<p>Hello, I'm currently a student in PA applying to schools in the UC system and was wondering if anyone can lead me in the right direction. Most of my classes taken have been honors, but since UC does not grant honors weight to out of state students, my unweighted GPA is around a 3.4 (not including senior year). I do not know if they will use my unweighted GPA because I have read some things about admissions using "A-G GPA" instead ... My SAT will most likely fall in the 1700-1800 range, and I have a decent amount of EC's. I read a few articles regarding a dramatic increase in admission for out of state students and am wondering if GPA will be my deal-breaker here. Excluding UC Riverside, Merced, SF, and Santa Cruz what are my chances at any of the remaining UC schools? Any feedback is helpful! thanks!</p>
<p>Honors Courses:<br>
US History 9,10
English 9, 10, 11
Chemistry
Human Anatomy and Physiology</p>
<p>AP Courses
Psych (didn’t take test)
AP World (3)
AP Lit (in progress) </p>
<p>(Junior Yr has been my strongest all of HS)</p>
<p>Consult your adviser, or contact a UC admissions office, regarding recognition of Honors classes. Does your school participate in Naviance? If so, you can get an idea of how students have done in UC admissions. My son was pleasantly surprised that they weighted his GPA as generously as they did (he was NJ resident, but attended school in PA). Haven’t you taken SATs or ACTs yet? Do you have any actual, rather than “most likely” results? My son had an unweighted GPA of 3.3-3.4, but his AP, IB, and Honors classes pushed him over 4.0 under UC-weighting. His SAT scores were higher than yours (2060 on second seating, with a comparable ACT score of 31). He got into UCSD and Davis, but rejected from Berkeley. I think UCLA and Berkeley are probably out of range, and UCSD is a reach unless your test scores exceed expectations and your UC-weighted GPA is in the vicinity of 4.0. Calculate your UC GPA. You might have a shot at Davis, Irvine, or UCSB, but not if your UC GPA is below 3.8 or so. I would say that UCSC is a match for you. Also, bear in mind that all the Engineering and STEM programs within the UC system are what they call “impacted,” meaning that they are more selective than the Arts & Science colleges. Good luck!</p>
<p>4.0 is my UC GPA after using a website’s calculator, although I’m not sure If they’re going to weight all of my honors courses… in that scenario It may fall to a 3.7+ </p>
<p>OOS students only get extra Honors points for AP/IB classes so your Honors classes will not be weighted, so your UC GPA will be around 3.7 as you stated above.<br>
Are you and your family able to pay $55K/year for the UC’s? UC’s accept OOS students but give little or no financial aid, so they really want full pay. With a UC GPA of 3.7 and an SAT in the 1700-1800 range, UCSC/UCR/UCM will probably be your best shot. As @woogzmama stated, his son had a much higher SAT score and he had IB and AP classes which counted for the extra honors points.
Many OOS students also fail to check that they meet the a-g required courses, see link:
<a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/index.html”>http://www.ucop.edu/agguide/a-g-requirements/index.html</a></p>
<p>I would say UCD/UCI/UCSB: Low Reach
UCSD/UCLA/UCB: Reach</p>
<p>Oooh, thanks for clearing that up. And yes, I am aware of the tuition involved. Do you have any tips/suggestions for increasing the strength of my application as I will be submitting in in about a month? (specifically to increase strength toward UCSD) </p>
<p>The UCs are pretty much about the numbers. Apart from a good showing on SAT/ACT seatings this fall, you can’t do much more than write your essays thoughtfully and be very careful filling out the application. They warned us at information meetings that students have had acceptances rescinded over honest errors on the self-reported academic portion. I thought UCSC was terrific, by the way, and was surprised that my son did not choose to apply. It might have been the weather: we had torrential rain on our visit. </p>
<p>I do not know why anyone would lie about their grades considering a transcript has to be sent in eventually. Thanks for the info though :)</p>
<p>If anyone has any tips/suggestions for admission to UCI or UCSD that would be great. </p>
<p>Since there is really nothing you can do about your GPA at this point, I would suggest you also try the ACT in case your SAT is not within the targeted range. Also spend time on your essays. Although most of the UC’s focus on the numbers, a well written essay may be the extra boast you might need on your application.
Good Luck.</p>
<p>There really isn’t anything special you can do for specific UCs, since they all use the same application. I suppose the only possibility might be a trip to visit, just to indicate serious interest. I can’t say whether that would have any effect whatsoever, though.</p>