UCLA or UC Berkeley

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - GENERAL
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@tomli . . . at UCLA and UCB, there are differences in the admissions algorithm with respect to domestic and International (“Int’l”) students. It’s not really an algorithm; I just called it that for lack of a more apt title. Don’t worry, they’ll peruse your application very thoughtfully for admission at both universities.

It’s evident that the college-board scores are higher for students as yourself versus those who are California and secondarily out-of-state (“oos”) students. (Int’ls and oos students have higher scores than California students because both universities are trying to admit a wider range of students from their native state, which includes those with “low” scores.) This need by a student as yourself to post a a higher score definitely runs commensurate with a lower weighted gpa of your Int’l students’ grouping because the American system of weighting grades for AP classes (generally honors courses) doesn’t apply to foreign schools (nor as much to a lot of private US high schools). But both universities will adjust to this, as well as to those on the IB versus AP track.

But since you’re attending high school in the States, I don’t know if this lower-grade, higher-score algorithm would apply to you because the conversion factor of grades from somewhere like Abu Dhabi would be tough to calculate into US grades but for out-of-state high schools this obviously wouldn’t apply. Your lower weighted grades probably depends on your high school in the states, whether it’s lacks the freely weighting of grades or it just doesn’t provide a lot of honors courses – public v private, top-tier v. lower tier, etc. Therefore, it is essential that take your high school for all that it can provide to you. And I’m assuming you’re not attending high school in California as per the conversation previously about paying full tuition.

Did I confuse you enough?

Let’s see if I can recap more succinctly by quantifying (I should have just done this instead):

Those who matriculated at UCLA for 2018-19:

25th Percentile…CA Residents…OOS…International…Total
Fully Weighted GPA…4.25…4.33…3.95…4.23
Unweighted GPA…3.86…3.83…3.85…3.85
ACT…27…31…32…28
SAT…1,230…1,390…1,460…1,280
Honors Courses…16…21…N/A…17

75th Percentile…CA Residents…OOS…International…Total
Fully Weighted GPA…4.58…4.76…4.36…4.60
Unweighted GPA…4.00…4.00…4.00…4.00
ACT…34…34…34…34
SAT…1,490…1,520…1,530…1,510
Honors Courses…24…35…N/A…26

Here’s the [url=<a href=“http://www.admission.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof18.htm%5Dlink%5B/url”>http://www.admission.ucla.edu/Prospect/Adm_fr/Frosh_Prof18.htm]link[/url] for the above

-UCLA doesn’t superscore ACT or SAT and reports ~ 132% of the scores between both college board tests => scores are artificially low for all students at especially the 25th.
-The honors courses have been elided for Internationals completely.

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Best of luck!

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The weighted of accepted students for OOS and Int’ls in 2018-19 was:

-4.42 and 4.00 at the 25th percentile
-4.83 and 4.42 at the 75th

These are whom you’d compare yourself to instead of the matriculated students.

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OMG I made a HUGE MISTAKE! I thought the honors courses aren’t the UC honors courses, only the AP courses are. I recalculate and my unweighted GPA is 3.93, my weighted GPA is 4.44, and my capped weighted GPA is 4.22. I feel much better right now. I know my GPA is not competitive, but it is much higher than I calculated before haha!!!

Since the application deadline is Nov 30, does my first semester grades in my senior year matter in the GPA calculation?

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@tomli1225: Senior grades are not considered in the UC admission process, so it will be based on your UC GPA at the time of application. Senior grades will maintain your UC acceptance if admitted since you need to keep up your grades or risk being rescinded along with completing the rest of your a-g course requirements.

If you are not a California resident, your Honors classes are not weighted in the UC GPA calculation only AP/IB classes.

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@Gumbymom . . .

Honors is just a catch-all for community college classes, AP, IB and straight honors classes.

I believe that UCLA and Cal look more closely at fully weighted and unweighted soph-junior a-g grades and gpa. I don’'t think UC capped gpa means much to either because both want to see if students have appropriated their high schools’s qualities to their highest, but it is calculated for system UC purposes just as a standard presentation for prospective student enlightenment and comparison of what is admissible at the various campuses.

Additionally, IBers tend to manifest lower weighted grades.

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@tomli1225 . . . one more thing. You have to fill out the classes you took, but you also have to fill out your class schedule the best you can for your senior year. This will give the admissions people a better idea of how you’ve proceeded and will proceed in your admissions journey.

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Thank you for the comment! @firmament2x

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You’re welcome, best of luck!