Calculations of the highest possible UC capped GPA generally assume that you take only 5 core courses each year in 10th and 11th grades, all of them weighted, and receive all As. Your UC GPA would then be (coming out of the calculator):
However, UCs also take into account how many a-g courses you take above and beyond the minimum a-g requirements, so it’s not really recommended to take the fewest possible number of courses each year in order to maximize capped GPA. Most successful UC applicants take more courses than just 5 core courses per year, and therefore have a somewhat lower capped GPA.
Theoretically… you could get an even higher capped GPA if you took fewer courses than 5 in your 10th and 11th grades, but in that case you would have to squeeze extra a-g courses into your 9th and 12th grades, in order to get all the a-g courses you need. It would look weird to application readers… so again, not recommended.
UCI had a webinar about how to fill out the UC application, and they said to designate honors on the app if your school designates the classes as such and it is marked on your transcript as such.
i’m an international applicant from Canada. my transcript doesn’t mention my IB courses… it just shows the IB course names as the regular system that my city’s school board uses
however, i list my IB courses from grades 11-12 on my application, so how will the UCs verify if i am admitted? do i need to call them to clarify the situation if i get admitted (as in, i’ll cross that bridge once i get there?)
Just a note to all regarding this discussion. I agree that the information regarding OOS HS designated Honors courses is very confusing especially since my son’s California HS had Honors courses that were not UC approved so were subsequently not reported on the UC application as Honors.
However, listening to several Webinars about Non-resident application information, the presenter stated that OOS Honors courses should be listed on the application as (Honors) if it is listed on the HS transcript as Honors. The application reviewers will determine the appropriate categories/designations as needed.
Honor courses on the UC application for non-residents are evaluated during the comprehensive review but all the UC sources indicate that non-resident Honors courses will not get the extra weighting in the UC GPA calculations. This is mentioned several times in the application review section and the GPA calculation.
Nonresidents: UC will grant honors weight for AP or IB courses and transferable college courses only, but not for school-designated honors courses. The weight is given to letter grades of A, B, or C.
So the UC Comprehensive review will consider Honors courses at the discretion of each campus vs. UC GPA calculation which does not based on the information available.
Did you mark in the academic section on the UC application that your school utilizes the IB program? If enrolling in any UC, then you will be required to submit your final transcripts so any discrepancies will be reviewed.
we listed all honors courses as standard non-honors, but called them all Honors when we put in the course titles (since the transcript names them that way). I think we did it right, and I am sure many others do it wrong, and it would bug me if some of those people fool the UC’s (unintentionally, perhaps) into giving them a higher GPA.
Yeah, I marked “IB” as my academic curriculum. And my school does send final actual IB-style transcripts to the UCs so I should be fine. Thank you for clarifying!
The UCs review applications from across the US and from all over the world. They are used to correcting errors in classification.
Rigor matters whether you are in-state or OOS. If an OOS student took all regular classes and a few APs, they may have a higher UC GPA than one who took more rigorous honors courses and the same number of APs. That is where the holistic review comes in. The reps are probably trying to tell students that the readers will see that they pushed themselves and took honors classes even if it doesn’t give them a bump in their OOS UC GPA.
This is a really interesting discussion. My son took 10 honors classes from a rigorous high school in addition to 8 AP courses (4 in senior year and 1 as a freshman). We only marked the APs as APs on his application. His UC GPA is relatively low 4.12 because his 9th grade and 12 th grade APs didn’t count nor did the honors, since we followed the instructions and didn’t mark them as Honors for gpa Calc. His high school weighted GPA is 4.56. It will be interesting to see what happens as he applied to multiple UC schools.
When he filled out his application, did he write that the title of the class was Algebra 2 Honors and not choose honors from the drop down or did he write that the class was Algebra 2 without choosing honors from the drop down?
We are in state and classes auto populated on the UC app. So some honors classes counted for UC honors and some did not but it was all set up so that you could not on your own assign honors(it was already locked in that field when the class was entered). On the CS app you could assign honors but the field did have an assignment there when class was entered(you just had the ability to change it).
Here is information from UC Davis on UC application tips:
Honors courses
The honors box on the UC application form is used to designate a course for which an extra grade point is awarded for a letter grade of C or better. There are four different types of honors courses:
Advanced Placement (AP)
Designated International Baccalaureate (IB) courses
College courses (CL); applies only to UC-transferable college courses
If you attend a California public high school, see your high school’s UC-approved course list for more information about honors courses. Only UC-approved courses that are listed as honors are eligible to receive an extra grade point.
Nonresident applicants should check the honors box (AP, IB, CL) for AP, IB and UC-transferable college courses as appropriate for all of the above.