UC Local and Statewide ELC eligibility

Is that part of application open now ?

Yes, the UC application. On the first page, look under “View how your application is reviewed.”

It has been a couple of years but, if I recall correctly, the top 9% of statewide applicants showed up after entering courses and grades on the application. I believe we received a letter in the mail congratulating my child on being in the top 9% locally.

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@JenBar

How do I qualify? Local

If you are a California resident and rank in the top 9 percent of students in your California high school class — and your high school participates in our ELC program — you may be eligible for ELC designation.

We will identify the top 9 percent of students based on GPA in UC-approved coursework completed in the 10th and 11th grades. To be considered for ELC, you must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 and complete the following A-G courses prior to your senior year:

History 1 year
English 2 years
Mathematics 2 years
Science 1 year
Language other than English 1 year
Other A-G courses
(chosen from the subjects listed above or another course approved by the university) 4 years

After you enter your coursework and grades in the UC application, we’ll compare your GPA to the historic, or benchmark, GPA for your school. If you meet or exceed that GPA, you’ll be designated ELC and we’ll add a note to your application.

When will I find out if I’m designated ELC?

As an applicant from California, your application will be automatically screened for ELC eligibility when you apply. There’s no extra paperwork.

After submitting the application, you can log back into your application to see whether or not you’ve been designated as being in the top 9 percent of your class by selecting the “View how your application is reviewed” link.

Statewide ELC link: Statewide guarantee | UC Admissions

Thank you so much !!! We just checked and are ELC . This is so stressful

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Not sure I am reading this correctly, but the top of page 2 seems to say that an ELC student is not necessarily in the top 9% of their graduating class, but rather, has exceeded the GPA Benchmark established for their school (+ taken the minimum 15 a-g courses in 10th/11th grade.) It says that a high school submits data every THREE years and that the GPA Benchmark is recalculated.

So, any given student is measured against a 3-year average (eta: average is probably not quite the right word). And that would explain how easy it is for the University to do the measurement without any actual school ranking of students.

Am I understanding that correctly?

By the way, this whole ELC discussion would do well as it’s own topic, or somehow added to the General UC discussion.

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UCs don’t use standardized testing to determine if an applicant to any UC is eligible to receive the “Statewide Guarantee” – which guarantees a space at a UC campus if there’s room; they look only at grades for tenth and eleventh grade and they have a metric for A-G courses taken.

If you go into the main UC application portal & click on “How your application is reviewed” you’ll see if you/your student ranks in the top 9% & is thus eligible for this statewide guarantee.
https://apply.universityofcalifornia.edu/my-application/login

How they determine eligibility via Local metrics: Local guarantee (ELC) | UC Admissions
How they determine eligibility via Statewide metrics: Statewide guarantee | UC Admissions

for what its worth i didnt sign for elc and still got into davis santa cruz merced and riverside along with cal poly. 4.10 gpa. so ion think its a huge dealbreaker

I think it’s good for the schools to know if you are ELC, particularly if the school like ours, is known for grade deflation and doesn’t give out As like candy. Our school’s gpa might be lower across the board for kids compared to other schools.

UCs aren’t my kid’s first choice, so when we got the letter for ELC we didn’t do anything and put it off. But then we got a call from our counselor urging us to sign up or whatever we had to do. Glad we did this in the end.

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Thank you for posting that. I just looked and my daughter is top 9%. I had no idea.

Weird question, but is top 9% the same as ELC? Her app says top 9% but nothing that says ELC.

Yes, top 9% is ELC

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Thanks!

I don’t think we ever received a letter.

Sorry if I missed this in the discussion, but does the UC app specify if a student qualified as ELC Statewide in addition to, or separate from, ELC Local?

My understanding is that it indicates statewide. Local would have to be matched with HS data after the application is submitted but statewide can be determined based on self reported data.

What is done here? I thought it was just looking at the HS Benchmark that is already on file University-wide, and updated every 3 years, per above discussion
?

One more thing, you need I believe to be three years in a HS in California
My daughter was within the 9 percent, but only two years of her HS were in Florida

Class rank from the high school is not used for ELC. High schools submit course and grade records every three years to UC, which recalculates UC weighted-capped GPAs to determine a top 9% threshold for the high school. Students from the high school whose recalculated UC weighted-capped GPAs exceed the threshold are designated as ELC.

Both are initially estimated off of what a student enters on their application but I believe local needs to be matched with HS data after the application is submitted.

Two of my children were statewide ELC and the wording on their applications were identical. One child was also local ELC and received a letter in September of her senior year from the University of California (signed by Janet Napolitano) stating, “Congratulations! You have been identified as a top student in your high school’s senior class. Because of your academic achievements, the University of California (UC) takes great pleasure in inviting you to apply for admission to the freshman class of 2020.” The letter is much longer but the local ELC child received it and the statewide ELC child did not.

Edit: I am not sure if Michael Drake is continuing to send these letters out so I wouldn’t stress if you didn’t receive one.

Also note that the UC website no longer refers to the statewide guarantee as ELC.