<p>Wishbone12345</p>
<p>UC GPA is pretty specific. It is calculated ignoring freshman year classes, excluding any classes that are not in the categories a through g listed by the UC system (e.g. gym, religion, and others would be excluded). The GPA normalizes to a 4.0 scheme, throws away any plus or minus on a grade, gives a capped maximum of extra 'points' for AP classes in 'weighting' the GPA, effectively bumping your grade one letter for a max of eight semester classes. There is no way for me to tell what your UC GPA would be given only your schools weighted and unweighted GPAs due to all these factors. </p>
<p>Also, UCSD gives credit for heavy workloads. They look at the total count of classes in the a through g categories [e.g a) history/social science, b) english, c) mathematics . . . ] for which they specificy a mininum list of 30 semesters among these. For students that took at least 3 additional courses from those categories, UCSD grants 250 points in their admissions formula and if you took at least 10 additional courses from a-g categories, you get 500 points. That is a big deal, as it is the arithmetic equivalent of a .5 boost to your GPA compared to candidates without that workload attainment. </p>
<p>ELC gives a boost equivalent to a .3 higher GPA. You get it if you are in the top 4% of your California high school that is part of the ELC program. Only the top 4% get this and it is reported by your school to the UC system. Besides the bump it gives you for UCSD, it has an impact on the other schools and many give automatic admission (e.g. UCD, UCSB, UCI, UCR). </p>
<p>For your 500 hours of service, if it is all high school time period, you get the full 300 points (actually anything from 200 hours upwards gets the same 300 points). That is the equivalent of another .3 boost to GPA. </p>
<p>First in your family to attend college gets 300 points, another .3 equivalent boost. </p>
<p>President of one club gets nothing but if you had VP or similar role in a second club, considered two minor roles, gets 150 points or .15 equivalent boost. Don't think you get this based on your post. </p>
<p>Thus ELC + 40 a-g courses + first in college + your volunteer hours would give you the equivalent bump 1.4 to your GPA - a 3.1 GPA student with these extra credits is equal to a 4.5 GPA (max UC GPA possible) student without them. A big deal and would totally swing your admissions decision. </p>
<p>When I talk about equivalent GPA, it really doesn't change your GPA. However, UCSD has a formula for ranking each applicant. GPA counts for up to 4500 points, SAT/ACT counts for up to 3200 points, but there are 3400 points assigned for these preference items like ELC, heavy workload, charitable work, but also others like national honors, low income, and life traumas. </p>
<p>11,100 total points with a cutoff somewhere below 8,000 for admissions. A perfect 4.5 GPA and perfect SATs would sit right at the decision point, but pretty much everyone needs some of these extra categories to get in. Interestingly, a few of these together produce a huge impact. Students with rather uninspiring GPA and SAT scores get in when they earn several of these categories of boost, while students that appear on paper like Ivy-league shoe-ins could be rejected if they have none of the preference items. </p>