Hello. Originally I was told by an admissions counselor that when you apply for transfer to any UC school, the school will take the best grade amongst the repeated attempts of a course no matter what grade it is you are trying to replace. What the counselor failed to mention is that this policy only works if your first attempt resulted in a grade of a C- or below, then it can be replaced with a better grade. Honestly, I am now confused because the wording of the policy on UC’s website and resources is not that straightforward for me. Here is a passage from the document below that mentions what I am confused on:
“Exclude courses repeated if the first grade was C- or below. If
the first grade was a C-, D+, D, D- or F, do not include it in the
GPA calculation; instead use the replacement (repeated) course
grade. UC does not average the grade for repeated courses.” - Page 29 at the bottom left corner
https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/files/quick-reference.pdf
May somebody please explain this to me?
My interpretation of the grading policy and repeat grades is if the original grade was C- or lower, then the repeat grade would be used for the GPA calculation. If you repeated a class with a C or higher, then your original grade stands and your repeat grade is not used in the GPA calculation.
UC’s will still require you to report both the original and repeat grades in the application.
So in other words, my repeat grade would not matter in any way, shape, or form if I got at least a C for the original attempt? It will only look a little bit good on my transcript for the admissions people when it comes to making a decision? Do you think a way better grade for a repeated course will have a decent impact on decisions like say a C to a B or A? If and after you get accepted, can you then officially and completely replace the original grade or does the policy stand even if you are an official student?
If you got a C for the original attempt, the UC’s will not consider your repeat grade based on their policy.
From the UC website:
Since the UC’s state a C grade or higher which is repeated is not allowed/considered, getting a higher grade will be moot.
When you transfer to a UC, your GPA reverts to zero and you start all over so no reason to replace the grade.
Check out the UC transfer FAQ’s at the top of this forum for some helpful tips and information.
Since the UC admissions website indicates they look at things such as recent improvement in grades and types of courses taken, someone might notice if you got a C and then retook it got an A. But I wouldn’t imagine that going from a C to a B would be considered that amazing nor would retaking a bunch of C classes. Good luck!
Thanks for the help by the way. When you say moot, do you mean doubtful or open to discussion meaning that there is a bit of a chance?
Wow, I did not know that your GPA will be nada once you transfer over. Then that makes more sense why they would have this policy and I am assuming the credits will stay?
I am new here so where can I find the UC Transfer FAQs? Is there FAQ’s for other universities as well?
I would say doubtful that the higher repeat grade would make a difference since they state it would not be allowed but can always confirm it with your CC counselor or UC target campuses.
The credits transfer but your GPA resets unless you do a UC to UC transfer where your UC transfer GPA follows you.
Understood and thank you. I know this is not part of the discussion but do you have any tips on how to effectively communicate with the UC campuses’ admissions offices and/or counselors? Obviously, I do not trust my CCC counselours and will take their advice with a grain of salt but every time, with the UCs, I request to get in contact with one of their counselors or ask a question, they just give me very general advice (like “that is a case by case situation”) or they say that they can not give me any contact information or if they assume I want to have a meeting, they say that non-students can not get meetings with counselors. It also does not help that their campuses have been closed to the public due to recent events.
Hello. I know it has been a few days but I just realized that we did not mention anything about withdrawals. Do you know what happens to withdrawals in your coursework for this situation?
UC’s do not consider W’s unless you have an excessive amount of W’s on your record.