<p>Admission to the UCs is very competetive - especially for engineering where the admission stats criteria can be higher than for the U in general (depending on the particular U). The engineering majors at the UCs are very rigorous - not a place for a someone who’s not ambitious and who’s not willing to work hard.</p>
<p>To answer your question, if your S truly wants to pursue engineering at the UCs he should understand that it’ll take work and therefore he needs to apply himself now and going forward. The GPA the UCs will look at for admission are from grades 10/11 so he needs to do well this year and next assuming he’s an entering Sophomore. I’ve heard admissions people state they’d rather see someone earn a B in an AP course than an A in the non-AP equivalent since it shows they challenged themselves and were willing to tackle the work. In reality, a B in a weighted AP course is the same as an A in a non-weighted non-AP course (however, there’s a cap on the number of courses the UC will weight when the UC calculates the GPA).</p>
<p>The UCs will look at a number of criteria including the weighted (UC calculated) GPA, SAT/ACT scores, courses taken, ECs, and some other criteria.</p>