Is it fair to say that UC considers GPA, including UW, Weighted, UC Capped, and overall H/CL courses (rigor within the school/local area context)?
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Regarding GPA, Berkeley has a page on their website that goes into detail about what they look for when evaluating a application. The number of advanced courses matters and is considered in addition to the GPA. Freshmen Requirements - Office of Undergraduate Admissions. It states that they evaluate:
Your weighted and unweighted UC grade point average (calculated using 10th and 11th grade UC-approved courses only)
Your planned 12th grade courses
Your pattern of grades over time
The number of college preparatory, Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), honors and transferable college courses you have completed
Your level of achievement in those courses relative to other UC applicants at your school
Your scores on AP or IB exams and SAT subject exams
Every year UCSD puts out a pdf of student characteristics. The 2020-2021 version is here . Take a look to see how many semesters of honors and AP courses UCSD new admits have taken.
UCLA’s freshman profile pages gives insight into the GPAs of students applying vs those that are admitted vs that enroll.
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Yes, an applicant is reviewed in the context of what is offered at their HS regarding HS course rigor.
Very helpful links…and frustrating at the same time for anybody who is particularly data driven/analytical.
For example, the UCSD profile info suggests that 60% of their incoming class took at least 10 semesters of honors courses, and about 84% took at least 5…which should give a “decent” bump to a 10-11 GPA calc…but they also say the mean GPA is only 4.08…which seems curiously low for a mean when that many kids took that many AP/H/IB type classes…unless a lot of them had Bs from time to time…it’s as if the very high end of their range is quite a bit lower than UCB and UCLA. This is curious, but they don’t give enough info to really dig into it well
The UCLA profile is particularly curious though…They report the total Honors/IB/AP semesters for 10-12 (even though the Weighted GPAs they report still seem to just be 10-11)…this isn’t really all that helpful, though, since the 12th grade info is, at best, halfway known at admissions time…and they aren’t totally clear when/how they compiled the data…assuming that their WGPA data is really just 10-11 as they basically indicate, it’s pretty startling how many APs their admits seem to be taking in 10-11 too…looks like many are averaging 4/6 of their classes being UC-qualified Honors classes…which doesn’t even seem possible for lots of schools to offer that many (IME, the number available seems to rise dramatically each year, with 12 being very possible to have a 4.8 or better with all A’s)…
The UCLA page does seem to indicate that the WGPA is still only based on UC-qualified Honors classes…it just doesn’t seem particularly plausible in all that many schools…our D22’s private Catholic school has quite a few 9-11 Honors classes that simply don’t make the cut for the bonus, and I’ve looked at a variety of other highly rated privates and see somewhat similar options (except Harker, which has tons of qualified options at all grades). Hmmm…
Net, net…I’m wondering if the GPA we’re used to seeing from D22’s school is even meaningful for UC purposes…lots of bonus points just not going to any good use with the UC GPA calc. sigh…
any Indians here?
UC qualified Honors does include not just UC Approved Honors, but AP/IB and UC transferable DE/CC clsasses.
For UCSD, Here is the 2021 capped weighted UC GPA range from the UC website. I have never seen UCSD publish their Fully weighed UC GPA.
GPA of middle 25%-75% students
High School GPA 4.07 - 4.29
UCLA publishes their Unweighted and Fully weighted UC GPA on their specific website, but you have to go to the UC website to see the Capped weighted UC GPA range for 2021:
GPA of middle 25%-75% students
High School GPA 4.19 - 4.32
And since this is a UCB discussion thread, I will post the Capped weighted GPA range for 2021:
GPA of middle 25%-75% students
High School GPA 4.12 - 4.30
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Yes, it takes a lot of work to evaluate and cross reference the stats that the different schools share. Gumbymom is the master of that. You said that you are new to this process so I was trying to point you to a couple of documents at different schools.
Do you have a student who applied this year or are you asking for a student who will be applying in the future? This is the UCB Freshman Class of 2026 thread. A lot of people are interested in this type of discussion. I would suggest starting a new discussion thread (in the UC General forum) so we don’t stray too far off topic here.
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My D22 is applying this year.
Her UC Unweighted GPA (10-11) is 4.0
Her UC C&W (10-11) is 4.33.
Her UC WGPA is still a little bit of a mystery to me because I’m not sure if it’s still just 10-11 and whether certain Honors courses at her school which aren’t Orange-starred on the UC site count
Her school-reported WGPA is 4.49 (9-First Sem12) (the figure most non-UCs will use)
She’s also a nationally competitive athlete, though not in a sport that is recruited (would be a club sport in college)
I’ve been trying to “chance her” odds at UCB and UCLA by looking at actual admit data using Infocenter data (and anything else I can get my hands on). InfoCenter lets you see odds by GPA, and also by school type/residency (Pub/Private, CA resident/not), but they don’t really let you do an intersection easily in some instances (e.g, Private CA HS and GPA together).
It’s clear the top UC schools are highly competitive, and I was just curious if there was a way to get better “odds” by drilling into the data more.
For example, my analysis shows that 60-65% of UCB admits have UC C&W GPAs of 4.2+.
At the same time, though, of all applicants with a UC C&W, only 36-41% are admitted to UCB.
The ranges are based on whether you’re in Public CA HS or the overall pool, etc. They don’t make it easy to get a Private CA HS figure, but I can basically back into it with other means.
It’s clear that UCB admits are crushing HS…and lots of them that are crushing HS still won’t get in…so that made me curious about just how UC must be using the Weighted GPA, since it’s clear that MANY UCB apps and admits are kids who are taking demanding schedules and kinda tapping out near the top end of the theoretical max C&W GPA of 4.4.
But, when I get into the weeds, though, some of the individual UCs are reporting apples and oranges data points about their stats…which makes it tough to really peel the onion back very cleanly.
If this warrants a separate thread, I’m happy to post elsewhere…just trying to get my head around whether the D22 messed up without realizing it, by taking some Honors classes that may not count in UC, and doubling down on APs in 12 after it’s too late for their calculations too. Either way, they’ll see a strong app…I’m just being the overly-analytical dad since I have no control in her process and this gives me comfort! LOL
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Thanks for the C&W Ranges…very helpful…also pretty stunning. On a metric that is capped mathematically at 4.4, and which comes down as you add schedule rigor…clearly TONS of kids at several of the UCs are still getting nearly perfect grades in 10-11, with rigor to boot.
For the Uncapped, Weighted UCLA GPA, this is from their site:
"All GPAs are calculated from courses taken in grades 10 and 11.
- The fully weighted GPA includes an extra grade point for all UC-approved honors courses (which include AP, IB, school-based honors and transferable college courses) in which a grade of C or higher is earned. The maximum value possible is 5.00."
UCLA seems to explicitly permit “school-based honors” classes in their uncapped WGPA…Whew…not sure about UCB or if all UCs use the same approached to Uncapped WGPAs?
Response to state audit: UC report, Berkeley admissions stats, FAQ | Berkeley News
For those as ridiculously detail-oriented as me…this article from UCB’s Public Affairs office gives a lot of detail on GPA info. It seems to indicate that UCB, like UCLA, reviews Uncapped WGPA while including ALL Honors classes…but it stops a hair short of clarifying if that Uncapped WGPA is based only on 10-11 (which UCLA’s site makes clear). I suspect UCB’s Uncapped WGPA probabably only 10-11 as well…anybody know for sure?
All the UC GPA’s are calculated using 10-11th grades from the A-G courses. Honors classes are UC approved Honors, AP/IB and DE/CC UC transferable classes taken the summer prior to 10th to the summer prior to 12th. For CA HS’s, the approved Honors courses have the Orange star next to the course. These are the only Honors courses that get the extra weighting in the GPA calculation.
I’m not sure what InfoCenter is — do you mean this? It is the closest thing you’ll get, because they will be evaluating her GPA based upon the GPA of this year and prior year applicants from HER school.
And still, this doesn’t account for the admit variation by each UCB school.
Edit: I believe the only school honors that are weighted are those that are starred. That has been a subject of discussion on CC boards. As you know, you are able to indicate other course distinctions like accelerated as part of the UC application. My D also included a very brief note in her application because she attends an honors magnet and all the core classes are very difficult honors, even though the 9 and 10 courses are not designated as such. My hope is that because it is likely a known school they will understand that and it will be included to an extent in the counselor and school report.
I’m no expert, but while visiting UCB this fall, I was told that the UC system generally only publishes capped GPA figures because they are concerned that fully weighted GPA figures might scare prospective students off. Furthermore, all of the UC’s that use holistic review give fully weighted GPA the most weight in their admissions decisions from grades 10 and 11 only as it better reflects rigor which is an important factor in the admissions decision. No freshman grades and no mid-year senior report. Maybe Gumbymom or others can confirm.
Her HS honors courses that do not have an orange star next to them on the UC site do not count. Examples of typical HS honors classes that do not count as UC honors classes are Geometry H, Algebra 2H, English 2H. In general (but not always) if there is an AP course of the same subject then the honors course does not receive the extra weight. A common exception is chemistry where, at some schools, both Chem H and Chem AP receive an honors bump.
I think it is fine to discuss the specifics of your daughter as an applicant this year. For some reason I thought you had a younger child and wanted more general UC data for future reference. While it might be fun to dive into the data and try to predict her outcome, at this point, what is done is done.
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@Southoftheriver - That’s one part of InfoCenter…that page has school-specific history, but only shows an “average” W&C GPA for the school across various years…there are other tabs on the InfoCenter pages that show more granularity, with a little work, on admissions odds of that W&C GPA for those above 4.2…I found that helpful…but it’s still very hard to get really granular - like “odds” of admission for a given GPA and school
@lkg4answers - Thanks…you and @Gumbymom are the gurus here…
Everything I see agrees that Honors courses for the W&C GPA are only the orange starred courses.
However, did you see the quote above from the UCLA site and the quote from the Berkeley news site? Both of those seem to imply that (for UCB) “all” Honors (contrasted with “only certain rigorous…”) and (for UCLA) “school-based honors” courses are counted in the Weighted Uncapped GPA…am I reading those incorrectly? To my reading it seems like they might deal with the Weighted GPA differently.
On the UC Application, all courses are self-reported and an applicant cannot designate an Honors course on the application as such unless it is UC approved. If the course is mistakenly entered as a UC approved Honors course, it can be verified using the UC approved list for each HS.
I think the wording on the UCLA and UCB should be more specific but I do not agree with you about the Fully weighted UC GPA being all HS Honors courses being considered. All explanations of how the UC GPA is calculated specifically states “UC Approved Honors Courses”.
From the UC Website:
- Honors courses are Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate Higher Level (IB HL) and designated Standard Level (IB SL) courses, UC-transferable college courses and UC-certified honors courses that appear on your school’s course list.
Also self-reported information will be cross checked with the final transcript and any discrepancies will be noted.
I do not see why UCLA and UCB would calculate their Fully weighted UC GPA any different than any of the other UC’s, although they are the only UC’s that routinely list this information on their Freshman profiles. I have however seen other UC campuses mention their Fully weighted UC GPA admit means in new articles and other data analysis documents.
Edited: Words of Wisdom from Ms Sun’s website
Well, you should stop stressing about your GPA! Trust in yourself and trust that the right UC will find you to be the kind of student it wants and admit you.
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From the UC website:
Honors courses are Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate Higher Level (IB HL) and designated Standard Level (IB SL) courses, UC-transferable college courses and UC-certified honors courses that appear on your school’s course list
The key here is the term “UC certified honors courses.” Those are the starred courses. My D’s school offers many honors courses that have not been certified and are not weighted. UCB and UCLA follow this and do not weight non-certified honors courses at individual schools.
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Because all students at your D’s school are under the same parameters, ie have the same opportunities and the same honors courses that may or may not be counted, a key evaluation is how your D stacks up against her classmates for GPA. Remember they also evaluate number of A-G courses, ELC, etc to determine rigor, breadth and depth. The kids in my daughter’s magnet program have lower weighted GPAs because they all take the same honors courses in English and History and they are not weighted in 9 and 10.
Edit: I don’t think you’re going to find any more granular odds on any website because a key evaluation is this comparison with those from their own school. However, I love data too and would love to be corrected if there is more detail out there. Please share!
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@Southoftheriver - ICYMI -
My analysis of Infocenter data for UCB shows that 65% of UCB admits from CA Public Schools have UC C&W GPAs of 4.2+.
At the same time, though, of all those CA Public HS applicants with a UC C&W of 4.2+, only 41% are admitted to UCB
This combination (which isn’t as directly relevant for my D’s private school, and obviously isn’t school-specific) tells a pretty chilling story…The incoming class is full of very strong candidates AND even among the applicants with the strongest GPAs, most of them still won’t get in.
That nugget is what intrigued me about how the Weighted GPA works, as Admissions must have a pretty challenging task in sorting out so many applications where relatively small differences seem to make all the difference…Clearly it’s not all about GPA, but the data doesn’t lie…There’s not tons of room for error on the GPA side at UCB if a kid wants good odds of being admitted.