I am nowhere close to applying to college, a couple years away. I am just curious about a few things. Firstly, I know that UC recalculates your GPA. I think I understand this, but I just want to be clear. Freshman and senior year grades do not affect your GPA, but they still do matter. Is that correct?
Also, I have no idea if every college is the same or if the UCs are different, does the difference from an A-, A, and A+ matter? To be more specific, I got an A+ in this class the first semester. I currently have a 99.5% in this class, which is worse than last semester at this time, and I have a feeling it might drop to an A or A-. I understand colleges are looking at improvement, but what does that really mean? If I get an A or A- in my second semester, will that be bad? My interpretation of improvement is going from let’s say an B to an A. However, does an A+ going to an A bad?
The UC GPA is calculated based on courses that you take from summer before 10th grade until summer before 12th grade. Freshman and senior courses are viewed in order to determine if you have completed your A-G requirements. Plus and minus do not count - GPA requirement | UC Admissions so going from A+ to A- does not matter but going from an A to a B will.
Some classes may be honors at your high school but not considered honors by the UC system. Typical high school honors classes that are not UC honors classes include Algebra H, Geometry H, Algebra 2H, English 1H, 2H. You can check which courses at your high school receive an additional honors GPA bump by looking up your high school here.
Thanks for the reply. I am not a sophmore yet, so this will not affect my UC GPA. GPA aside, will this be bad on my application? (Going from an A+ to an A.) Unless it is a constant pattern, I am assuming that is fine. I appreciate it.
in addition to the helpful reply from @lkg4answers there is one additional way senior year grades and classes will matter. Admission to all colleges is conditional; they are giving an offer prior to seeing your complete senior year grades (or any senior year grades at UC since they don’t ask for a winter update for frosh). One of the conditions is going to be, loosely phrased, continue to be the kind of student they admitted. If not they can review and possibly rescind your admission.
UCLA, for example, says "You must notify our office if, in your senior year, you receive two or more C grades; you receive any D or F grades; or your class schedule changes. "
Other UCs may have differing requirements. I think Davis requires keeping a 3.0 weighted gpa and no grades below a C.
Note that many colleges have a similar condition, although they are often more vaguely worded, like “maintain your high academic performance through senior year”. The result is many posts here in early summer by worried students asking whether a drop in senior year GPA will cause their admission to be rescinded.
At least most UCs have rather specific standards or thresholds regarding grades and GPA that the matriculating student needs to meet during senior year, so there should be less of this kind of guessing among matriculating students.
Also, if you attend a California High School, your guidance counseling team will advise you on any other specific questions you may have about the UC’s and the high school requirements that will meet those A-G requirements.