I have some UC questions as an oos

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - GENERAL
1

Okay, so here are my grades

Freshman Year: 3.33 GPA

Sophomore Year: 3.50 GPA (I failed the first semester of Algebra 2 with a 45, then passed the next semester with a 94, but retook the first semester over the summer and got a 93.)

Junior Year: 4.0 unweighted/4.8 weighted (I took 2 AP’s first semester, 2 Honors classes, 1 AP for the second semester, and an AP class over that following summer)

Senior Year: 4.0 unweighted/5.0 weighted (I am taking 5 AP’s and an Honors Class)

Final GPA
3.71 unweighted
4.16 Weighted

SAT and ACT
2330 SAT
34 ACT

Extracurriculars
Pre-Med Club
Aviation
Robotics
Science Olympiad
Aquatics

Community Service
200 hours of community service

Okay, so here are my problems.

For my Sopmore Year, I failed the first semester of Algebra 2 with a 45, but I retook it for a 93. But on the UC website, it says that as an OOS student, you can have no grade lower than a C. Does my retake grade count or do they mean my original first semester grade. Also, how should I have entered it in the Academic History part for my Sophmore Year. Was I supposed to just put the retake grade up on the Algebra 2 first semester part, or the failed grade. The second semester, I did score a 94 so I hope that helped justify things.

Next is the A-G course requirement part. In my Junior Year, I took Visual Arts first semester and AP Comparitive Gov second semester. However, the UC’s want a FULL year of a visual arts CLASS like painting, but my school only offers 1 semester of those classes and not 2 like the UC’s want.

Is there ANY hope for me to be admitted to a UC (I applied to UCB, UCLA, UCSB, UCSD, UCI, and UCD). My dream school has been UCLA since I was 13 so I sure do hope so.

2

" To be considered for admission to UC, students must complete the “a-g” subject requirements, have, at a minimum, a 3.0 UC GPA and take the SAT Reasoning or ACT with Writing exam."

The a-g requirements are very clear: you must complete a yearlong VPA course (or 2 sequential semesters of the same VPA).

3

Your retaken grade should replace that F grade and your counselor should have made a note.

Re the A-G REQUIREMENTS: “F” requirement, http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/freshman/minimum-requirements/subject-requirement/#art
it does require one year of visual/performing arts that also includes band, orchestra, or art in a graded class. If you took AP Art History, this covers the requirement. If you want to self study the AP test for it, you can try. But AP ART HISTORY has tedious facts. This requirement often trips up OOS students.

If you’ve known since 13 that you wanted to attend UCLA, why didn’t you ask your GC early on, about the strict UC requirements? The UCs specifically get hundreds of thousands of applications from everywhere. There are only so many seats available. They look, first, to reject the people that haven’t met entrance admission requirements.

You are OOS and they would love to take your full fees of $55,000 per year from you, but, if you don’t meet the minimum admission requirements, they can’t admit when there are so many other competitive applicants from instate. The UCs are publicly funded schools intended to PRIMARILY educate tax-paying residents. OOS students bring in revenue because there is no financial aid for OOS students, so they would love to get your money but it won’t happen without the a-g requirements set in stone.

4

[QUOTE=""]

“Does my retake grade count or do they mean my original first semester grade.”

[/QUOTE]

Your retake grade is what counts. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/q-and-a/repeating/


[QUOTE=""]

“how should I have entered it in the Academic History part for my Sophmore Year. Was I supposed to just put the retake grade up on the Algebra 2 first semester part, or the failed grade.”

[/QUOTE]

You need to report both the failed grade and new grade on your application. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/q-and-a/repeating/#2


[QUOTE=""]

“However, the UC’s want a FULL year of a visual arts CLASS like painting, but my school only offers 1 semester of those classes and not 2 like the UC’s want.”

[/QUOTE]

You would need to have take 2 semesters of courses in the same discipline (2 semester long art classes, 2 semester long drama classes, etc). I am not sure how UC handles if the school does not offer any of these options.
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/q-and-a/subject/index.html#20

However, you may also quality for admission by examination: "If you don’t meet UC’s minimum requirements, you may be considered for admission to UC if you earn high scores on the ACT with Writing or SAT Reasoning Test and two SAT Subject Tests.

To qualify by examination, you must achieve a minimum UC Score total — calculated according to the instructions below — of 410 (425 for nonresidents). In addition, you must earn a minimum UC Score of 63 on each component of the ACT or SAT Reasoning Test and on each SAT Subject Test." http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/examination/index.html

As for your chances, because you are OOS, I would say almost all of the UCs you applied to are going to be reaches. Good luck!

5

UC’s also only use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation. Since you are OOS, only AP/IB or DE courses 10-11th grade are considered for the extra honors points (8 semesters capped). UCLA will also consider your uncapped UC weighted GPA (no limit on honors points).

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Average UC GPA for UCLA (capped): 4.18
Average UC GPA for UCLA (uncapped): 4.41
Average Unweighted GPA: 3.9

6

I spoke to a UCB Rep at a regional info session in Massachusetts and asked about the VPA Requirement. I met my school’s arts requirement but it doesn’t really work for the VPA requirement at the UCs. When I asked about this he said it wasn’t a big deal and that as an oos student, as long as I meet my school’s graduation requirement I should be fine. The A-G were more for cali kids he said.
Don’t know if he was very accurate, just sharing what I was told.

7

I have my fingers crossed for you! That $100K donation you and your family will make to the UC system (for which no financial aid at all is available) will help fund seats for CA kids, especially now that UC is expanding enrollment for CA residents.

8

@mikemac, he’s a freshman applicant so, fees will total $220,000 in four years.

9

I knew how much it costs.

10

@“aunt bea” @“Erin’s Dad”

11

@mikemac

12

How did my name get drawn into this thread? From your other thread:

That’s good for you. I’m glad you have scholarships of $25K for each of four years. Good luck.

13

Actually, you are correct about the fees; they will be increasing for OOS students, so my comments forgot to include the increase at UCLA to $58K per year or $232K for 4 years.

@college6789, you can’t get upset because posters are responding honestly to your repeated thread questions. We get that you are desperate to be one of the hundreds of thousands of OOS students who want to come to California, but sometimes that may not be possible, for whatever reasons, because the priority admission has always been for California students from the local high schools and from the local community colleges. Our Governor (Brown) is under political pressure to admit more California students.

For the record:

Every other student, at a UC, wants to major in biological sciences and go to med school.

Competition is fierce for the UC’s, and, most of the bio majors happen to know that a “child physician” major ( we call them “pediatricians” in California) does not exist; just as a ‘pre-med’ major does not exist. Check all of the posters here on CC who “want to be a doctor”. BTW: Med school will run you about $300K.
At my dd’s UC this June, she will be graduating with 1000 Bio majors who all seem to be taking MCATs in March. That is just at one UC!

You can’t expect to hear what you want to hear, and then become angry with those posters who are giving you an honest opinion about your chances, and who have experience in this area (@fallenchemist has given you a fair summary). If you keep posting the same thread, the answers won’t change.

Your GPA, lack of a graded year-long course in visual/performing arts, and your OOS status hurts your chances. (FWIW: When my son was admitted to UCLA in 2012, the average admitted GPA was 4.0) But if you do happen to get into one of our UC’s we will happily take your money for our state programs.

14

@“Erin’s Dad” So sorry about including you in this. Wrong person.

15

@“aunt bea” I’m not getting upset, it’s just that the information you provided was not necessary, as it did not pertain to the question I originally asked. Obviously, if I’m applying to a school, I would know how much it costs. I am thankful to you for the first part of the information, however, the cost part was simply not needed. Have a nice day.

16

Sorry to be uppity.

Just do your best and wait @colleges6789, that’s all you can do at this point.

Good luck with the admissions, you may get a second look because of your SAT from Riverside and Merced. Hopefully, you applied there as well; they are not as highly regarded because of their locations and other factors. These UC’s tend to be more forgiving. (If you get into Merced, you can transfer later into UCLA.)
These schools may consider your theater tech class if you received a grade in it for a year.

17

*Just as a note based on seeing thousands of threads, it is not at all obvious that applying seniors know the costs. In other words, quite a few times people looking at public OOS turn out to be quite unaware of how expensive they are, and/or how hard it is to get financial aid beyond the Federal limits. If someone posts something you happen to know, is it really that hard to just say “Thanks, but I did happen to know that part” or just pass over it completely, instead of coming back with a juvenile insult (which I have since deleted)?

Now let’s move on.*