Yes, they want to see that the student is taking advantage of opportunities at their school, but on the other hand, they are aware that many schools limit AP and honors, and do not want to see students penalized. I believe that is why they use both capped and uncapped weighted GPA.
Good to know, because I know despite the limit of AP Classes at my school, there are students every year that go to UCs like Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz and LA.
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There really isn’t a trick. The UCs calculate GPA differently than high schools but many colleges have their own formula to calculate GPA.
If students take advanced classes as freshmen, colleges want to see the student continue along that advanced path. Some colleges put less of an emphasis on freshman freshman courses/grades. I would expect a counselor to advise a student to take a required non-advanced class (ex. intro to bio) in 9th grade and advanced classes in 10-12 grade.
Again, UC GPA is only one of the metrics that Berkeley uses to evaluate a student’s academic qualifications.
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Thanks - you guys’ points are well taken. I certainly understand not all high schools offer the same classes etc.
However, I’m mainly questioning about competitiveness differentiation within a specific school and district. As the way UC GPA is calculated, it becomes difficult to tell a student’s academic achievement (again understand there are several other criteria)
I think a student taking AP coursework as a 9th grader would normally continue to take an accelerated path, and so by the end of 11th grade would have more advanced classes and a higher uncapped UC GPA then peers who did not start so early with the APs. But if that student doesn’t continue to take advanced classes, and so ends up with an identical transcript to others by the end of 11th, I’m not sure the UCs would really want to encourage that? My understanding is that they do see all coursework, but only 10-11 is in the calculation.
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But that’s the trouble. OOS counselors do not provide such advice nor do they have any idea about the a-g system or that Honors v AP classes do not count toward weighted. In fact, at our high school, advanced students are advised to take AP classes (like AP Gov) as a freshman.
I am not sure what the problem is. Are students at your high school taking so many advanced classes in 9th grade that there are not enough advanced classes for them to take in 10th-12th? In that case, maybe they should slow down so that they will be able to show rigor in 10th-12th grades? Most schools would prefer to see increasing rigor, vs. decreasing rigor.
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I’m sorry for the misunderstanding. A guidance counselor wouldn’t need to know how the UCs calculate GPA to advise a student to build to take more rigorous courses instead of piling them at the beginning and then not continuing on that path. This applies to many schools, not just the UCs.
In your son’s case, he took 4 years of AP history so he received a bump in his UC GPA for APUSH and APWH.
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You have to remember that the UC’s are state funded schools so advantages will be for California applicants.
Before a student applies to a school, they should look at the criteria that the school is going to use to evaluate them. If they feel that the evaluation process will not work in their favor, the student can choose not to apply to the school.
The UC system evaluates 13 factors when reviewing applications. These 13 factors are posted on the University of California website as well as on each individual UC campus website.
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Yes the student certainly would continue to take AP classes and beyond. But there are a fixed number of classes every year. Just for the sake of argument, if student A took 4 AP in 9th grade, then in 10th/11th, he took 8 “advanced classes”. And student B didn’t take any in 9th but took 8 also in the following two years. Then A&B would appear to be the same at least from this GPA specific metric. In reality, A&B are at different levels. We actually know several kids in the distri who applied UC had similar rants…
If student A and student B are taking the same advanced classes in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, and getting the same grades, I would say that these two students are at the same academic level.
On the other hand, if student A is truly at a higher academic level than student B, one would expect their schedule to have more challenge and rigor in grades 10-12 as well.
I am honestly not really sure why it should be relevant in college that student A took more APs in 9th grade than student B, if their 10th-12th grade curriculum ended up being the same. By the time these students are college freshmen, 9th grade was a long time ago.
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Again, the advanced classes in 9th grade along with classes in-progress and planned for 12th grade will be considered for HS course rigor. UC GPA alone will not be evaluated in a vacuum.
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This is why Berkeley uses a holistic review of academic performance.
In your example, two students could have the same UC GPA but a different number of college prep courses and different scores on their AP exams. Two students who are very similar academically could have expressed their interests differently in the activities/awards and PIQ sections of the applications.
UC admissions is holistic. It is not just about GPA. It is not just about the number of courses or when they are taken. Anyone who is ranting about number of courses or GPA does not understand holistic admissions.
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Thanks again
I’m not sure why there is a “tone” to these responses. All I am saying is that there are applicants that may have an “in-state for admissions” status but don’t have the ability to count Honors classes (as well as certain courses) toward their UC weighted GPA. To tell these students, if you don’t like it, don’t apply is not how I would handle things. This forum should be one of support not dismissal. Thank you.
Not trying to convey a “tone” but based on a couple of posts, there seems to be some issue on how the UC’s consider a-g advanced courses taken in 9th grade and I just want to clarify to all posters that the UC’s are pretty transparent on their application review and how the UC GPA is calculated.
@AAJ724 not targeting anyone in particular but there was a comment by another poster regarding students ranting about some of these points including GPA calculation. I have been a CC poster for 10+ years and many of the same issues come up year after year especially for OOS applicants.
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I understand and certainly empathize with having to answer the same questions over and over. The only reason I even contributed to this discussion is because of the uniqueness of our situation - in state status while attending high school OOS. The UC allows this status, yet does not to my knowledge deal with the disparities of the gpa rules. I completely understand that UC as an in state school has policies that favor CA residents. And I don’t even disagree with that premise. However, I think the status I describe is frankly one that shows a problem in their policy, one that I would love them to address in the future. Obviously, my son will not benefit from future change, but someone else might.
I’m sorry if you feel the responses are dismissive! The UCs process a staggering number of applications each year. They aim to admit students equitably across a wide range of CA public and private schools, looking for high academic achievement while also seeking to avoid disadvantaging those students from less resourced schools. UCs are also trying to maintain and increase diversity and accessibility, while remaining race blind in admissions. It is a huge, complex puzzle to solve. If OOS and international applicants choose to apply to the UC system they are welcomed, but they still must fit into the same application framework as CA students. It probably wouldn’t make sense for the UC system to tweak admissions to specifically accommodate students at OOS high schools, when they are receiving and processing more than 200,000 total applications, and CA students are the priority.
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I am honestly not sure if I’m not being clear with what I have written or you are just not understanding what I’m saying. You are addressing international students and OOS students, rather than what I’m speaking to, which is a whole different category of students - students that UCs consider in-state for admissions purposes, but those who do not attend high school in CA.
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Yes, there are a few OOS students who are considered in-state for admissions purposes. There are in-state schools with limited advanced courses and there are OOS schools with no UC honors courses. In both cases, students are evaluated in the context of what is offered at their school.
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