That’s true in terms of a decrease in the percentage of applicants who are getting admitted – but I don’t think that explains a decrease in the actual # of admits. That’s what I’m referring to. At many (most?) campuses, the hard count of number of admits dropped significantly (like by 2k+) between 2021 and 2022. So either yields were high in 2021 and they were correcting (overcorrecting?) based on what they thought they would need to admit to hit their numbers, or they are worried about housing/course capacity, etc. Probably both. But my guess is that yields are getting higher and higher for UCs in general, meaning they will need to admit fewer and fewer applicants in order to hit their enrollment targets.
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Very helpful and clear, thank you!
UCs don’t weight honors anyway when they recalculate your GPA (except Honors Physics).
It depends on the school and how the school submitted the course to the UCs. Our high school receives UC honors credit for Chem H but not Physics H.
I believe that, originally, the honors classification was only given to junior or senior level courses.
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Personally, I think there are other factors.
Admissions, in general, have gotten more difficult and unpredictable. Those that are gunning for OOS top 10-20 schools are applying to more UCs as back ups.
The pandemic impacted many families financially. Those that may have looked at private schools in the past, are re-visiting the cost savings at UCs.
Finally, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pandemic also led more families to look at schools that don’t require a flight, or are closer to home, than schools they may have considered pre-pandemic.
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Same for our high school. We receive UC honors for H Chem, H Physics,H Anatomy & Physiology, H Pre Calc.
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It’s interesting looking at my public high school’s admit rates over the last several years. 2015-2020 UCLA admitted about 20% each year and about 50% enrolled. In 2021 they admitted 14% and 70% enrolled. In 2022 they admitted 12% and 100% enrolled. It will be interesting to see how this year and next play out. I’m glad I’m not trying to go there but I have a lot of friends applying.
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As the admit rates drop, the more attractive the colleges become for many students. Also college costs continue to increase and the UC’s are a good deal financially for California residents.
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Thanks for posting this. Exactly the info I was looking for.
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This admission rate data from UC is causing me a lot of stress and making me feel like I won’t be competitive. I have a GPA of 3.95/4.32/4.5. However, the number of A-G courses I took is lower compared to other admitted students, and that could be a concern since many UCs seems to place a high importance on the number of courses taken. Most admitted students have taken more than 25 A-G courses. Our public school requires us to take a mandatory PE course, and the maximum number of classes one can take is 6, so I was only able to take 21 A-G courses in HS. In my senior year, my AP Chemistry teacher chose me to be the Chemistry Technician, which is a graded course but it is not an A-G course. That reduced my total number of courses and it’s below 25. Unfortunately, at this point, there is nothing that can be done. Additionally, I chose to pursue a degree in Engineering, which could be even more competitive. Just a rant
You are evaluated within the context of your HS and all your self reported courses included Senior year In-progress courses will be considered during the application review for HS rigor. GPA is important but there are 12 other areas of criteria that the UC’s use to determine their decisions. Your overall application will have an impact not just one isolated item.
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In addition to what @Gumbymom noted…
2022 first year weighted, capped GPA is likely inflated due to covid (as @mom2023SF pointed out with Lowell as an example). Pre-covid max was 4.4, but with a semester of sophomore year excluded (if it was P/NP due to covid) the max weighted, capped GPA for 2022 was 4.533 by my calculations (max of 8 semesters with honors points, but min of 15 semesters of a-g courses in GPA calcs vs. 20 pre-covid; so the divisor is lower, roughly 3/4’s of what it usually is). FWIW that could be bumping 2022 GPA stats by a tenth of a point or so.
I think (but can’t find a clear answer on this one) that math (Algebra 1 & Geometry) and language other than English (LOTE) taken in middle school may be included in the number of A-G courses (I’m guessing up to 3 if you did Algebra 1, Geometry, and LOTE 1 in middle school). @Gumbymom do you know if this is correct? If so, I’d imagine a lot applying to engineering may have 2 or 3 more a-g courses than they realize.
I have also read/heard many admissions officers point out that once you are beyond the threshold of “can this student handle the pace/difficulty of classes at this university?” it’s things other than GPA that make the difference. At UCB, breakdowns of admissions rates by weighted, uncapped GPA show little difference at the higher end (even go down at 4.8 - 5.0 range). I’m not an AO, but from what you describe it seems to me you are beyond that threshold.
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re: GPAs, I’m curious about what is included and what is omitted by students in the A-G course list. It is pretty clear what UC wants when it comes to classes like health and P.E (UC says these should NOT be included). However, at my daughter’s school, many students included Sophomore P.E. in the ‘G’ category because, according to the UC A-G course list page(below), her P.E. class is listed as a G class. (even though it is a basic P.E. course). Last year, my son listed Soph P.E. as a G course. This year my daughter did NOT list Soph P.E., and said in extra comments that “I took P.E. and Health and got A’s in them”. Not sure how this will play out. In her case, the omitted non-honors ‘A’ raises her weighted GPA.
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I have no specific source to confirm or deny that Middle school LOTE and Math are courses are not included in the a-g # posted but since they are reported on the UC application, logic would be that they are part of the numbers listed.
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Thanks @Gumbymom, @8bear, and @Scrambro for your insightful comments! I received an email from UC regarding my ELC and a confirmation when I submitted my UC application. However, this data can be disheartening if you don’t fully understand the process. Our counselors are not very helpful.
Not sure if middle school Math counts.
I’m pretty sure they would have to count middle school math to count towards a-g rigor. Or else they would be penalizing students that finishes off their HS math early (ie AP Calc BC by junior year). Even in the Cal State app, after printing out my D23’s final application, her middle school math/LOTE were counted towards her final a-g tally. Whoever published this on their site probably just forgot to include this logic.
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I did see explicitly that 7th and 8th grade courses do count for determining statewide index (top 9% statewide), so it stands to figure that they are also counted for the A-G totals. At least I hope they are.
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UC and CSU has a validation policy where higher level math or LOTE validates lower level courses:
- Algebra 2 validates algebra 1.
- Precalculus or calculus validates algebra 1 and 2. (CSU but not UC also validates geometry in this case.)
- Statistics validates algebra 1 and 2.
- LOTE level N validates LOTE level 1 through N-1.
However, CPSLO apparently does not use CSU validation when counting courses for its bonus points, so any CSU applicant applying to CPSLO needs to ensure that high school level math and LOTE courses taken before high school are listed.
For UC, be sure that any geometry taken before high school is listed.
Engineering is very competitive and while you absolutely have a chance of acceptance with the scores and classes you mention, no one here knows how you compare to others at your school or how the other factors in your application will be valued. Other students at your school likely had the same A-G constraints you did.
Having said that, if you haven’t applied outside the UC system, I’d recommend choosing a few other schools with rolling admissions to apply to now so you have some back ups. So many great schools beyond the UCs!
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The foot note for the Honors courses says the number of Honors courses from 10th to 12th.
So, they do not count any Honors courses taken in 9th as some private schools offer.
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