What are my chances for University of California San Diego (and other UCs)?

<p>Now in senior year of high school, here is my resume:
-31 on ACT
-GPA is 3.78 (out of 4) weighted
-Taken AP Language and Composition and AP US History (3 for English, 4 for history on the AP exam), currently taking AP Literature and Composition and AP Biology
-In volleyball (2013-2014 MVP)
-Interested in medicine and pre-med in college (would like to major in biology)
-Volunteer at hospital (have almost 200 hours complete) and have volunteered as a teacher and teacher's assistant
-Have other clubs on transcript, like NHS and Model UN</p>

<p>I'm a student from Illinois and have no restrictions finance wise. Also, could anyone point out any matches with other UCs? Thank you for taking the time to help and reply, appreciate it!</p>

<p>The UC’s use a different calculation for their GPA. They only use 10th-11th grades with a maximum of 4 year long or 8 semesters of AP credit for the Honors points for OOS. Here is the calculator:
<a href=“GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub”>http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Your GPA is a little light since the average UC GPA for Freshman last year was 4.13 but your ACT score is on target.
Biology is a competitive major at the UC’s, so if you are above the average your chances are good for acceptance. Since you are full pay, that will play into you favor. Your EC’s show dedication but your course rigor is also light. Most applicants have anywhere from 6-12 AP classes by their Senior year.</p>

<p>UCSD: Low Reach</p>

<p>You would be a High Match at UCI/UCSB/UCD and a match at UCSC.</p>

<p>Good Luck.</p>

<p>If your UC-weighted GPA is over 4.0, you have a solid chance, although some of their admissions decisions - as I’ve seen on College Confidential, at least - are pretty confounding. My son got in from out-of-state with a UC-weighted GPA of 4.0-4.1 (I can’t remember exactly what it was), and an ACT score of 31. His unweighted GPA was only 3.3-3.4.</p>

<p>@woogzmama‌
How does your son have a UC GPA of 4.0-4.1, but have an unweighted GPA of only 3.3-3.4? The difference between the unweighted and the UC GPA is a bit unrealistic. Is 4.0-4.1 the uncapped weighted? Or did your son have really bad grades in freshman year?</p>

<p>If 4.0-4.1 is the uncapped weighted UC GPA, do you know your son’s capped weighted UC GPA?</p>

<p>Here on College Confidential, the term UC GPA usually means the capped weighted GPA from 10th grade to 11th grade.
<a href=“GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub”>http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I can’t remember precisely what his UC-weighted GPA was, but it was over 4.0. They were very generous about weighting his AP and IB classes, which accounted for most of those calculated. He attended a private school, with rigorous grading and requirements. His freshman grades were mostly in the B-range, and he had some mediocre grades in electives that weren’t calculated. As a sophomore, his Math, Science and Spanish grades were weighted as “Honors,” with AP classes in Social Studies (Human Geography) and English. As a junior he had mostly IB courses, with AP US History, and some required religion classes (which he received A’s in). We hadn’t expected the UCs to weight his sophomore classes that generously, but they did. He had a very strong junior year, which helped, also. </p>

<p>p.s. My son and his adviser calculated everything, but I know he consulted with an admissions rep. from UC Davis, who visited his school, and he might have participated in some on-line chats with other UCs. I doubt he could have gotten into UCSD with a much lower GPA. </p>

<p>I thought UCs don’t count OOS honors as an extra point. But I think OOS full pay is a hook at the UCs now.</p>

<p>@woogzmama‌
Can you recalculate your son’s UC GPA by only weighting 4 of his classes? The capped UC GPA only allows 8 semesters maximum to be weighted (4 classes * 2 semesters per year = 8). Therefore, the UCs are actually much less generous about weighting than you think. (I am actually curious as to why you say that the UCs are generous with IB classes. Standard level courses are given no weight. As DrGoogle said, honors are also given no weight for OOS.) The UC GPA only consists of Sophomore and Junior year classes.
The calculator is in the below link. It has more detailed information on calculating the capped UC GPA.
<a href=“GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub”>http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/&lt;/a&gt;
Also, which high school class year did your son belong to?</p>

<p>@DaaBears‌
I do not want to hijack your thread, so I will chance you.
You say that 3.78 is your weighted GPA on the 4.0 scale. 4.0 is usually considered the unweighted scale. Can you clarify?
Also, can you calculate your capped UC GPA with the link that Gumbymom and I provided? The capped UC GPA is usually lower than the fully weighted GPA. Assuming that your capped UC GPA is lower than 3.78, I would have to agree with Gumbymom’s predictions.</p>

<p>I agree with @Mangiafuoco regarding Unweighed 3.4 GPA with the maximum 8 honor points would only be a 3.7-3.8 maximum. My younger son had a 3.4 UW and a 3.73 UC GPA capped weighted (8 honors points), so maybe they were being generous since they may have wanted your son badly. Were you full pay @woogzmama‌? This has nothing to do with his abilities and I am sure he deserved his acceptance, it just doesn’t add up. I have also seen posted, that UCB will also do a fully weighted GPA besides the UC GPA, so maybe UCSD will also do fully weighted??</p>

<p>May I withdraw gracefully from this thread? My son is already in college. He did all the calculations himself, in consultation with an adviser and input from UC Admissions. I don’t know what his capped (vs. uncapped) UCGPA was, and I’m disinclined to pursue the matter further. He had only a vague notion, since we are from out-of-state. He was pleasantly surprised by how high his UC GPA was, though, and I distinctly recall him saying that it was around 4.0. I can’t tell you whether that was capped or uncapped, and I don’t know whether he could have, either. By the way, we weren’t technically, precisely, full-pay, but our EFC was very close to the out-of-state price. We received an e-mail from UCD saying we might qualify for their middle-income grant, but that no determination would be made until July. We weren’t willing to wait until then. </p>