I don’t think she had an option for honors Chem. After Chem she took AP Chem (one of her favorite science classes). She took honors sophomore English with an amazing and very rigorous teacher but got zero honors points for that, same with honors Algebra II and honors freshman English.
University of California A-G Course List will show that many school-designated honors courses at California high schools are not counted as honors for UC (or CSU) HS GPA recalculation purposes.
For school-designated honors courses, it appears that no foreign language level 1 or 2, algebra 1, geometry, or integrated math 1 or 2 counts as UC honors. In other subjects, it appears more likely that higher level courses can count as UC honors, but there is no strict rule here.
As stated by other posters, even CA HS students have limited Honors courses that are weighted in the UC GPA calculation. I have been following UC admissions for at least 14 years and in that time, OOS Honors courses have never been weighted.
Then how do they get 4.5 weighted GPA? By taking a lot of APs?
The weighted-capped GPA is typically about 0.3-0.4 higher than the unweighted GPA for a UC applicant who took many courses that count for UC honors points (8 semesters worth is the cap, which is typically done by 4 full year courses that count for UC honors in 10th-11th grade, with some minimum amount in 11th grade). Most UC web sites use weighted-capped GPA unless otherwise specified.
The weighted (not capped) GPA can be higher if more UC honors points are available and the student chooses them. For out-of-state students, this would be AP, IB, and college courses taken while in high school.
Capped weighted UC GPA maximum is 4.4 with the 8 semester Honors point cap.
Fully weighted UC GPA maximum is 5.0 with unlimited Honors points.
UC’s consider all 3 GPA’s: Unweighted, Capped weighted and Fully weighted.
I have a question: If you have a 4.0 Unweighted UC GPA and you took 3 AP’s between 10-11th grades, your UC GPA Capped Weighted should be around a 4.2-4.3 GPA, not a 4.1???
Have you tried using the RogerHub UC GPA calculator to calculate your UC GPA’s? GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub
Remember 10-11th grades for only the a-g courses. 1 extra Honors point for each semester AP class taken during this time.
No 2021 data but here is some 2020 admit data:
2020 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 14%
2020 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 37%
Engineering majors require higher stats and will have lower admit rates than the overall admit rates posted.
UCB does not consider alternate majors so if you are not accepted into the College of Engineering, you will not be accepted into the school.