I am a senior this year and so far I have gotten into UC Merced and UC Davis and I have been rejected from UCLA and UC Irvine. I applied under Biology B.S. for my major at every school, I have a 4.5 weighted gpa and a 4.06 unweighted gpa. I am a California resident and I am within the top 9% of my senior class. The only thing I am concerned about is that I have only taken one AP class throughout all 4 years of high school. I passed it with an A however I did not take the test. My school offers 5 AP courses, has no honors or IB classes but it does offer dual enrollment classes with a local community college and I have taken 13 of them(including my senior year). Because of that I have around 40 college credits but once again no AP classes. Because Berkeley considers in state applicants first, do you think there is a possible chance that I could get in? My extra curricular include student government for two years, academic mentorship for freshman at my school for 2 years, culture club, travel club, and dance club.
If your school does not offer honors, IB, or AP classes, UCB should take that into account when reading your application. They evaluate each applicant in the context of what is offered at their high school. Best of luck to you!
Edit: I see you edited your post to add the info that your school offers 5 APs. I can’t tell you whether that will be an issue or not, but I agree with @parentologist that you will know very soon, and that Merced and Davis are also great options.
I think that the fact that your school offers 5 AP classes, but you chose to take only one of them, would go against you for UCB, but you never know. You’ll have your answer very soon. It seems that it did go against you for UCLA and Irvine. Meanwhile, Merced and Davis are great options for you.
Yes, probably fine. M D23 only took 4 AP classes (out of approx 15 offered at her school) and took zero AP exams. She also supplemented with dual enrollment classes. She got in. So it’s possible
Thank you so much that is very good to know! if you don’t mind me asking, what was her major? From what I can remember biology as a major at UCB is under the college of Letters and Science, but I am not sure about how that works out for me?
She is CNR which does seem to have a higher acceptance rate than L&S, but I don’t recall by how much (@Gumbymom can give you all the relevant stats you may want). But my point is simply the UCB admissions seems to really be holistic, so one area of weakness won’t necessarily sink your application if you have other things that resonate with/impress them.
You will be evaluated within the context of your HS so the UC’s will not expect you take 10 AP’s if your school only offers 5 however, HS rigor is important. Dual enrollment/CC classes are considered just as rigorous as AP/IB courses for the UC’s.
All UC’s review applicants on 13 different areas of criteria and each campus does an independent review based on their own weighting scale of these areas. That is why the UC’s can be seen as Unpredictable.
You have applied with the best possible application and you have already gotten acceptances so all you can do is wait for UCB’s decision but just know you have done your best and everything else is out of your control. Remember you can only attend 1 school.
Best of luck.
Assuming those 5 APs are not related to Bio and/or some of your college courses are related to Bio, the you should be fine.
Your grades are in range and your portfolio looks competitive given that you go into UCD. I wouldn’t worry.
Unless the college courses were all low level ones like intermediate algebra, remedial (for college) English, etc. or others that are not transferable, they should count for rigor (like high school honors or AP courses) for both UC recalculations of HS GPA and for holistic application reading.
What were the college courses, and how well did you do in them?
Thank you for the reply. The college courses that I took were two history courses, two English courses, economics, political science, human development, two sociology courses, mythology, human sexuality, public speaking, and psychology. The one AP I took was AP computer science, and I got A’s in all of them.
Looks like you want to major in something in social sciences or humanities.
In any case, it does not look like you should worry about having only one AP course, since you have lots of actual college courses on your record.
The only rigor concern may be if your math, science, and language other than English were only the bare minimum.
| Subject | Bare minimum for UC | Preferred college prep level |
|---|---|---|
| Math | algebra 2 and geometry | precalculus or calculus |
| Science | two years | one year each of biology, chemistry, physics |
| Language other than English | level 2 | level 3 or 4 |
I have taken calculus and integrated 3 which includes precalculus in it’s course load. I have taken one year of biology and one year of chemistry I have also taken Anatomy and physiology. I have taken Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 in terms of any language courses. I received mostly A’s and a few B’s for all of these courses.
Math is good. Science is probably ok – you have three years, but the third year of a second biology course is less optimal than physics, though perhaps not all admission readers will care that much. Spanish only to level 2 may be the weakest part of your course selection, since UC recommends level 3 or higher, though it may not be a deal-breaker to admissions readers with everything else ok or good plus lots of actual college courses on your record.
You will likely have to take foreign language in college if there is a foreign language graduation requirement, since level 2 in high school is unlikely to result in a high enough skill level to pass the level needed for a college foreign language graduation requirement.
If you do major in biology, note that biology majors typically have to take physics in college. Usually, they can take a less math-intensive version than physics for physics majors, but competition for grades can be intense (pre-meds).
Thank you for the input. I will be taking all of it into consideration, I know that UCB is a very prestigious University and that it also depends on the quality of my PIQ’s and extra curriculars as well.
Sounds like you are good. Real college courses instead of the simulated college AP classes are way better. I think the concurrent enrollment model is way better since you are directly taking a college class with college students & a professor.
Seems the AP classes & getting into UC has become a rat race & it’s more of a branding thing.
I have seem easy honors & AP classes where almost all students get an A but no one gets above a 3 on the AP exam & I have seen super hard AP classes that are hard just to be hard & students don’t learn much. Sometimes you do get good AP teachers.
I personally graduate early from HS went to a community college mainly because my HS was bad they only had one AP class in History & I knew the cost was way too much I would not be able to compete even if I got in. 2.5 years in community college then I got in & transferred as a Junior to UC Davis in Engineering. For my daughter she had a 4.1 in HS but going to SF State for Nursing & planning to apply to the UC’s (for the branding) for her masters. We felt it was much less expensive that way.
How did you get an unweighted GPA of 4.06? Usually, the unweighted courses are simple:
4.0 for any kind of an A,
3.0 for a B,
2.0 for a C, etc.
Although you have a good record of classes, I think the competition at Berkeley will strongly favor students with more Foreign language and more AP’s.
Not fatal to your chances, if you can show that you pursued rigor. If you took the college courses as part of a middle college high school program, that usually involves enrolling in the college program, which might reduce your opportunities to take AP’s at the high school. UCB has seen its share of students with similar coursework.
OP has already applied to UCB and has heard about their decision on March 30th. Hopefully they will come back to update if they are admitted to UCB.
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