<p>CU is usually the abbreviation of your instate University of Colorado system. I’m not sure why some schools invert the letters, such as IU standing for University of Indiana, Bloomington. University of California doesn’t do this, so it should be “UC,” which we know can be confused with University of Cincinnati or maybe even University of Chicago.</p>
<p>If I may add to what UCBalumnus stated:</p>
<p>The standards for entry of Non-Residents to UC is certainly higher, but as UCB stated, these are just floor requirements which would not even pass a first reading at UCLA, Cal, UCSD. I think it’s just a moderate UC gpa req instead of a sliding scale with lower grades combined with SATI’s for In-State students.</p>
<p>With this said, though, the average stats of students the three above UC’s admit from the NR’s is lower than for IS students by a decent amount. This is obviously because: demand by UC’s to enroll more NR’s is >> IS;s (IS at Cal and SD is dropping, but UCLA is trying to maintain these numbers (as opposed to %'s), because it is the most PC of the three … and is trying to maintain URM enrollment which is mostly from IS), but NR’s desirablity of UC’s is << IS’s becuase they pay full tuition, as opposed to IS’s fees supplemented by state subsidy. Yields are real low → more accepted to meet targeted enrollment of NR’s, which each UC is doing to overcome shortfalls of state support. </p>
<p>An IS student with a 3.85/4.7/2200 could be rejected from UCLA and Cal (not so much as at SD), and both reject these types of students regularly, depending on the quality of CA hs, but certainly both would just about never reject a NR student with these stats, and in fact, the bar is significantly lower than this example.</p>