UC Berkeley 2023 Applicants Thread

@TheGuy1 Exactly. Got Denied from CMC ED, and Got into University of San Diego and UC Santa Cruz, but waiting for UCB, UCLA, UCSB, UCSD, Pepperdine, Occidental, UCI, University of San Francisco, and USC. Hoping to end up at Berkeley/ LA/ Santa Barbra / USC, will see in a couple weeks, all decisions should be rolling in soon.

@Burrowsc a .42 gap between your unweighted and your UC capped weighted is mathematically impossible to achieve with 10 AP classes. The gap will be somewhere between .28 and as high as .40 but no one would be at .40 unless you had zero non-weighted classes in 10th and 11th. So either your unweighted is a bit low or your UC capped is a bit high. The average UC GPA for Berkeley admits is 4.25 if Iā€™m not mistaken.

What formula does UC Berkeley use with the apps provided grades to calculate the UC GPA?

@ProfessorPlum168

Also, isnt the schools issued GPA entirely dependent on the grading policy and weighting of the school? Different schools have different weights, and different assigning of numbers to letter grades and so on.

Hence they (UC schools) use the UC GPA (calculated from the academic numbers in the app) for a good academic grasp on the app. But i have 0 clue what the actual formula is though.

Any insights?

@TheGuy1

How does UC calculate the GPA of a high school applicant who is a California resident?

In calculating the GPA for admission consideration, UC uses all UC-approved ā€œa-gā€ courses a student took between the summer before 10th grade through the summer following 11th grade. Additionally, UC will grant up to eight semesters (with no more than four semesters coming from 10th grade) of honors weight for grades of C or better in AP, IB, UC-approved Honors Level, and transferable college courses.

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How do you calculate an out-of-state high school applicantā€™s GPA? Do you give extra credit for the schoolā€™s honors courses?

UC calculates an out-of-state applicantā€™s GPA similarly to how it calculates the GPA of a California resident, with one exception. We use all courses the student took to meet ā€œa-gā€ requirements from the summer before 10th grade to the summer after 11th grade. In calculating a nonresidentā€™s GPA, UC will grant honors weight for AP or IB courses only, but not for school-designated honors courses.

@ThisIsFun54321

Um, idk the exact formulae, but there is definitely more weight to honors/AP/IB classes.

Thereā€™s no distinction for computation of the UC GPA based on state residency, though the GPA threshold is lowered for Cali Residents, in the sense that the formulae for both are different, and the numbers boil down to the same value.

Again, there are distinct formulae, which Iā€™ll have to dig a bit for to find and verify.

Iā€™ll let you know if i find them. Feel free to ask me for further clarifications.

A good example of academic formulae for test and score based eval is the AI (Academic Index) that ivies use on apps, specifically recruited athletes.

Calculate your UC GPA here: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Before you do that, make sure you go here https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist to verify which courses at your high school are considered weighted by the UC/CSU system. Donā€™t rely on what your high school calls the class (ex. Alg 2H is not weighted by the UCs).

@faithdragons UCB only asks for LOR from a limited number of applicants. If they didnā€™t ask for your LOR, they wonā€™t read it and it wonā€™t be in your portal.

@TheGuy1 That formula is from the UC site and is the formula all UC schools use for GPA for admissions. The only difference between in-state and OOS is no honors are weighted for OOS, just AP and IB.

@ThisIsFun54321 Ah. Alright. Thanks for the update.

I thought OOS or not, honors do get a weighted score. Idk the formula tbh.

Can someone post it here or PM/post the link where its stated here?

@TheGuy1

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/q-and-a/calculating-gpa/index.html

@ThisIsFun54321 Alright! THanks a lot!

@TheGuy1: Only in-state California HSā€™s will have UC approved Honors courses that get the extra weighting but not all California HS Honorā€™s courses are weighted. Honors Biology and Honors English are 2 examples of non UC approved Honors at my sonā€™s HS that are not weighted. OOS applicants get the extra Honors points (weighting) for AP/IB and DE courses (that are a-g courses and UC transferable).

@Gumbymom

THanks! Do you know the exact formula though? THey use one i think?

There are literally hundreds of threads outlining how to calculate the GPA, including reply #406 on this page. There needs to be a pin post on this so that every poster knows how to calculate the GPA correctly.

Ah. Okay thanks @ProfessorPlum168

Ill check it out.

Idk how that missed my eye, but thanks for pointing it again.

IMO, the calculator is simple enough to exclude complex cases such as school switches, and mixed grades over curricula, such as the IBDP, having letter based grades for certain courses and number based grades for certain courses.

Idk how to use it exactly in that case.

Lol putting near perfect scores still gives a low likelihood of acceptance (like a 50-60%)

@ProfessorPlum168 @Burrowsc

Our high school automatically figures out the uw gpa, UC gpa, & CSU gpa. These are all on the kids official transcript.
My D has the same as Burrowsc with a 4.289 UW & 3.83 UC capped with 7 AP classes.

@teambyerline

THats a very very impressive scoreset. The calculator linked above will give a crap chance of acceptance for that SMH.

makes no sense to me.

THereā€™s a video that @thisisfun54321 sent me as a PM.

It might help clarify somethings regarding the rules of it. Its issued by UCSB, but its same for all UCā€™s.

Here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZg2HCueuJI

Thanks again @ThisIsFun54321

@TheGuy1 thank you, she is an amazing student.

I know that when we did her apps her GPAā€™s were exactly matching what the high school calculated. As a parent it was much appreciated to be able to compare both numbers.