB and UCLA? </p>
<p>The UC method for computing GPA is mysterious. Even their own explanation on the statfinder data explanation is cryptic. . . something like “capped at 4.4 but higher GPAs are possible.” What in the he** does that mean?</p>
<p>@Mom2M, I just want to tell you that last year I called UCSD to get clarification about GPA calculation and I made 3 separate calls (a usual practice so I can make sure the information I get is accurate). Believe it or not, I got 3 different answers from 3 different people. Kind of makes me wonder how UCSD is training its staff. The 3 answers I got were 1) no cap (all AP/Honors were weighted); 2) 4.5 cap (straight cut-off); and 3) 8-semester cap. It’s like not getting an answer at all. I have not tried to get further clarification since then for fear of my head exploding.</p>
<p>@scswickman, for Berkeley and UCLA, the short answer to your question is yes. It is possible to get 5.0 if all you have are AP or UC-approved honors courses. My response to Mom2M above should illustrate just how “mysterious” the calculation method really is. Although to be fair, Berkeley and UCLA have been pretty consistent in how they respond to the question.</p>
<p>The “UC GPA” is the same as the published one – 10th and 11th grade a-g course grades, with up to 8 additional points for UC designated “honors” courses (including AP courses) with C or higher grades.</p>
<p>However, Berkeley admissions readers have access to all grades (and probably GPAs calculated in unweighted and uncapped weighted forms) as well as contextual information about the high school (including availability of “honors” courses).</p>
<p>Note that use of contextual information does have an effect of simulating consideration of rank-in-class, even though rank-in-class as determined by the high school does not matter at all. Basically, don’t worry about gaming your high school’s class ranking system for Berkeley admissions; just take the most rigorous options for any courses (i.e. UC designated “honors” courses when possible) and get A grades in them.</p>
<p>Thanks MsSun and UCBAlum. The process by which the UCs (and UCB/UCLA in particular) calculate HS GPA is shrouded in mystery and confusion. I guess that the only constant is that one should take max AP/honors courses. Based on statfinder, it appears that the correlation between number of AP/honors courses and admission rates is undeniable. For example, an in-state applicant with a 4.2 HS GPA and a 31 ACT (or, roughly, a 2100 SAT) has almost a 90% chance of admission if he or she has taken 15+ semesters of AP/honors courses during 9-12. That admissions percentage drops pretty quickly as the number of AP/honors semesters decreases (again, UC GPA and test scores staying the same). </p>
<p>The above data is based upon the latest statfinder data which, unfortunately, is from 2009. I wish they would update it to reflect the increasingly elevated admissions data. </p>
<p>Also, the above applies only to in-state applicants. For out-of-staters (even with the “California fiscal crisis full tuition bonus credits”) the prospects are far more challenging. </p>
<p>Best advice to serious high schoolers with hopes of attending UCB/UCLA: Load up on AP/honors courses if you think you can handle them!</p>
<p>Note that non-California high schools are not evaluated for honors courses; only AP courses are counted as honors for non-California high schools.</p>
<p>The fancy new interface shows data up to 2010 (one year newer than UC StatFinder which will remain online with no further updates) and allows you to see applicants, admits, and enrollees based on campus and year, and one of the following characteristics: all students (overall admission), gender, ethnicity, residence, first language, parent education, parent income, school API, and weighted GPA.</p>
<p>The data presentation is a bit more stripped down compared to what StatFinder can do (which is probably why the UCs no longer have money to run it), but at least now you can see the numbers for 2010.</p>