<p>Berkeley was my son's dream school this year (followed closely by UCLA). We're out out state(now), so knew it would be a long shot. But the application itself made the possibility of my son gaining acceptance even more remote. He had a 2300 SAT, SAT 2's of 800, 800 and 720, 9 AP classes (4s & 5s so far), and 9 honors classes. (athlete,good EC's & essay,job all through h.s.) He took the hardest courses offered at his school because they interested him, without regard to his GPA. In our school district however, an A is a 94-100, a B+ is a 90-93, and a B is an 84-89. My son has a knack, unfortunately, for getting many 93s, and then some Bs too. Our district awards no credit for honors classes (he had 9) and only a 1/2 point for AP classes. So in the end, he wound up with a 3.6 average (a 4.1 is the absolute highest you can get).By the time the B+'s are put into the UC application though, they all become B's (so suddenly a 93 is regarded the same as an 80 in many districts), since all pluses and minuses are removed on the application. We don't have minuses in our system, so kids from this (large No. Va) county can only watch their GPA's go down more when they fill out the application. Further, for out-of-state kids, there is no credit added for honors classes. We called several admissions offices to see if there was any way to explain the grading system, but were told there really wasn't, and that they would "figure it out" from transcripts--which, by the way, aren't required until you're accepted, right? We're fighting a losing battle with our school district to change the grading policy (in all the nearby surrounding districts my son's GPA, based on his numericals, would have easily been higher than a 4.0...more like a 4.5 weighted), but the superintendent says it will "lower" our standards. Meanwhile, we can't help but feel there is no way UC admissions committees have the time to see how our numbers really compare. And the removal of pluses and minuses in our case was devastating. We don't begrudge anyone acceptance to UCB---everybody worked hard to get there and we wish you all the best. And my son wound up getting into UVa, so that was a relief for us. We just wish there was some way to weigh the GPAs more fairly so that out-of-staters with harsh grading scales aren't penalized further. Hopefully my son will do well and make it out there for grad school someday.</p>
<p>Yeah trust me the system also screws people over who take more than 6 classes a year. If i had the same number of Bs but less classes (I took 8 both years as well as summer classes) my UCGPA would be over 4.2.... but instead of UCGPA is around 4.1.</p>