<p>I have a high UC weighted gpa, but my UC high school gpa is relatively low because only 8 semesters of UC approved honors classes receive the additional point. For students like me who take a lot of a-g courses (most of my classes were APs, honors, or community college classes), our UC high school gpa goes down even if we take AP, honors, and college level courses, due to the 8 semesters cap. I don't understand why the UC system employ this method. Aren't having a weighted and unweighted gpa systems enough in terms of college admissions? So why do UCs use it? And how much does it affect admissions?</p>
<p>MY UC weighted gpa is 4.54, unweighted is 3.85, but high school is only 4.15. I will have around 60 a-g courses by the time I graduate though.</p>
<p>It's something to standardize everyone. Some schools don't offer many AP courses and some offer a lot and this helps make the playing field fair for those that don't have many AP classes offered.</p>
<p>This is why the averages for UCs like UCLA and Berkeley are in the low 4.0's rather than around 4.5.</p>
<p>If your GPA is so high that it starts to trend down to a 4.0 even though you're getting As in honors/APs classes, you're in good shape and have no reason to worry about that or getting into UCLA assuming you have like a 1850.</p>
<p>"I will have around 60 a-g courses by the time I graduate though."</p>
<p>That, OP, will give you extra points in the admissions formula, even though your gpa per se will not be recalculated to account for those units. Those who have more than the required a-g courses nevertheless benefit in admissions.</p>
<p>It is important, but other things factor in too. But I would say it is the most important (at least based on what I saw in admissions this year).</p>
<p>Also when I said the 8 max extra points thing is the reason for the low 4.0 averages, I mean it mathematically. Even if a person had straight A's, with only 8 extra points for honors/AP, they mathematically will never achieve anything as high as 4.3-4.5, thus you have nothing to worry about with a 4.15 (very very good GPA for UC GPA)</p>
<p>kubitah, but 4.3-4.4 is doable if they take less classes in proportion to the number of UC approved honor courses they take. For example, someone with only 20 semesters of a-g courses over 10th and 11th grade can theoretically get up to 4.4 UC high school gpa (considering she/he has obtained straight A's and has at least 8 weighted semesters under his/her belt). I would have higher UC high school gpa if I had taken less AP classes (although I got A's in them). Bottom line is, the more classes you take, your UC high school gpa is mathematically bound to go lower (if you have over 4.0).</p>
<p>There are kids in my school with 4.3+ UC high school gpa although they took less courses and less rigorous classes than I did.</p>
<p>Sometimes in tight situations, they will uncap the UC GPA to make a decision. You will get your full credit for all AP/IB classes due to numbers of A-G semesters and rigor of schedule. It can only help, not hurt.</p>
<p>GPAx123, chill out. However many APs you take, its still unfair if UCs dont cap it for those schools who dont have AP classes at all. Besides, admissions see what classes you take so if you took a lot of AP they'll see it</p>
<p>Capping at 8 semesters also helps to water down the effect of someone who has simply taken a TON of AP's on purpose, for the extra points to inflate their GPA, and got a smattering of B's and C's.</p>
<p>It still sucks for the rest of us though :)</p>
<p>It doesn't make sense that they would calculate fully weighted and unweighted gpas if they don't even consider it in admissions. Why would they post those statistics if all they look at is the capped UC gpa?</p>
<p>for applicants? lol. when people apply to schools they tend to look at common data sets to see where they stand in terms of GPA.</p>
<p>Like I said, if they see that you have a lot of AP classes, theres no point calculating your uncapped weighted because they know it will be high anyways.</p>