Will Freshman Grades Affect Admission to UC system (including UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI, UCSB)

Hi there!

I had a relatively poor freshman year (3.5 uw and 3.7 weighted overall) but after that I have had much better grades in grades 10-11 (3.86 uw and 4.25 w… 4.12 UC gpa), 34 act, and am looking to apply to UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI, UCSB.

I have seen a lot of discussion if UC’s care about freshman year or not, and I have seen mixed answers so I am unsure of the truth.

Will the UC system care about my poor (compared to the other years) freshman year, or will it simply be discarded to the side and only the grades from 10-11 will be looked at?

UC GPA is calculated using 10-11th grades only. Freshman grades are used mainly to make sure you passed the a-g course requirements in 9th grade and can be used to fulfill the minimum to apply to the UC’s.

So do UC’s only look at their own version of the student’s gpa (the UC gpa) when factoring gpa for admissions? Because it is capped if I’m not mistaken

UCB and UCLA will also use uncapped weighted UC GPA meaning unlimited honors points for UC approved AP/DE/IB or Honors courses. Your self-reported grades for 9th-11th will be looked at for meeting the a-g course requirements but the UC GPA is calculated only on the 10-11th grades. If you look at the UC website Freshman profiles, the UC capped weighted GPA is posted for each school. Use this GPA to determine your chances and suitability for applying to each school.

Thanks!