Honors course dilemma for CSU/UC

Hi, I was told by my counselor that an honors precalculus course i took in the 10th grade would earn extra honors credit for the CSU/UC GPA calculation, but when I went to my school’s courselist site, it wasn’t given an honors designation. However, on older courselists (2001-02 to be exact), it was designated honors (and it was the exact same course, same transcript abbreviation, etc.). the course itself affected my GPA by 0.1 points - however will calpoly still take this into consideration after i was admitted?

<p>Please keep this in mind:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>As part of its selection process, Cal Poly takes into account ALL honors/AP/IB courses if they are labeled as "AP/honors/IB" on your transcript, however, honors points are still capped at 8 semesters. BTW, if you never found out, the "overall GPA" (10-11th grades) is only weighted at 0-5% of the total point value.</p></li>
<li><p>The CSU/UC GPA is only used for calculating your elgibility index (minimum of 2900 required for SAT scores and 694 for ACT scores). As long as you are still well above the minimum, I don't think it's much of an issue.</p></li>
<li><p>If your final GPA (with your senior grades) is close to the one reported on your app, without the honors point for the course, you have nothing to worry.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>thx for the info. are you for the most part sure on it though? the course is designated as honors on my transcript</p>

<p>after calculating my gpa with my senior grades without the honors credit for that course, it came out to .05 pts below what i originally reported though</p>

<p>thx for any further help</p>

<p>All this info was taken from the admissions website, along with archived, cached pages.</p>

<p>bump..... anyone else know or is clear on the info above?</p>

<p>Hmm the counselor's site says that only approved courses can be listed -uhh I'm confused here between what you said and what someone else says.</p>

<p>sorry for bumping, but i need to get this question resolved</p>

<p>This is the link that shows which course from which high school is approved. The counselor website might have it wrong. The link sometimes does not work, so try a few times.</p>

<p><a href="https://pathways.ucop.edu/doorways/list/%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://pathways.ucop.edu/doorways/list/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Type in the name of your high school. It will display all the courses from your high school. The ones that have a star right next to it is the approved honor course.</p>

<p>the course is currently listed as non-honors, however, it was previously labeled as honors on older course lists</p>

<p>You just have to rely on this list. It's pretty accurate. Talk to your counselor and find out why it was changed, they might know the reason. This site can still be updated by the counselor if it's wrong.</p>

<p>i also noticed that AP calc. is labeled "non-honors" and an honors physics class is labeled as "AP credit"</p>

<p>ehh my school's site has a ton of mistakes, perhaps this could be the reason, since some of my friends who are now at UCs say that the UC gave them honors points for the precalc course regardless of its designation on the list</p>

<p>No, I really mean that when I say talk to the counselor to change the wrong rating if that is the case. Don't rely on what your friends say. They might have come off a different year.The UC base all this information on your year, they don't have the resources to check and verify. You should get the credit for honor course if it is an honor course. You'll do a lot of students at your school a service to simply go ask the counselor why the same course last year was counted as honors and not this year. It could be an error or a counselor's typo. In either case, you'll find out for sure. Don't assume anything. I'm sorry, not to mean to be preachy, but look at the word assume and there is ASS between U & ME( a joke my physics tutor told me 25 years ago).</p>

<p>Do you go to an LAUSD school? That will make things different. The LAUSD publishes a list of courses that are recognized by the UCs as far as point values and Honors/AP supplements go. Most of the time, the LAUSD guidelines supercede the school ones.</p>

<p>Honors courses at LAUSD schools (i.e. Honors English 10/Honors English 9AB) do NOT receive Honors credit unless it is (rarely) approved by the UC Pathways system. </p>

<p>If the course that you took was Honors WHILE you were taking it, then the Honors point would apply. Check with UC Pathways, however. Under ex post facto guidelines, the UC system cannot retroactively remove a point value from a course from previous years.</p>

<p>Actually, honors courses taught at the 9th and 10th grade levels (e.g. bio, english, world history) are generally not given honors credit by the UC. It usually has to contain 11th/12th grade content in order to be certified (e.g. precalc/math analysis/trig/physics/chem). </p>

<p>If it was previously given an honors indicator, then it's possible your school may have chosen to not grant it anymore, or it's just an error. The latter could be the case if a regular-level class also exists at your school.</p>

<p>PolarMan is correcty -- typical Frosh-Soph courses do not count for the gpa boost, regardless of what honors designation is on your transcript. But, non-typical Frosh-Soph courses do count if honors, such as honors precalc, Calc, and all AP couses regardless of what year taken. But, that honors pre-calc has to be approved by UC. Perhaps your school transcript is out of sync with the UC changes. Or, perhpas your school redesignated the course. For example, our HS used to offer Honors Chem (which was eligible for the gpa boost), but then the school, in its infinite wisdom, changed it back to College Prep - so no gpa boost.</p>

<p>Definitely check it out with your GC. If pathways is incorrect, only your GC can submit the paperwork to correct it.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Actually, honors courses taught at the 9th and 10th grade levels (e.g. bio, english, world history) are generally not given honors credit by the UC. It usually has to contain 11th/12th grade content in order to be certified (e.g. precalc/math analysis/trig/physics/chem).</p>

<p>If it was previously given an honors indicator, then it's possible your school may have chosen to not grant it anymore, or it's just an error. The latter could be the case if a regular-level class also exists at your school.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Typically, yes, but there are exceptions. I know of several high schools in the Southern California area that have Honors-point receiving 10th grade classes.</p>

<p>Doorways is down at the moment, though, so I can't verify my statement.</p>

<p>tlaktan:</p>

<p>you are correct... an AP course taken will count towards the boost, as will honors precalc, but not honors Geom nor honors Alg-II. (Honors AlgII used to count when taken as a Frosh, but that policy was changed three years ago.) </p>

<p>Honors Chem will count if taken as a Soph because the assumption is that Honors Chem has a prereq, either General Chem or an into nphysical science or Coordinated/Integrated science, and the like. But, those pre-reqs will not receive a gpa boost even if they are noted as honors on the transcript.</p>

<p>Thus, as general rules: 1) if the class meets the minimum requirement for acceptance than it will not receive the boost; 2) class needs a prereq to qualify for the boost.</p>

<p>wow, lot of posts, so i'll address these replies to the posts above:</p>

<ul>
<li>yes, the course is given an honors indicator on my transcript</li>
<li>my friends who got the extra point from the university also took the class in the same year as i did</li>
<li>at the time i took the class, a regular version of class was also offered</li>
<li>when i first took the class, the teacher handed out a list of defined prerequisites for the class</li>
<li>i will talk to my counselor tommorow regarding this</li>
</ul>

<p>@Polarman: just a question: why is calpoly's selection process a bit different from the rest of the calstates?</p>

<p>Because CP is continuously impacted for all majors, they are allowed to implement their own selection process. However, the CSU elgibility index is still required to determine entrance elgibility.</p>

<p>Here's the breakdown: (varies by college/major) <-- any future applicants may find this useful as well</p>

<p>College-prep GPA (9-11th grades, all honors courses considered, but capped at 8 points): 40-45% of total weight
Completion of CSU subject requirements: 10-20% of total weight
Overall GPA (10-11th grades, only approved honors courses considered): 0-5% of total weight
Test scores: 25-35% of total weight
ECs: 0-10% of total weight</p>

<p>All this will tabulate to a max. score of 5000; 250 additional points are added if you live in CP's local area, plus 250 bonus points are added if you're a transfer</p>

<p>Note that this data was taken from 1999/2000 - it's possible it may have been revised. Please be sure to read this if you have more q's on their selection process or on the provisions of admission:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.calpoly.edu/%7Eacadprog/2005pdf/admiss.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.calpoly.edu/~acadprog/2005pdf/admiss.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>bluebayou, Honors Chem has a "B" average or better in all math with concurrent enrollment in Algebra 2 AND recommendation of current science teacher. Sophomores must be concurrently enrolled in Honors Coordinated Science 2. This is taken straight out of the school catalog. No general chemistry requirement. D's friend is going to take it so I know she did not have general Chemistry.</p>

<p>Hi Susie:</p>

<p>the short answer to your question, is that "CS1 prepares students for "all advanced science courses..." according to one school I know of. Thus, the UC's assume that CS1 is the Frosh course, and CS2 is their normal Soph course. </p>

<p>The CS/IS sequence is supposed to be an excellent at addressing the physical, biological, enviromental, and marine science threads, and the UC's give credit for that fact (regardless of whether they are of value to any cc kid). In essence, CS1 becomes the prereq in an of itself. My supposition is that first year at friend's school focuses on physical sciences. (btw: new state science testing for Soph's will be almost exclusively biological-related, so it'll be interesting to see those state CAT scores.) </p>

<p>It just so happens that your D's friend is taking the normal Soph course AND a normal Jr course a year early. This is similar to taking an AP course during Soph year. Many AP courses don't even require prereqs according to CB (but a background in the subject matter is definitely helpful) -- HS's have prereqs to make sure kids end up in a class that is proper for them.</p>