UC GPA - Uncapped vs. Capped?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - GENERAL
1

I see a lot of people in UC chances threads giving both their capped UC GPA and their uncapped UC GPA. I’m assuming the uncapped GPA allows for more than the 8 honors courses, but what is the point of including it? Someone said that UCLA and UCB both use the uncapped GPA instead of the capped one, but there’s no source for that information that I could find. Someone else said that UCs see both GPAs, plus your unweighted one overall, which seems more likely, but still there’s no source. Does anyone know what’s true, and if they do, could they give me a source?

I’m asking mainly because my uncapped GPA would be significantly higher than the one capped one I’ve been calling my UC GPA ― almost ridiculously so, but I’d obviously be happier if they used the uncapped one.

Thanks!

2

The capped UC GPA is used only to determine if you qualify for the UC Merced admission guarantee by being in the top 9% of your class (ELC) or the top 9% of the state (statewide path, which calculates an admissions index combining GPA and SAT/ACT scores).
http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/california-residents/admissions-index/

The uncapped GPA is used for UC admissions, e.g. the most recent averages for enrolled students were about 4.4 for UCB and 4.3 for UCLA.

3

@goldenbear2020 Ah, that’s interesting. UCLA’s Profile of Admitted Freshmen does say that the GPA includes 1 extra point for ALL UC approved honors courses, and doesn’t mention anything about capping it after 8 semesters, so I guess your information would be correct.

Thanks!

4

As an aside, it would be almost mathematically impossible for a school’s average capped GPA to reach 4.3-4.4, since most students take about 6 classes per semester, so 24 classes over 10th-11th grades gives a max capped GPA of about 4.3.