I believe the UCs take into account how many APs/Hs classes are offered at each school. This is reflected in the high school counselor’s rec letter describing the offerings and how a student compares to others at their school in terms of course rigor. There are many schools that you can take almost all H or AP classes in 10th and 11th. My son had a 4.92 W gpa and the only non-weighted class he took was Spanish 3.
The bigger problem is the grade inflation that occurs - especially in affluent neighborhoods. I think in almost all of my son’s classes, 60%+ get an A - in some classes it may be more like 80%+. Many classes curve difficult tests or offer test corrections because affluent parents go ballistic at teachers over grades. Some teachers have confirmed this to me. One who also taught at a non-affluent school said complaining parents were not a problem there and he usually offered additional avenues to help struggling students rather than ones aiming for A’s. I talked to a teacher who received negative feedback from administration because too many students dropped her calculus class since she graded more harshly than her peers - even though her students usually scored 5s on the exams and certainly better than all other math teachers at the school. While I think UCs also take this into account, I don’t know how you can distinguish among the tens of thousands of students who have 4.7 gpas.
There were dozens of students at his schools with 4.0/4.75+ gpas. All but 1 got into either UCLA or Berkeley, but usually not both. Almost all of them were WL or rejected by at least 1 other UC. I’m sure each school has its reasoning but it’s pretty clear that’s not apparent to applicants. There’s a running joke around his school where students wish they could trade acceptances with classmates because they had each other’s preferred acceptances. My son got into UCLA - making my wife and I ecstatic as alums. However, his preferred destination was Berkeley where he was WL. He tried to write his PIQs to fit Berkeley more as he thought it was a better fit for him. Berkeley disagreed. But he’s pretty happy with his choices and will likely go to UCLA.
None of the public-school districts in SF bay area allows all AP/Honor in 10th and 11th grade no matter how smart you are. My local HS is an upscale HS but the highest possible GPA one can get is about 4.3-4.5 due to restrictions of class selection. With obvious intention of GPA inflation from schools and removal of SAT/ACT, things will get screwed up shortly. UC tries to “solve” one problem but creates a lot more other problems. APs are not created equally and are not accessed equally. Grading standard in each school is not created equally. When time goes by, there will be more cheating and intentional GPA inflation. Best luck. I still have one more kid to go and I am out of this damn rat race game. Thanks God.
Not true. We are in the SF Bay Area (east bay) and students at my kids high school can and do take all AP’s/honors in 11th grade. 10th they can take 2 AP’s and as many honors as they like. 11th it is up to the student, but most take 4-5 AP’s and 2-3 honors.
Lucky you! I guess the next move is for parents to buy homes in a school district where AP/Honor are easy to get. I am in Peninsula area and my kid’s school has no chance to take a lot AP if a kid is even able to do it - my HS restricts 1 science class per semester and how far one can go with this limit? I know some very competitive schools in south bay have same problem too. On the other hand, less competitive schools may have more chance for type A kids to get AP/honor because higher grade kids do not compete with lower grade kids for AP/Honor and competition among same grade is relatively lower as well.
The dynamic will shift soon once parents realize how the new game is being played.
Well our high school is in ranked in CA in top 125 high schools in CA, so it definitely not a “less competitive” high school. We are limited to 1 science class per year as well.
However, regardless of what my high school does versus your high school, students are not evaluated against kids from other high schools, only amongst their own peers at their own high school. So your student is not disadvantaged if that is the status quo at your high school. They just need to max out rigor what they can take and do well at it.
@Twins2023 Are you sure this is how things work? There are no words from UC on this important matter. Kids need to compete statewide or even nationwide for the spots, I think. You do not just compete with your own school mates. One school’s GPA of 4.2 is definitely looking worse than another school’s GPA of 4.5
It’s explicit in their admissions materials that they are comparing you with others in the same context, based on what is available to you. That’s why there are readers who read regionally and who have access to the school profile for each school (provided by the counselor). Our HS also limits AP and Honors (no real honors except AP, IB, and an advanced math track — there’s no “Honors” history, English, etc.) opportunities and has small schools that make it hard even to fit in many APs, but kids at our school tend to do very well with UC admissions. Readers know info about the context your child is learning in.
As other mentioned you do compete with the opportunities available to you in your own school and your performance is evaluated relative to your peers. Our kids attend a top public in an affluent area of LA and we have every AP class under the sun. Counselors are very accommodating with DE as well, so 4.8+ weighted UC GPAs are pretty common around these parts.
But despite the AP/DE buffet and high GPAs, our school never beats the published acceptance rate at UCLA and only get about 27-29 out of 300+. So while a 4.7/12APs is great, in context here its only above average.
You can see the results by HS here.
There was an interesting discussion on this topic a few years back here on CC.
That is a really fascinating thread to read through, seeing people just 5 years ago begin to think about how privileged families are figuring out they can use ED to gain an admissions advantage. Uhhhhhh, yep! That turned out to be true! Lol.
Also in just 5 short years, it was harder for my kiddo (waitlisted at Cal, rejected from UCLA this cycle) to get admitted to UCSD and UC Irvine than it theoretically would have been for her to get into Cal from her particular HS in the 2018 cycle. So honestly, I hope all our kids who got into any UCs at all this year feel pretty good about that! The pace at which things have gotten harder is sort of dizzying!
Very true, especially regarding UCI. If I recall, they had like a 80% admit rate for 4.20+ WC back in 2018 so it was almost like a safety for hi-stat kids before they “recalibrated” and now nobody is guaranteed.
Agree, getting into any UC today is quite an accomplishment. Had a reality check for D21 so we went into this 2023 cycle with very low expectations!
Yeah, I guess the alumni invite is basically meaningless at this point. I’m just trying to hold onto whatever glimpse of hope I can get my hands on lol.
Did any students who applied for the TFT program have an interview before admission?
If you go to the French department website and there’s info about how and where to take the placement test. My daughter took it online in the fall, around the time she was registering for winter classes. She thought she might have to take it at orientation, but it didn’t come up. She tested into French 3, took that last quarter. I’m sure most of the language departments have this kind of info if you need a different language