Hi, I’m a senior attending high school in California. I’m planning on applying to only UC schools, and was wondering if being an IB Diploma Candidate looks good on college aps. I don’t think I’m going to do the full diploma but will being a candidate look good for my UC application?
An IB diploma will show you were able to handle rigorous HS courses which UC’s do consider in their application review but it will not be an extra tip for admissions purposes over another student that took rigorous HS AP, Honors or DE courses. All UC approved Honors/AP/IB or DE courses are handled the same, meaning one is not better than the other and all show rigor.
it does look good but, you still need a competitive UCGPA and SAT/ACT.
Not sure of your stats so, i can’t really assess how viable an applicant you are. I would, however, encourage you to broaden your perspective and apply to a wider range of schools. If you have high stats, privates like LMU are likely to offer enough merit money to make themselves quite attractive. If you are a sub 4 GPA, several CSUs should be on your radar as viable options - which ones, depends on your stats.
good luck
Unweighted GPA: 3.7
Weighted GPA: 4.5
ACT: 32
AP’s:
APHUG: 3
APEURO: 4
APUSH: 4
APLANG: 3
APPSYCH: 4
Capped weighted UC GPA would be around a 4.0-4.1 range which puts you near the average or slightly below for most of the UC campuses.
Below is some UC admit data (2018 is the most recent) and along with UC Capped GPA averages and test scores ranges for admitted students. These are not major specific so depending upon your intended major, competitive majors (impacted/capped) will require higher stats and will have lower admit rates.
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 10%
UCLA: 9%
UCSD: 34%
UCSB: 38%
UCD: 41%
UCI: 38%
UCSC: 70%
UCR: 84%
UCM: 95%
2019 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCB: 4.23
UCLA: 4.25
UCSD: 4.23
UCSB: 4.16
UCI: 4.13
UCD: 4.13
UCSC: 3.96
UCR: 3.90
UCM: 3.73
25th - 75th percentiles for ACT composite + language arts
UCB: 28-35
UCLA: 29-35
UCSD: 26-34
UCSB: 26-34
UCD: 24-33
UCI: 24-34
UCSC: 24-32
UCR: 21-30
UCM: 18-26
Apply to one from UCSC, UCR, UCM. UCD, UCSB, UCI are matches if you apply to less competitive majors, low reaches if you apply to competitive majors.