So, I really want to get into UCLA or UCSD. UCLA is a high reach for sure but I think I may have a shot at UCSD. The issue is that from the website, I see that in order to be in the 75th percentile, I would need a 4.27 UC gpa. Being as I want to major in mechanical engineering, I’m thinking the 75th percentile is around where I want to be. The issue is that due to some poor decision making, I’ll only have a 4.1 UC gpa if I don’t take summer classes. If I do, I’ll have a 4.2. The issue is that the summer classes are expensive. They’re worth 10 credits each which is amazing, but they’re also $2000 each which is crazy. I would need to take 2 to get the 0.1 gpa boost. If I take one, my gpa will just be a 4.14. I really don’t know what to do. My parents are willing to pay for these classes, but I feel a bit guilty for making them do so. On the other hand, I want to get into UCSD so badly. If this could help me do so, then it’s worth it. But how much of a difference do you think it would make? Should I take 0, 1, or 2 AP courses? Thank you for your input!
That seems crazy to me. Surely you can raise your grade by .1 just by working hard in your senior year? Plus you can’t even take the AP tests until next May. $4000 to possibly get a .1 boost. That’s nuts. How is that even ethical? Your school allows rich kids to game the system by paying for grades, essentially. Not only. That, but you can self study for any AP for free if you like. But you are considering spending $4000 for soemthing that is totally not necessary. If I were your parents, I would put a lot of effrot inot investigating who runs this program. Is is a private, for-profit firm? And these paid-for grades legitimately end up in your transcript? Wow.
Furthermore, there is no guarantee at all that doing this ensures you will get into the school you want. Just work hard and do your best. Get a good test score. There are no guarantees about any of this.
I agree that it is not worth $4k to take 2 classes for this purpose. First, you’re not even sure that you would get As in the class; Second, even if you got the grades to get you to a 4.2, you may very well be rejected anyway.
@Lindagaf Our school district allows students to take summer classes, either for remediation (to make up a failed class) or enrichment. It functions like a regular class with the required curriculum, the student gets a grade and it goes on their transcript. It’s not a particularly popular option where we are (thankfully!) but there is nothing shady or illegitimate about it.
UC’s only count courses in 10th and 11th for the their GPA, so taking a summer class is an excellent idea as that counts as an AP. However that does seem a steep price - is this a CC or a private school that offers summer enrichment classes? What are your other choices after UCSD?
Lindagaf - senior year grades don’t count for UC GPA.
Seems expensive. Wouldn’t two academic nonremedial courses at a community college cost 1/10 as much and be counted as “honors” by UC since they are college courses? (You can look up community college courses on https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist )
I’m just going to say that you CAN get into STEM stuff at UCLA with a 4.1… It doesn’t seem very worthwhile to me. Just put some extra effort into school. Are you a sophomore?
Wow, I didn’t expect so many replies. Ok so first of all, I’m a junior, and since UC’s don’t count senior GPA, this summer is my last chance to boost my GPA. I could go to a CC to take the classes as that would be way less expensive but with CC (or at least the ones near where I live), you only get 3 credits from a course whereas with this school you get 10 credits from a course which is equivalent to a whole year. I checked out the school on the UC’s website and they do count the school’s courses at legitimate honors courses. The school is called Legend College Preparatory if you want to check it out: http://legendcp.com/gpa-improvement-without-stress/ And finally, my parents said they can comfortably afford these classes.
Thank you for all the replies by the way! It sounds like for the most part, you guys are suggesting to not take the classes, or to maybe take them somewhere else. Maybe you’re right. I’ll have to mull it over with my parents some more.
High school credits are not the same as college credits. A high school AP course that earns 10 high school credits over a year may cover similar material as a semester long college course of 3 or 4 college credits that you can transfer to a UC if you later attend one.
Oh wow, thanks for letting me know about that ucbalumnus and Ynotgo! I honestly had no idea that that was how it worked.
happy1, I already discussed this with my guidance counselor. She said it would be fine to take one, but that two was a lot. She didn’t strongly suggest against it, however. It’s actually not unusual in my area for high school students to take these kinds of classes over the summer. It’s really competitive.
Two college courses totaling about 8 (semester system) credits is a typical full time college student course load for an 8-week summer session. In a regular 15-week semester in college, a typical full time college student course load is 15-16 credits, which is usually around four courses (may be three or five, depending on the credit per course). During the regular semester, each credit is supposed to represent 3 hours of work per week (including in-class and out-of-class time), so a full time college student course load would nominally be about 45-48 hours per week, although strong students often need significantly less time to do well in the course (but courses with labs may take more time than other courses).
If you take two high school AP courses that approximate the content of two college courses over a similar period of time, then you should expect similar amounts of work.
Any SAT/ACT score yet? Any thought to what happens if you don’t get As in either or both of these courses? Since UCs cap the number of semesters they give extra weight (ie 8), do you already have eight semesters of As in 10, 11 grades? Just seems like a lot of $$ for very little bang.
I would call UCSD and talk about how they view the CC courses give from your local CCs. I know a very good friend whose son got into UCSD engineering by taking community college courses in the summer and getting As in them. I cannot believe that the local CC won’t give you the same boost.
Jugulator20, I got a 31 on the act, but I am going to retake it on June 10th to hopefully get a 33. Regarding the possibility that I don’t get A’s in the courses, my friend took a couple AP courses at this school last summer and said they weren’t as hard as the AP courses at my high school. My school is really competitive, so I trust that it has prepared me to do well in these courses. Lastly, I only have four semesters of AP credit from 10th-11th grade due to my poor decision to not take any APs/honors last year. That is why I feel the need to take two courses over the summer. You may be right about the courses not being worth the money.
theloniusmonk, thank you for the suggestion. A couple people who commented on this thread earlier actually informed me that CC courses are indeed viewed the same way.