Question about the UC System

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

When I was looking around at colleges (on the west coast, I’m from the east coast), I noticed something a bit, well, odd about the UC System. All of the schools, going from UCLA to Cal Poly have incredibly inflated GPAs. UCLA, for instance, has a GPA average of a 4.3, yet it’s average SAT score is a 1940. Is there any reason for this? It seems awfully low for a school that can boast a 4.3 GPA and a 20% acceptance rate.

Also, since my GPA is only a 3.3 and I have a 2100 SAT score, would it even be worth applying to the school? (UCLA)

2

The UCs use a weighted UC GPA for admission. With a 3.3 I don’t think you will get in to UCLA.

3

You need to calculate your UC-weighted GPA. They have their own formula, and anything under a 4.0 will probably put UCLA out of reach for you unless you have outstanding athletic prospects (you’d know). UCLA and Berkeley are known for being more focused on GPAs in admission than on SAT/ACT scores. Your SAT score would not be high enough to compensate for a GPA that is below their typical range.

4

BTW: Average SAT for UCLA this past year was 2064 not 1940 as stated. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/campuses/ucla/freshman-profile/

Also Cal Poly SLO uses 9-11th grades in their GPA calculation with up to 8 semesters of honors points, while the rest of the CSU’s and UC’s will use 10-11th grades with the 8 honors points. UCLA/UCB also use uncapped weighted GPA which means unlimited honors points.

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

Agree with ^^^@woogzmama, if your UC GPA is below 4.0 the majority of the UC’s are out of reach.
Much will depend upon intended major.

5

Only 2.1% of enrolled students had UCLA had GPA’s below 3.49 unweighted. See common dataset section C11.

6

A couple of things -

  • Cal Poly isn’t a UC, they are part of the CSU system. Their admission formula heavily weighs GPA. Admission with a 3.3 is highly unlikely.
  • UCs hold out of state applicants to a higher floor for eligibility - you need a 3.4 for them to consider your application. With a 3.3, I wouldn’t waste the application fee. They won’t read your essay.
    http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/out-of-state/index.html

Due to your stats, I’d encourage you to look into some SoCal Private schools such as USD and LMU. You will probably get in and the price won’t be dramatically different than the OOS price for a UC.

Good luck.

7

Maybe the OP is a 5-star linebacker :wink:

8

@mikemac It’s heavily weighted by a bad freshman year, and I just found out that they only care about my sophomore and junior grades! So I have a 3.6 and a 2100, which should be competitive. I applied to UCSD and Cal Poly yesterday.

9

@horchataman You are correct freshman year doesn’t count in your GPA. I don’t think the top UCs pay much attention to the UC weighted GPA that a couple posters have mentioned. Per the reliable Ms. Sun the average unweighted GPA last year was 3.90 and the fully weighted GPA was higher than 4.39. The middle 50% of SAT scores was 1940-2250. The UCs do weight grade point more than test scores. Also, if you are applying to engineering these numbers aren’t even close to what you need!

I suggest you add some more UCs to your application.

You should pop over to the Cal Poly forum. They use a crazy formula that includes the UC (same as CSU) GPA religiously and how you happen to stack up is almost random. Some majors will be a big reach for you there but others may be easy to get into.