I’ve always wanted to go to a UC more specifically UC Santa Barbara or UC San Diego.
I had really good grades in freshman year but I didn’t take any APs so I had an unweighted gpa of about 3.89 with only an honors class which was honors physical science.
Sophomore year was the year that really kicked in mainly because of AP world history which I definitely regret taking.
During my first trimester I did bad at first but was able to work my way up and end up with an A- because of test corrections and the LEQs and had an unweighted gpa of 3.7
But during my second trimester we were supposed to have two tests, I did poorly on my first test and first DBQ but because of test corrections, I was able to get my grade up to a C+
I was supposed to have a second test as my final test this trimester, but because my school has had so many snow days, my teacher cancelled it, so now I’m stuck with a C+
Luckily, most of my grades are A’s this trimester which helped me keep my GPA stable at an unweighted GPA of 3.6 so far
But how bad is that C+ going to look to UC colleges? Especially when I’m out of state?
One C+ will not ruin your chances at a UC. UC’s only use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation so a C+ in 10th will impact your UC GPA but will not take you out the running.
All you can do is calculate your UC GPA capped weighted GPA at the end of Junior year to see where you stand. Since you are OOS, only AP and IB classes taken 10-11th grades will be weighted for the extra Honors points in the calculation.
Make sure if you are targeting any of the UC’s that you understand that they offer little to no financial aid as an OOS student and your costs to attend will be around $65K/year or higher by the time you apply.
Here is some UC 2018 Statistical Data to give you an idea of the competitiveness of the UC schools and what kind of Capped weighted GPA and test scores will be necessary to be admitted.
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.40-3.79 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 1%
UCLA: 2%
UCSD: 7%
UCSB: 8%
UCI: 7%
UCD: 14%
UCSC: 33%
UCR: 49%
UCM: 82%
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 10%
UCLA: 9%
UCSD: 34%
UCSB: 38%
UCD: 41%
UCI: 38%
UCSC: 70%
UCR: 84%
UCM: 95%
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 37%
UCLA: 41%
UCSD: 70%
UCSB: 80%
UCD: 89%
UCI: 75%
UCSC: 92%
UCR: 96%
UCM: 98%
by itself, the C won;t keep you out but, its impact on your GPA may. It is really hard to get into most of the UCs with a sub 4 GPA. (UCR and M being the exception). Depending on the rest of your stats, SDSU, CSULB and CPP are worth exploring.