*UC Berkeley Class of 2025 discussion**

Well, put that way, it’s different. If it’s one of those, “all things being equal” we’ll go with creating opportunity for some who have not had certain advantages, that’s one thing. That is not really as it sounded where you’re discriminated against by zip code.

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whaaaat?

It can be tricky to use zip code though. For example, there are gentrified zip codes in San Francisco and Oakland where residents span the spectrum of income and privilege.

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That doesn’t make sense at all and seems purely speculative. The 13th factor in UCs “how your applications are reviewed says”, “Location of your secondary school and residence.” This is purely to help kids get closer to the university of their residence/school if all other criteria are met. Part of the reason why more kids get into UCB from Nor Cal and into UCLA from So Cal. They don’t need to get socio economic information from zip code, its provided as part of UC application where you provide parents job info and income.

Anecdotally, at least in our district in So Cal, for the past several years looking at the kids who applied to both schools, more have been admitted to Berkeley than UCLA.

They definitely do not try and place applicants close to home. They strive for geographic diversity. They are not regional schools.

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Ok everyone sorry i was away from the house for a bit. A young person attending UCSB requested her admission file from UCSB. In California colleges and schools must comply rather than keep everything secret. And she posted the findings on Reddit A2C. I do not know how to copy the link but it’s listed yesterday. There is a metric and point system applied to every applicants and one of the points is where you live. And I think it’s a 0 to 9. There is an ideal match number so the closer you get to that number the more likely you will get in. So fancy neighborhoods with high value is a 0 for example. (Doesn’t matter if the family works three jobs, are first generation immigrants and have multiple mortgages, it’s purely your zip code.) So it’s very enlightening and interesting. Since the UC’s don’t accept recommendations, test scores, cultural background, etc… it’s a wonder they can determine a class to be diverse and varied. But I suppose they do the best they can.

Thats very interesting. I looked it up, too; “Insights from soon to be graduated UCSB student about our admissions process.”

Same with ours (SD County). Admissions to Berkeley were about 1 in 4, UCLA was 1 in 6.

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Please see this link and scroll down: 45% of kids admitted to UCLA were from So Cal and 26% from rest of CA.

https://admission.ucla.edu/apply/student-profile

Please see this link: https://admission.ucla.edu/apply/student-profile and scroll down to the bottom.

In any case the argument was I would be very surprised if they used zip code to assess economic diversity. One way or the other it is most likely used to assess geographic assessment of student population. Also, it would be better to base conclusions based on published data form colleges directly than speculating.

Here is another piece of factual data from UCSD, it goes up to 2016, but I think it illustrates the point well: https://ir.ucsd.edu/_files/stats-data/admissions/freshmen/ffhome.pdf

Here is a direct link to that post on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ApplyingToCollege/comments/m6hj4t/insights_from_soon_to_be_graduated_ucsb_student/

Yes I read that same post and took a pic of it. Basically your zip code or neighborhood is given as much weight as your essays and extra curricular. Not sure if it is for all UCs since this student is from UCSB. but I bet there is some truth there for all other UCs

I am so confused as to the semester uc gpa thing. I’m an oos student I took 17 courses from 10-11 grade, 14 of which were uc honors courses. I got an A in 14 courses and B’s in three of them, does anyone know if this is competitve?

OOS UC Honors courses are not considered “Honors” courses for the GPA bump but will be considered for your HS course rigor in the context of your High school. Top schools expect students to challenge themselves through HS so did you take any AP or IB classes or were Honors classes only offered?

Here is the UC GPA calculator. For OOS students, only AP and IB courses take 10-11th grades will get the extra Honors point bump for each semester. The UC’s consider all 3 GPA’s so please post what you get.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Each UC campus determines the weight of each item of the 13 areas of review and it does vary from campus to campus. Location of residence and secondary HS is only one part of the application review but the main factor that location determines in the review is what academic opportunities are available for the students in their secondary school education and did the student take advantage of these opportunities.

Should I select semesters for the calculator? my uncapped weighted gpa is much higher when i select semester as opposed to year

On your HS transcript, do you get 2 grades for year (1/semester) or only 1 grade of a year class? You can PM me with your grade and course information and will double check your GPA calculation.

What about dual enrollment at a college while in high school?