Hi Roger,
I just finished the junior year. My Weighted GPA is 4.50 and my unweighted GPA is 4. I spent my 9th and 10th grade in another country. There were no AP courses provided in that country but I got all As. I only took the SAT once and I got 1350. Do you think there would be a chance for me to get into UCLA?

Roger: I have no idea, sorry. But you sound like a pretty good candidate to me! I think lots of students don’t take any AP courses in their 9th and 10th grades, regardless of whether they’re offered.

Hey so I have a 0 period in which I take jazz band where I get an A. Since I have gotten As in all my classes and have taken honors/ap classes. Wouldn’t me being in jazz band hurt my UC gpa as there would be a less ap class to normal class ratio bringing it down close to a gpa of 4 than a 5?

Thanks

Roger: Yep. It’s an unfortunate phenomenon, and it’s meant to be addressed by the 8-semester cap on honors points.

hello,

how do UC's calculate gpa when you have to remediate/repeat a class where you received a D grade in 10th or 11th grade if you took the class again in the summer for grade remediation and credit recovery for college? the UC website says that D is given 1 point for GPA but they do not accept D?F grades, so which grades do they use and how many semesters do they use?

thank you

Roger: See this page for more information about repeating courses. Essentially, D and F grades do not satisfy subject requirements and are ineligible for honors points, but they do count toward the GPA, unless you repeat the course, in which case your failing grade is replaced. I assume that repeating the course requires an equivalent number of semesters as the original course?

Hey Roger! I'm a student from Florida. Are the college credit classes considered as UC approved honors courses?(for out of state students)

Roger: I think any transferrable college credit counts.

Also, is a 4.07 UC GPA, 4.19 Weighted GPA Uncapped based on my schools scale, and 3.81 Unweighted good for schools like Berkley, Davis, Santa Diego, and irvine?

Roger: Sure, sounds pretty good to me.

Hey Roger,

I took a class in my school sophmore year called Trig/Precalc which is essentially the equivilent of honors precalc in other schools here in the state of california in terms of both rigor and content. My school refuses to weigh the class. Should I still count it as weighted on my uc application.

Thank You,
Avi

Roger: You get to choose? That’s surprising. I feel like a single course doesn’t make much of a difference either way, so it’s best to do whatever you feel comfortable justifying/defending.

Is UC cap GPA also count the non academic GPA?

Roger: The UC GPA counts only “A-G” courses, which includes things like Theater, but not things like P.E.

Hi Roger,
My daughter's SAT score is 1380 and her UC capped GPA is 4.0. Does she have a good chance for UCR (business major or Statistics major)?

Roger: I have no idea. Sorry!

Hello Roger!

What is a capped GPA? Thank you.

Roger: It accounts for the 8 semester cap for honors courses (check out this FAQ about the UC GPA).

I have 3.29 (u.w gpa), 3.5 (w.gpa)
Sat 1420,I am looking to apply for UC s will I get a spot in UC Riverside?

If I took classes at local community college and that counted as 3 units, do they count them as a semester course?

Roger: If you received a single grade for the class, then I think it counts as a single semester.

How can I calculate my UC GPA when I have two different school systems in my 10th and 11th grade? In 10th grade my school went by semesters but in my new school in 11th grade it went by quarters :/

Roger: I suppose you could count each of your semester grades twice and then pick “quarters” here.

Hi again. It is distinguishable actually, it saids in the transcript I took Pre-Calculus in Laurel Springs, but my high school count them as honors. I don't know which one UC will look them as.

Roger: I’d imagine the data model would be set up in such a way to require that all courses on a transcript are associated with the same school, but this is just speculation.

I took summer class online from Laurel Springs (Honors Pre-Calculus). My school in UC doorways count that as an "honors" class, but when I look at the UC doorways for Laurel Springs it doesn't count them as honors. My question is since I got credits for my high school and it's showing in my high school transcript, do they count them as I took it in my school and count them as honors or do they still count them as I took it from Laurel Springs? I hope my question made sense.

Roger: Interesting question. I don’t know, but it sounds like your transcript makes it look like you took Honors Pre-Calculus at your own high school, right? If it’s indistinguishable, then I suppose your own high school’s honors list will be used.

see everyone next finals season! i'm outa here boys

Well, I guess now I know why I got in. Haha. Thanks!

Roger my son
you have earn a place in paradise
for creating this website to help your
fellow brothers

I took a class in community college and received 5 units. Is that count as a semester?

Roger: I think 5 units usually counts as 2 high school semesters.

If I took a class at community college August-December, does that count as a one semester?

Roger: I think it depends on whether you received one or two grades for the course. Also, the community college course transfer list should tell you how many units a particular course is worth, if your school is on the list.

is a 3.96 unweighted, 4.71 weighted, and a 4.29 weighted and capped UC gpa competitive for Davis, San Diego, Irvine, and Santa Barbara? How about Berkeley and LA?

Roger: Sounds pretty good to me.

Hello, thanks for the calculator, but I don't understand why the GPA is capped out at 4.29 after 28 semesters worth of classes. This is not considered a high GPA when applying to Berkeley, yet the highest GPA you can get in 2 years (sophomore and junior) is a 4.29, according to this calculator.

Roger: I think the answer boils down to two parts. Why is the GPA capped at 8 semesters of honors points? It reduces the variance at the higher end of the distribution, which makes statistics more well behaved. Why does a 4.29 seem low? You might be looking at uncapped weighted GPAs. This calculator will calculate both uncapped and capped GPAs.

Hi Roger,

Can I calculate my gpa here using college classes? I'm not enrolled in high school i'm in community college

Roger: I guess it really depends on how your particular college decides to calculate GPAs. For example, most colleges in the United States award partial points for plus and minus grades, but this calculator does not.

Hey Roger,
Here you say that we only count grades after freshmen year. It says on multiple sources that you also exclude your grades from 1st-semester senior year. Is this true?

Roger: In practice, you’ll submit your application before the end of the first semester of your senior year. So, your application won’t contain any of your senior year grades. You do have the option of submitting a mid-year report to the UC’s, which would contain your first semester senior year grades. But this is optional and most students don’t submit it. However, it’s unclear whether the data I used to construct the models in this calculator include senior year grades or not. Before you actually enroll, the UCs will ask you for a copy of your final transcript. So naturally, they’d have all your grades available if they indeed intended to include them in their published GPA statistics.

Hi, I'm an out-of-state student. If my school can't be found on the website, does the IB course offered in my school still count as honor course.

Roger: Yes, I think so.

How does GPA will calculated for international Residental student ? As i am an indian

Roger: I have no idea. Can you explain how your transcript is structured?

I have taken all pre-ap classes and I have received all B+ on all of them so is that good.

Can you pls tell me how to calculate if year 10 was semester but then 11 changed to a one year grading system in my school. Meaning; 2 grades for each subject in yr 10, and only 1 for yr 11. How can I calculate UC GPA? Thanks

Roger: I suppose you could just count each of your year 11 grades twice. The UCs don’t provide much guidance for exceptional cases like this.

Is a 4.08 UC GPA good or bad coupled with a 3.76 unweighted?

Roger: Sounds pretty good to me.

Some kids at my school have a 5.2 weighted gpa. Is that even possible and he is only taking all pre-ap

Roger: That doesn’t seem right.

What if you have a 3.5 unweighted gpa and a 4.5 weighted gpa. Do you think that is a good gpa.

Roger: Sounds pretty good to me.

Do you know anything about the average GPA for accepted students at UCLA or Berkeley?

Roger: No idea, but you can look up freshman profiles for each of the UC schools.

Hi Roger,

First, I just wanted to thank you so much for this UC GPA calculator. I was wondering what the capped GPA means.

Roger: The capped GPA refers to the 8 semester limit on honors classes, as documented in this FAQ.

Hi Roger,

Is the calculation different for international students like me (Canadian)? And do percentages not matter?

Roger: I don’t really know how the UC GPA is calculated for international students, and I haven’t really found any good guidance from the UCs about it. I’d guess that if your transcript has letter grades, then this calculator should work the same.

Do A- and A+ alter your GPA? or are they all counted as A’s....

Roger: For the UC GPA, pluses and minuses don’t matter.

thanks for the calc! however, seems like it needs an update for factoring in the sat scores, since the new sat splits the scores across math and litt, and separate scores for reading and writing are not available?

also, does this factor in any difference in the requirements across various majors? e.g., would the criteria for some engineering branch be more stringent than say, in some other lot less sought-after branch?

Roger: Yep, the calculator was created for the 2400 point SAT scoring system, and it hasn’t been updated for a while. As for your question about the majors, I identified, for each school, the majors that had a substantially higher or lower acceptance rate when compared to the school as a whole. If you pick one of those majors (for your choice of school), then the calculator will apply a small increase or decrease to your final result. It’s not very scientific, all things considered.

You said it is impossible to achieve a 4.3 or higher capped gpa for UCs... I have a 4.31 as a junior.

Roger: Good point! I should have clarified that I meant your UC GPA upon applying to college. If you get straight A’s, then your capped GPA basically depends on how many total classes you’ve taken. Each additional class brings your GPA down a little.

Hey, this calculator, as well as all the other ones you've made, have really brought me ease when I stress about what I need to obtain to keep my average. Thank you for your service!

Roger: Glad to help!

Hey Roger,
I have a 109% in American History and I had a 106% in Geometry is that normal to have a 109% or 106%?

Roger: Great job!

Hey Roger,
I am currently a sophomore in high school I have a 3.5 GPA in the second semester any tips on how I can raise my GPA my goal is too have a 3.7 or 3.8 GPA any tips on how I can increase my GPA

Roger: That’ll be tough. You basically need to get almost straight A’s for the rest of your time in high school. Good luck!

If I took two years of orchestra, one in 10th grade and one in 11th grade, do the grades for all four semester count toward the GPA? Or just two semesters since the requirement for arts is only one year?

Roger: I think all four semesters count.

Hey Roger,
I've read that UC's tend to not look at your freshman GPA. Is this true? Should I consider my freshman courses to calculate my GPA here?

Roger: Freshman grades are supposedly excluded from your UC GPA. That’s all I know.

Hi Roger
Is it a 4.4 gpa better than a 4.33?

Roger: Sounds reasonable.

Taking is less rigorous courseload of 5 a-g classes per year would yield a 4.4 capped weighted UC gpa but isn’t this be viewed as less favorable than 4.33 consisting of 6a-g classes per year?

Roger: Yep, you’re right. My understanding is that the GPA is only used for post-hoc statistics. Admissions should be based holistically on your entire transcript.

Sorry ,
I mistyped, my question is what is the highest capped. Weighted Uc gpa? How is a 4.4 weighted capped possible?

Roger: I’m fairly certain 4.4 refers to the weighted uncapped GPA. It’s nearly impossible to get much higher than a 4.3 weighted capped GPA with a normal high school courseload.

Hi Roger,
What is the highest weighted capped Uc gpa? I took 6 a-g courses in 10th and 11th grades and max of 8semesters of AP courses, with all As my weighted Uc gpa is 4.33 but I see the 75% listed for UCB is at 4.4

Roger: Good question! You might guess that 5.0 is the highest weighted and capped GPA. But you could only achieve that by taking fewer than 8 semesters of total courses, and that doesn’t satisfy the minimum A-G course requirements for admission to UCs. Another approach would be to exploit the fact that the UC GPA ignores freshman year grades. But you can’t just take 15 courses freshman year and 1 course sophomore and junior year, because the UCs require minimum numbers of years per A-G subject. But you can actually satisfy all of these requirements by taking standardized exams instead of classes (except for the Geometry requirement and the 4th year of English). So, I suppose the answer really is 5.0, but you’d need to self-study for a bunch of SAT and AP tests and take almost no classes to get there. I don’t really think this is a useful question.

Just to be clear, UC do not use plus or minus in the GPA calculation? So a B+ is 3.0 NOT 3.3? Since when did this happen? I remember many moons ago when I applied to UC plus and minus counted or perhaps I am totally wrong?

Roger: My understanding is that pluses and minuses do not count for high school courses (see this FAQ). But once you enroll in a UC school, then a B+ in any of your college courses will be worth 3.3 points.

Thanks Roger!

Roger: You’re welcome!

Hey are English two honors and English three honors weighted courses for UCSD?

Roger: If you attended a California high school, you can look up which courses are weighted on the UCOP website.

Is this UC GPA calculator still accurate for 2018-2019 standards for admissions?

Roger: I think so.

Hey Roger,

On the UC Davis webpage, I saw that the 25-75th percentiles for GPA are 4.0-4.31. I was wondering if you knew if these numbers are the capped weighted or just normal weighted. My capped weighted is just below the 25th percentile, but my normal weighted is well above the 75th percentile. I’ve had a lot of stress over it, I’d love some help.

Roger: Those sound like uncapped weighted GPAs, but I also can’t find which webpage you saw those numbers on.