GPA Calculator for the University of California
Rules for calculating GPA
The University of California has a specific way of determining high school GPA for admissions on a scale from 0 to 4, where an A receives 4 points. The GPA is calculated as the average of all grades received.
- Only academic (a.k.a. "A-G") courses count toward your GPA. This includes things like history and theater, but not things like gym. If you're a California student, you can look up the list of A-G courses for your school using hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist.
- Pluses and minuses do not matter. An grade of A+ or A- also counts as an A.
- Only count courses taken after the 9th grade. If you took a summer class before 10th grade, you should count that.
- When deciding between semesters, quarters, and trimesters, do NOT include summer school as a term. For example, a trimester system should consist of a Fall trimester, Winter trimester, and Spring trimester. A quarter system should consist of 2 Fall quarters and 2 Spring quarters. A semester system should consist of 1 Fall semester and 1 Spring semester.
- Honors courses for California students: Get a list of UC honors courses for your high school by going to hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist and searching for your high school’s name.
- Honors courses for out of state students: AP courses and IB Higher Level courses are counted as UC honors courses. See more detailed rules on this page.
- The weighted GPA includes 1 extra point for each grade received in a UC approved honors course.
- The weighted and capped GPA also includes 1 extra point for each honors grade. However, only up to 8 semesters of honors courses will be awarded honors points. If you have more than 8 semesters of honors grades, then the excess grades will be treated as regular courses. The 8-semester cap is equivalent to 16 quarters or 12 trimesters. Additionally, no more than 4 semesters worth of honors points can be from courses taken in the 10th grade.
- Do not count honors points for failing grades (D or F).
- A maximum of 4 honors points can be counted for courses taken in the 10th grade.
- If you took a-g courses at a community college, include them in your GPA. You should also count community college courses as honors courses if they are eligble for transfer credit. Use this site to look up transfer elibility for California community colleges.
Is there a disadvantage to taking more courses?
Based on the formula for the weighted and capped GPA, you may have noticed that you can achieve a higher GPA by taking fewer total courses. Conversely, taking more courses appears to lower your GPA. This phenomenon is caused by the limit of 8 semesters worth of honors courses. In reality, admissions are based on your entire transcript and not just your GPA. The purpose of the 8 semester cap is to reduce statistical variance in the GPA, not to punish applicants for taking more courses.
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These comments were written by anonymous visitors. Roger’s comments are colored blue.
4.0 uw 4.33 weighted 4.33 capped weighted.
We making it to community college with this one
im failjure
hi
fort rank tho?
thanks g
Hi, what if the High School gives 2 final grades for a course taught in a semester (Q1 and Q2)? Do I select quarters in calculator?
If semester, what do I do if Q1 grade is B and Q2 grade is an A?
Thanks in advance.
When UCB and UCLA consider uncapped and weighted, do they look at grades 9-11 or just
10-11.Thanks!
Are Mission valley ROP courses considered honor course
So just to be sure, we should not count PE and Career and College as part of the classes for he GPA calc.
Hello, Is it bad if you were to take more than 8 semesters' worth of honors credit? As I saw, it would lower your GPA if you took more classes, so I have that question.
My son took a UC transferrable course in a local cc during the spring semester of his freshman year-will this count?
Gosh dang thanks my top g
Hello - I took an Art course at community college in one summer. It is 3 credit (in semester system) and I made an A. Do I count this as one semester grade or two? I took this art class for UC a-g requirement and if I would take an art class in my high school, I needed to take it in both fall and spring semester. So, I am a little confused how I need to calculate the community college art class for gpa. Thanks
UC classes are way hard. Go to community college first to get better grades and then transfer. ha
if my school uses a semester system and I earn an A during the fall semester and earn an A during the spring semester do I count it as 1 or 2 As. Also do I count my senior grades?
One thing missing here is - "what is an A?" or a B or a C or a D. The problem for many is the inconsistencies with how school districts translate a number like a 93 to a grade letter. In Austin, it's a 3.3, not a 4.0.It's still an A, however. But some districts have an A as 93 to 100, B as 87 to 92, etc.
Please clarify, and consider revising the blog post, to say "ignore the grade letter assigned by your school if you have the numerical average. 90-100 is A, 80-89 is B, 70-79 is C, 65-69 is D, 64 and below is F" or something similar. Thank you from Texas!
when calculating uc gpa, do we include summer classes taken after 11th grade?
Hello Roger, does UC consider NC(No Credit) as Fail while calculating UC GPA? I failed 1st semester of my accelerated math class and received NC in 10th grade. I took a non-accelerated math class during summer school to get my math credits and attained A grade. I am not sure how UC will consider my NC while calculating my GPA.
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thank you so much for this roger i dont know what id do without u
thanks i use ur calculators a lot like when i have finals and they're always helpful :)
I have a pioneer research program in Grade 11 summer , accredited by oberlin college , it is 2 college credit , i get A, is it counted as 1 semester or 2 semester ? As it is college level , so I will get the bonus point accordingly , correct ... say if 1 semester , I get 1 extra honor point ; if it is 2 semester , i get 2 extra honor point... is my understanding correct?
Hi Roger! Thanks for the calculator, it's really informative! I had a question - I'm an international student doing the IBDP, so we have predicted grades in our senior year. I've heard on other forums online that UCs only consider 10th and 11th grade in your UCGPA--is this true? And if I'm using your calculator, would I input just 10th and 11th grade or would I also add my predicted grades? Hope this makes sense!
Does UCLA use cal grant GPA or do they recalculate?
do uc's look more at weighted gpa or the weighted and capped gpa? i have 4.6 weighted but 4.09 capped, plz help thanks
for the amount of honors level classes, do i count for each semester or each year
Does the technically non AP portion of certain AP courses count as an honors grade? For example when taking Calc AB some portions of the course are called Honors Pre-calculus instead of AP Calculus AB and are technically not AP.
ayo
If I am applying from an international school that only assigns numbers, what is the cutoff from A to B? Is 90-100 considered an A?
Roger: I’m not sure, sorry.
So max (capped) anyone can get is 4.33 correct? How does someone get above that?
Hi! I was using this calculator to determine what GPA my son will have after completing an AP course over the Summer. It prompted me to notice that taking extra courses actually negatively impacts the weighted GPA. I noticed that if my student does not count two of his classes that he did not need to take to take, his GPA increases by 0.1 because without the extra class, his weighted courses carry a heavier weight. Does the actual UC application address this in any way?
Roger: I added some explanation to the calculator above. Please take a look.
Hello Rogers,
I had taken chem Honors in 10th grade. I got D in chem Honors in 2nd semester. Since my school was not offering Chem Honors over summer, I had to take regular Chem, to make-up for credit, in which I got A. So while calculating my UC GPA, do I consider D + A both or just A? How do we replace Summer credit recovery courses in GPA.
Roger: I can’t find any specific guidance about this, sorry.
Hi! I go to high school abroad, and I have no AP/IB courses whatsoever. Will UC still look at my weighted GPA in comparison to intl. students with those courses (and subsequent higher GPA)?
Roger: I don’t know, sorry.
Roger, I am trying to understand relation between number of AP courses required in Quarter vs Semester high school for calculating 8 semester capped GPA. If my son takes 2 AP courses in 10th grade at a high school with Quarter system vs same 2 AP courses at a high school with Semester system. In quarter system he can finish AP1 in first 2 quarters and take AP2 in remaining 2 quarters.
How many semester will that be when calculating capped GPA ?
If the answer is 2 AP in quarter system is equivalent to 1 AP in semester system then
Is there any advantage of quarter system over the other?
I am trying to evaluate 2 high schools one with Quarter and other with Semester.
Roger: For this calculator, the only distinction between quarters and semesters is how many honors points can be counted: either 8 semesters or 16 quarters. I don’t think there’s some way to game the GPA calculation by choosing quarters instead of semesters. However, I’d be interested in knowing more about schools that teach AP courses in half of their typical time.
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Roger,
Your calculator is the only UC calculator I have seen that allows you to indicate quarter vs semester system. My daughter's high school is on the quarter system. Can you explain how that impacts the calculator? Does a quarter system allow for more input (more than 8) as to AP classes? When I use your calculator and indicate quarter system I get a very different GPA number than other (Semester based calculators) but I don't know what is causing the difference.
Roger: See my answer to “Confused Parent” above.
Hello all,
Replying to the top 2 comments. So the capped GPA refers to the UC cap with 8 weighted courses being counted towards the Weighted GPA. (example a student who has 10 ap courses through 10-11 grad (including summer) they will only weight 8 semesters total.
as for your Child who is a rising senior yes, Community college courses are a great way to gain AP/weighted credit and they will be counted towards his UC GPA as long as the courses are not fall courses. Just be sure to check that the courses are UC transferable to be counted(usually delineated on the course listing)
What does capped GPA mean? How does it differ from the weighted GPA? Thanks!
My son is a rising senior in a NY private school that offers very few APs - would taking 1 or 2 community college courses in the summer before senior year be counted in the UC GPA calculator? And any suggestions on what are the common courses students use ?
Hi,
If a student graduates high school in 3 years (a year early), do the freshman grades get included into the GPA calculations? Otherwise they would only have one year to off on?
Also, do the community college courses taken while in middle school and freshman year get included in the GPA calculations?
Thank you!
.
Does dual enrollment community college classes taken in 10th grade count towards admissions gpa? Or is it only DE classes taken 11th and 12th? Thanks for all the very useful info!!
Hello Roger, do Courses taken during the summer after junior year count towards the UCGPA or are they considered part of the senior year curriculum? What if that summer course also spans into part of the fall term of senior year?
Thank you for your insight.
bruh every semester my weighted goes up but uw goes down. 3.6 looks pretty bad but i guess 4.6 is fine?
Would my overall GPA be higher if I still had the same grades, but I took 3 advanced classes?
Hi Roger,
Thanks for this, king! I'll tell you if I get in anywhere. I had a 3.8/4.35/4.20, but I'm shooting for UCB or UCLA. Not sure how realistic that is but oh well.
Valorant rank tho?
uhh wtf