I’m a Californian HS student. I have a cummulative GPA of 3.78 my freshmen year and I’d like to raise it to a 4.0 by the end of my sophomore year. Im taking an AP class this year so is it possible to raise my GPA to a 4.0 by the end of the year? What do I need to do?? I’d like to go to UC Irvine and I’m not sure if any of what I’m doing is good enough. I’m taking about 3-4 AP classes next year (junior), so what would my chances of getting a 4.3 by the time of my senior year.
I don’t know how GPA works in your school, it is different for everyone. You are going to need to ask your guidance counselor.
My schools GPA is weighted
If you are targeting the UC’s, then your Freshman grades are not included in the UC GPA calculation. Also for the UC GPA calculation, you use only the a-g courses taken in 10-11th grades. For 10th grade, you can get up to 4 semesters (2 year long classes) of extra honors points towards your GPA for UC approved Honors, AP/IB or DE courses. For 11th grade, you can also get up to 4 extra honors points towards your UC GPA. UC GPA is capped at 8 semesters of Honors points total for 10-11th grades for the majority of the UC’s including UCI.
So to answer your question, yes you can get a 4.0 or higher by end of Sophomore year depending upon what grades you get this year and the extra honors points. It does not matter how your HS weights your GPA, what matters is the UC GPA weighting (at least when applying for these schools). Other schools will calculate your GPA differently.
Remember, as the # of AP’s classes increase each year, so does the difficulty.