<p>Maybe you can look up the scatterplots on <a href=“http://www.parchment.com”>www.parchment.com</a> for your kid’s UW GPA 9-12.
Of course, Naviance is better because it evaluates the kid in the context of his HS.
Ask the GC if they can show you the Naviance plot for UW GPA. They may have that data captured but the GCs might have to change the display on Naviance.</p>
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<p>You should be suspicious of weighted GPAs other than those with “uc” next to them, since the weighting methods differ (it is unlikely to have a UC-weighted-capped GPA that is greater than 0.4 + unweighted GPA). Additionally, the denied applicants you referenced applied for what are probably among the most competitive majors in the College of Engineering. If you go down a bit, you can see the results for the College of Letters and Science, which is not as competitive.</p>
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<p>Depending on location and intended major, there are other nearby state university choices: SJSU, SFSU, CSUEB, UCSC, UCD, SSU. There is also the CC to transfer pathway if he really wants another chance at Berkeley over attending another UC or CSU.</p>
<p>Also, the privates: USF, Univ of Pacific</p>
<p>Godparent, which school and/or major is the student applying for at Berkeley? I saw some stats for this year’s freshman class that showed a 20% acceptance rate for LAS but only 9% for engineering, I think. Our large public HS with a full slate of AP’s and IB did not have anyone accepted to engineering this year until after the wait lists cleared.</p>
<p>I would not worry about the stats - they’re competitive enough. The essays are important for Berkeley; make sure to pay attention to the type of students they’re looking for:</p>
<p>“Personal qualities of the applicant, including leadership ability, character, motivation, insight, tenacity, initiative, originality, intellectual independence, responsibility, maturity, and demonstrated concern for others and for the community are considered.”
<a href=“Selection Process - Office of Undergraduate Admissions”>http://admissions.berkeley.edu/selectsstudents</a></p>
<p>We gratefully acknowledge all advise, care and concern every one has shown on CC which is, frankly, quite touching. You all are quite great! Please kindly permit me one more question: is it impossible to transfer from one UC to another? Can he transfer from UC Davis to UC Berkeley after one year? Or, SJSU to UC Berkeley?</p>
<p>The vast majority of transfers to a UC occur from the community colleges, after completing GE and major prerequisites, which takes 2 years or more. So to transfer from Davis or SJSU would usually require an interim transfer to a CC before applying to Berkeley.</p>
<p>Yes, it is possible to transfer from any college to a UC at the junior level (60-89 semester units completed by transfer). However, UCs generally prefer to take transfer students from community colleges. <a href=“http://www.assist.org”>http://www.assist.org</a> provides transfer credit articulation between California community colleges and universities (UC and CSU).</p>
<p>What major is he interested in?</p>
<p>Thanks again. My son is interested in Computer Science, and is applying to L&S at UCB. He does not want under any condition to go to CC. The viewpoints you all have graciously provided have been very timely as these questions were driving me nuts … are probably still vexing me but hopefully not as much,</p>
<p>Last question: Is it better to apply to L&S as undeclared? I wonder about this because everyone seems to be applying to computer science at L&S since computer science at EECS is now too competitive. </p>
<p>Does anyone know answer of this question, please???</p>
<p>Berkeley L&S does not select by major. All L&S frosh enter as undeclared. Currently, those L&S students wanting to major in L&S CS must complete the prerequisites with a 3.0 college GPA in order to declare the L&S CS major.</p>
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<p>btw: EECS is one of the top programs in the country (and perhaps the world?). While you didn’t ask about it, just a warning to not even think about applying to CS in L&S with the idea of transferring into Eng later. The odds of that being approved are extremely low. (The transfer slots are targeted for jucos.)</p>
<p>@bluebayou, Thanks. Just wondering, what is “jucos”?<br>
Yes, I have heard that EECS at Berkeley is one of the best in the world. Better than even Stanford and MIT.</p>
<p>Jucos = Junior Colleges</p>
<p>UC’s capped GPA calculations are a bit unclear.</p>
<p>Since only 4 semesters (10-11 grades) are considered, I see the following:</p>
<ol>
<li>Say the student has taken 5 courses/semester, and got A in all courses. In this case, the capped GPA is: (5x4x4 + 8)/20 = 4.4</li>
<li>If the student takes more than 5 courses in any/all semester, the capped GPA will be less than 4.4.</li>
<li>If the student takes less than 5 courses in any/all semester, the capped GPA will be higher than 4.4. </li>
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<p>In effect, to get a capped GPA greater than 4.4, one has to take less than 5 courses in any/all the semesters! i.e. lower the course load, the greater your chances of getting a high capped GPA, and greater your chances of admission( ofcourse, assuming capped GPA being a big factor, which perhaps is not really the case) </p>
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<p>Not really; they are rather straightforward, once you know the UC rules, and which courses are UC-Honors. </p>
<p>btw: in your math example, ALL of the courses would have to be UC-approved honors courses. (Most kids are confused when they find that a course at their HS is labeled ‘honors’ but it is not UC-approved honors.)</p>
<p>But yes, taking courses beyond 4 will lower your “UC-GPA” even with all A’s; taking “honors” Orchestra/Band will lower your GPA. (Which is why I posed upthread that the OP’s math was likley incorrect. - a 4.57 is rare.)</p>
<p>@bluebayou, I am sorry for the confusion. I should have written more clearly. What I meant is that he has a weighted GPA of 4.57 in 10-11, as calculated by the school based on the school honors/AP classes. So, this is only per the School transcript, and is not a capped or uncapped UC GPA.</p>
<p>Having said that, after submitting his UC application he got back the nice prompt saying that my son is NOT in the ELC. How much would it hurt his application at UC Berkeley. He has done amazing EC, has very good SAT/SAT-2 but I guess he did not had enough UC honors courses. </p>
<p>PS: Also, not sure if the UC counted the summer course he took in Summer-2014 at the community college (where he got a A+). It is a UC approved (transferable) course.</p>
<p>UC would have counted the summer college course in its GPA calculation IFF you listed it as a Junior year course (per the app instructions). If was listed as Grade 12, the UC computer in the clouds would ignore it.</p>
<p>A 4.57 weighted GPA is not ELC? Is your school on a 5.0 scale, or does it significant grade inflation? (The cutoff for ELC in our HS is much, much lower, but then our HS only counts UC-approved honors for the HS GPA bonus points.)</p>
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<p>Note that ELC is determined by comparing the applicant’s UC-weighted-and-capped GPA to the top 9% UC-weighted-and-capped GPA of the applicant’s high school for a rising senior class within the last three years. So the high school’s notion of weighted GPA or class rank is not used, although there should be some correlation to “ELC rank” and ELC status.</p>
<p><a href=“University of California Counselors”>University of California Counselors;
<p>@bluebayou - I dont think it is necessary to have ALL courses honors. Only 8 courses need to be honors/AP. Anything above 8 is of no use for UC weighted/capped gpa-calculation purposes. The rest can be any courses that UC is willing to give credit for. I am assuming all courses are UC-approved, of course.</p>
<p>If you take 4 courses/semester(total 16 courses over 4 semesters), and 8 out of those being honors/AP courses, your UC-capped weighted GPA will be 4.5. You will have to take LESS than 16 courses overall, for this gpa to exceed 4.5. Now, how can UCB (for example) say that they will look at the course load/rigor of courses the student has taken, and also expect that their UC-capped weighted GPA be very ‘high’? This is what I am unclear about- not how UC calculations are done. It’s like a see-saw- one side number of courses, and the other side this gpa, with 16 courses and 4.5 gpa being a balance/horizontal. </p>
<p>Again, this is obviously a simplistic view of what is considered in admissions- so maybe a moot point to discuss.</p>
<p>I just saw the application he filled out. UC has a section on “College Courses and Grades”. He entered the grades in this section. The UC SW should be smart enough to include grades from college courses, since they are asking about these courses. Also, not sure if there was anywhere else he could have entered it as he had to fill out this section, and thus the courses and grades. And, finally, if he had entered it elsewhere also (like Summer after 11th - not sure if that was possible) then this would have become double counting. But, still, did he make a mistake? And if so, what should we do about it?</p>
<p>Yes, his school uses the standard grade scale (4.0 with 5 given for honors classes). We were also shocked that he is not ELC even with 10-11 GPA of 4.0 UW, 4.29 (Capped UC); 4.36 (Uncapped UC); 4.57 (Weighted with standard School Honors). Will it hurt his chances at UCB very much? SAT/SAT-2 and EC are quite nice.</p>
<p>For the high school, does it (a) have high grade inflation, (b) lots of top-end students getting all A grades, and/or © not participate in ELC?</p>
<p>ELC is mainly for offering admission to a UC with space available (for practical purposes, the only likely campus is Merced) if none of the applied-to UCs admits the applicant.</p>