Oh, okay. In that case, my school does not have any UC Honors courses. How about the college courses? How do I calculate those?
You get 1 honors point for each college semester class that is an a-g course and UC transferable.
Is the UC application automatically calculated and showed up the cumulative GPA after it has been inputted with courses and grades ?
@HOPE888: No the UC’s use 3 different UC GPA’s when reviewing applications: Unweighted, Capped weighted and Fully weighted. These are not automatically calculated on the application.
@Gumbymom Oh Ok, I see. Thank you very much for your response!
@annahebert: Why are you taking basically duplicates of Spanish with your HS and College courses?
I am getting around a 4.2 Capped weighted and Fully weighted GPA. I did not count the College Spanish classes which look to be duplicates of your HS Spanish. If the UC’s count the College Spanish then I get a 4.26 Capped and Fully weighted UC GPA.
Great question
I did note that when my S21 filled out his CSU application and his UC application that the gpa calculated did not match my own calculation using the A-G with UC designated honors etc and calculators oft shared on this site to calculate UC weighted capped. Fortunately, both were higher than I had calculated. I tried to do the calculations again but could never get the same result. Not sure what they were weighting differently?
@Gumbymom I really love Spanish. After taking Spanish I at my high school, I wanted to challenge myself by taking Spanish 101. I really enjoyed the college-setting with Spanish and noticed that college Spanish at my local community college focused more on speaking and culture, which was something I really liked, so I enrolled in Spanish 102 and 201. I also plan on being a Spanish major, so I wanted to get a little headstart on that while showing my interest in Spanish.
Thank you so much for helping me with my UC GPA! I really appreciate it so much! Also, out of curiosity, do you happen to know, theoretically, what the max GPA could be for a UC? Since they can only take a certain number of APs, is there even a max GPA for the UCs?
@annahebert: Maximum capped weighted UC GPA would be 4.4 and 5.0 for Fully weighted.
UCs count one college semester once
CSUs count one college semester twice
Only grades from the summer after freshman year through summer after junior year count.
Many high school honors courses aren’t UC honors courses, you have to look up each course.
Out of state students only get the honors bonus points for AP classes not honors.
For the person who took Spanish at hs and college, I’m not sure how that counts as you shouldn’t get credit for the same course taken twice. Many college language courses will equal two years of high school language.
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Thanks for the insight. I should make it clear I’ll be applying next academic year and I am out of state so I believe my SAT would be considered, no? The GPA rly is the struggle but if my SATs and extracurricular shine I think I still have a chance with some other UCs, contingent on SAT being part of the process for out of state students next academic year.
UC’s have not made a decision if they will be test optional or test blind for the next admission cycle. Their plan was test optional for this year and next but with Covid, test blind was instituted 2 years earlier than planned. The UC’s have always been GPA focused so your GPA will still be a hinderance for the top UC’s, that is why they are drawing their focus away from these standardized test scores. Studies have shown that GPA is a better indicator of academic success than test scores.
Okay thanks so much, I’ll be applying to all the UCs so I guess it’ll be out of my hands after this academic year/first semester of the next. I appreciate your time and insight 
Random question: How common is it for UCLA to request additional information such as a LOR? Just asking because I know if they ask for something, you are in consideration.
@tinkerbell321: what you are referring to is a supplemental review and not that common. LOR’s may be considered depending upon the reason for the review.
Here are the five specific conditions under which an applicant might be selected
for an augmented/supplemental review.
Evidence of focus on an area of special talent which may have limited a student’s
time to participate in a broader range of activities.
Evidence of character traits that imply a strong likelihood of making a significant
contribution to campus life.
Evidence of significant academic achievement or the potential for academic
achievement at the University in spite of extraordinary or compound
disadvantage or learning difference, or physical disability or other unusual
circumstances.
Evidence of significant improvement in the academic record accompanied by one
or both of the following: reasons for the initial poor performance; and/or sustained
and in-depth participation in educational outreach programs, which demonstrate
the applicant’s commitment to succeed academically within a challenging
environment.
Evidence of relative lack of access to, counseling about, or support to take
college preparatory, honors, Advanced Placement (AP) or International
Baccalaureate (IB) classes or required college entrance examinations.
TIPS regarding your response
- Be aware of your tone, stay positive, “Explain” without “Complaining”.
- If the supplement says, “Optional” letter of recommendation be sure to include one.
- Ask your teacher or counselor in person, if possible, if they would be willing to write. you a great letter of recommendation (if possible, be prepared and bring a copy of your transcript and student brag sheet with you when you ask for a letter of recommendation).
- Pay attention to the due date (usually 10 days after you receive it).
- Try to be as detailed, accurate and complete as you can about your situation.
Awesome. Thank you:)
@Gumbymom from your observation, do you see UCs prioritizing UC Cap, UC full weighted, or UC unweighted when it comes to GPA? I’m hoping they review transcripts and take into account course rigor.
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correct. all the UC schools are test blind.
@MommaLue: All 3 UC GPA’s are considered along with HS course rigor but HS course rigor is taken into context for the HS that the applicant attends. UC’s do consider the whole transcript, that is why reporting in progress Senior year courses and completed a-g courses for Freshman year are important in the overall application review.
Each UC campus will review the applicants based on the 14 areas of UC criteria (minus test scores this admission cycle), but may give different weighting to each area. A few constants in the UC application review is that all campuses consider Academic GPA, HS course rigor and the personal insight esssays to be Very Important.
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Hi! I apologize if this has already been asked / answered here but is there a date (maybe based on previous years) that we think UCLA will be releasing their acceptances / rejections? Also, maybe the dates for the other UCs? My son has applied to all of them except UCSC, UCR and UCM. Thanks for any insight!