University of California schools

[Anonymous]

Wondering if anyone whose DC got into an UC school from out of state would share which school, unweighted GPA (using the UC method which I think A- counts as a 4.0 and a .5 bump for AP and honors? As an aside I find it so confusing all the different gpa calc methods abs it makes a huge difference so just citing the number isn’t sufficient unless you know how it was calculated), summary of extracurriculars?

My DS loves the research opportunities the UCs can offer and is ready for a large school (his current HS is very small and he is ready for something else). He’s certainly a good student but not the tippy top and he doesn’t think he did that great on his first two APs this year (he did well in the classes but is nervous about score, he’s taking 4 more APs next year and probably 3 senior year so will have a total of 8-9) so I am trying to figure out what campuses other than Merced are realistic for him to consider and the public info available is hard to assess for OOS.

[Anonymous]

Oh - and I know the UC website says that each location reviews apps on their own so it doesn’t matter how many locations a student applies to, but does DCUM think that really correct?

[Anonymous]

CU Boulder might be a better choice and it as well as University of Oregon are gaining in popularity. My nephew with a 3.65 UW GPA (don’t know the UC GPA) got rejected from UCSD, UCLA, UCSC and UCSB.

[Anonymous]

All big unis offer research opportunities. Why focus on UCs?

[Anonymous]

My DD's GPA is 3.99 UW (don't know the UC GPA) got into UCLA, UCSB, and UCSD w/Regents was waitlisted at UCI and UCB. Sectional athlete, played in MCYO philharmonic for 3 years, and had strong leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All big unis offer research opportunities. Why focus on UCs?

+1 look at other state flagships. Agree with Boulder and Oregon. Also Indiana, Tennessee, Minnesota. I'd think all of those would be preferable to UC Merced or Riverside which would be the easier-to-get-into UCs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All big unis offer research opportunities. Why focus on UCs?

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh - and I know the UC website says that each location reviews apps on their own so it doesn’t matter how many locations a student applies to, but does DCUM think that really correct?

I read applications for a UC. Each campus reviews applications separately and differently.

[Anonymous]

There is no weight given to honors classes out of state. Only APs. (I don't remember what they do with dual enrollment.)

See the grade calculator here https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

[Anonymous]

There may be specific reasons to prefer certain UCs (e.g. UCLA/UCB for prestige, UCSD for biotech-related majors). But, generally, they hardly have opportunities significantly better than the other state flagships mentioned in this thread.

Not that there's anything wrong with, say, UCI or UCD, but they are not worth the out of state cost of attendance.

[Anonymous]

The simplest thing is if the unweighted GPA is 3.4 it's already over the out-of-state cut-off to apply. Then you can do the exact calculation, which works in some quality points for APs (IBs and college classes) but the number is limited. It should be easy enough to calculate what a maximum possible UC GPA would be, etc. This compresses GPAs into a narrower range, and unweighted is a reasonable proxy. At which point other aspects of the application are going to be the deciding factor.

[Anonymous]

The UC colleges take GPA from 10th and 11th grades only with only 2 bumps from AP classes per year.

[Anonymous]

The UCs publish very detailed admissions data, OP—have you found these?

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/admissions-source-school

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/admissions-residency-and-ethnicity

I can use the first link to pull the admissions rate and the average UC GPA for admitted students for each UC campus from my kid’s high school. If your school is smaller, or fewer kids apply to UCs, more data will be suppressed for privacy reasons, and the second link might be more helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wondering if anyone whose DC got into an UC school from out of state would share which school, unweighted GPA (using the UC method which I think A- counts as a 4.0 and a .5 bump for AP and honors? As an aside I find it so confusing all the different gpa calc methods abs it makes a huge difference so just citing the number isn’t sufficient unless you know how it was calculated), summary of extracurriculars?

My DS loves the research opportunities the UCs can offer and is ready for a large school (his current HS is very small and he is ready for something else). He’s certainly a good student but not the tippy top and he doesn’t think he did that great on his first two APs this year (he did well in the classes but is nervous about score, he’s taking 4 more APs next year and probably 3 senior year so will have a total of 8-9) so I am trying to figure out what campuses other than Merced are realistic for him to consider and the public info available is hard to assess for OOS.

UCs don’t use any test scores in admissions. The only place where AP score would matter is credit/placement if he is admitted/attends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wondering if anyone whose DC got into an UC school from out of state would share which school, unweighted GPA (using the UC method which I think A- counts as a 4.0 and a .5 bump for AP and honors? As an aside I find it so confusing all the different gpa calc methods abs it makes a huge difference so just citing the number isn’t sufficient unless you know how it was calculated), summary of extracurriculars?

My DS loves the research opportunities the UCs can offer and is ready for a large school (his current HS is very small and he is ready for something else). He’s certainly a good student but not the tippy top and he doesn’t think he did that great on his first two APs this year (he did well in the classes but is nervous about score, he’s taking 4 more APs next year and probably 3 senior year so will have a total of 8-9) so I am trying to figure out what campuses other than Merced are realistic for him to consider and the public info available is hard to assess for OOS.

UCs don’t use any test scores in admissions. The only place where AP score would matter is credit/placement if he is admitted/attends.

Apparently, the UCs do care about AP scores in admissions. Which I think are far more inequitable than SATs, because many high schools don’t subsidize AP exam costs.