The 8 credit thing doesn’t apply to UCB and UCLA. They use uncapped GPAs. Which explains why kids at our local HS are graduating with 18 AP classes…
UC admission readers can see unweighted, weighted-capped, and weighted-uncapped GPAs, as well as the actual courses and grades.
They may see them all but for top 10% purposes the only one that seems to matter is weighted and uncapped. At least that’s what our Naviance shows. They are missing out on some great kids and getting some not so great ones with this strategy. But they also have to wade through 80,000+ applications so I guess you need some sort of bright lines to thin the herd.
For what it’s worth, I have Cal in the top 15 among research U’s in the US:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1682986-ivy-equivalents-p3.html
The experience there will be quite different from almost all other Ivies/equivalents, though, besides maybe Cornell, which also is pretty big and draws heavily from one state.
“The 8 credit thing doesn’t apply to UCB and UCLA. They use uncapped GPAs. Which explains why kids at our local HS are graduating with 18 AP classes…”
I didn’t know that. Thanks for the clarification.
http://web.stanford.edu/dept/pres-provost/president/speeches/961206gcfallow.html
A past Stanford President sure doesn’t agree where USNWR has ranked UCB
The rankings are measuring different things.
In terms of academic department quality, which typically stems from top faculty qualifications and research achievements, Berkeley has academic breadth and depth only a handful of top universities can rival.
In terms of undergraduate selectivity and wealth factors, Berkeley ranks lower than elite privates because it is a larger institution with a public service mandate.
For graduate school and research, I’d rate Berkeley as one of the top three or four in the world. That’s definitely not the case for undergrad, though. Cal undergrad alumni I work with are pretty much the same as alumni from any good state flagship.
@hello1212hello I am not sure where you got your ranking. UCB is placed higher than approximately half or even more of the Ivies in every single ranking. Usually, Harvard and Princeton are the only Ivies ranked higher than UCB.
Well, the Ivies also do this. Ivies give boosts to athletes, URM, large donors, legacy, students from poor families and first gen. While UCs are actually better in this aspect because they admit less people that are less qualified since UCs dont recruit athletes, legacies, donors, and legacies. UCs only give boost to URM or people from poor families.
Especially at Ivies like Harvard or Yale where sports are a big thing, about 20% of the incoming class is academic recruits (about 200 - 300 students per year). I did not just pull this out of thin air, a parent of an Ivy athlete wrote a post about this sometime back saying that about 15%-25% of an Ivy’s incoming class are recruited athletes.
“UC Berkeley is the 20th best school in the nation” (OP)
“I am not sure where you got your ranking.” (#28)
It’s refreshing that this disconnect is possible.
@notveryzen This applied to every top university. Even Ivies would want to take a student from a rural school if the student meets their standards.
@merc81 I don’t understand what you mean.
@Desiree2: The OP wrote “20th best school in the nation” without specifying a reference point. (In this case, it is the current issue of USNWR, where UC-Berkeley is ranked 20th in “National Universities,” a major undergraduate category.) What I find refreshing is that some people, such as yourself, apparently do not rely on this popular publication as a ranking tool.
@merc81 I know that UCB is ranked 20th on USNWR. However, the OP said he relied on various articles (in case you did not remember to read the entirety of the original post), and that UCB is ranked 20th. So, I am asking which articles he was reading that ranked UCB 20th beside USNWR.
Re #34: OK, then, but this is what you actually wrote:
“I am not sure where you got your ranking. UCB is placed higher than at least half or even more of the Ivies in every single ranking.” (#28)
Post #4 contains a reference to an additional ranking, should this be of interest to you.