If I got holy smokes for UCSD and ":(" for UCLA and UCB, does that mean something is wrong and if not does it mean that I would be better off not applying to UCB/UCLA?

Roger: This calculator has upper and lower thresholds for GPA and test scores for each school. If your inputs exceed these thresholds, then the calculator gives you either “holy smokes” or a sad face.

Hi, I would like to know what I should major in if I want to study pre-med? Thank you so much.

Roger: Some kind of biology or chemistry, I suppose.

Just saying the info on this is a little old and the acceptance rates are a lot lower now.

Hey Roger, thanks for the grade calculator, it got me through high school. Also, I got a Holy Smokes for Cal and whadddya know, I'm headed there this fall. Woot!

Roger: Congrats, and you’re welcome!

Hi, very useful tool indeed.

My son is doing IB, i would like to know how is the number grade converted to the alphabet grade in that system. He has four 7's , one 6 and one 5. all courses are honors.

Roger: I was in the IB program in the United States, and my IB exam grades weren’t included in my GPA. I suppose it depends on your school?

Slightly off topic, but not totally, besides UCSD I need to find another school to apply to with strong philosophy and comp sci depts, preferably in california, as UCSD is a reach school for me. JW if you had any thoughts haha

Roger: Philosophy and computer science? Are you planning to study both of those things? I’ve never heard of that combination. (Or did you mean that you wanted a Ph.D.?)

How does High School factor in to UC chances?
When I tested my HS compared to every other HS in my district, I had a 3% lower chance than all of them? Whyy?

Hello! I am currently a junior in highschool and I am planning on taking two online AP courses over the summer leading up to my senior year. Will these two AP credits count twoards my overall UC GPA since they technically aren't in my senior year? I can't seem to find an answer to this question anywhere, please help if you can!

I absolutely adore your calculator by the way! They've gotten me and my friends through so much final test stress!

Roger: I think you’ll have the opportunity to add your summer courses to your UC application, if that’s what you’re asking. I haven’t seen any evidence that senior year grades are categorically excluded.

Hi Roger,

Is the calculator updated to the 2017/2018 data? I would also like to enter my new SAT score instead of converting it to the older one.

Thanks,
- Prachi

Roger: Nope, it isn’t.

Hi roger .
Big confusion .
I have done igcse ( 9th and 10th ) result was 9 a*
My grade 11 has 6 subjects , all of those are honors . Score is 5 A and 1 b
My questions are :
1. Do I use all semester reports or just the end of years ?
2. In IB we have TOK ( listed as honors in UC )
Is that counted too ?

Roger: You should use whatever actually appears on your official transcript. I took ToK as well, and I think it counts as an honors course (why wouldn’t it?).

I am an incoming senior(so ofc I am stressing about college apps). The question that I desperately want an answer for is whether UCs look at your 1st semester senior grades when considering you for admission. I asked one of my graduated friends and she says that you have to update your application online after first semester grades come back, but she isn't sure if decisions are made by then or not. So do your 1st semester senior grades matter when you are being considered for admission?

Roger: I vaguely remember that the mid-year report is not required for University of California schools, unless you get a C or lower in any class. You’re only required to send in a final transcript at the end of your senior year, which is after admission decisions are published. It’s been a while since I applied to college though, so things may have changed.

Hi Roger I just had one question. I recently took a class at a local community college and got an A-. Can you tell me exactly how would that be weighed using the UC GPA system? The class I took is indeed UC and CSU transferable.

Roger: I don’t think plusses and minuses count for calculating applicant GPAs, so your “A” grade should count for 4 points and as an honors course.

Hi Roger, I know you aren't qualified to respond to "chance me's" but if the calculator is not accurate, should I be disheartened by a 51% chance at UC Davis or happy about it?

Roger: 51% sounds pretty good to me.

Hey Roger,

I have an unique situation at hand. I am graduating early from high school and my gpa according to your calculator is a 4.19 and a SAT score of 1270 on the new SAT. Although, I do plan on improving that score later on. I am on the board for a lot of clubs at my school, many EC's, and I also have an internship under my belt. I was wondering, do UC schools give an extra point for honors classes, since my school doesn't, and I was also wondering if I will be able to get into UCSB, UCI, UCR, or UCSD with these scores.

Roger: I think the UC’s always use the same rules for calculating GPA, regardless of your school’s own policies. I don’t know anything about those schools, so I couldn’t tell you if you’d get in. Anyway, good luck!

THIS CALCULATOR IS EXTREMELY UNRELIABLE. IF YOU ARE A STUDENT, STOP NOW AND TAKE STEPS TO BETTER YOURSELF, NOT USE AN INACCURATE CALCULATOR BASED ON DATA RELEASED A DECADE AGO. REMEMBER, THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS, NOT IN A CALCULATOR. GOOD LUCK ON ACCEPTANCES MY CHILDREN. CROPS ARE GROWING, RAIN IS SNOWING.

Hi Roger,

I have a 28 ACT (which I am planning to improve next week), and a 4.08 UC GPA (3.69 UW)-- with extracurriculars involving many internships at reputable companies, many hours of overseas community service, being a part of student council, and leading a huge international gathering (or, summit), what are my chances with UCB, LA, and SD's business programs? (Assuming great essays, of course). I realise that you aren't a part of the admissions committee, but perhaps you could offer me some wisdom? Thanks!

Roger: A “huge international gathering”? How scandalous. I really don’t know what to tell you. Those numbers mean nothing to me anymore, but good luck!

Also, do you think it's possible to get into Berkeley EECS (or better yet, the new MET program) with a lowish GPA (3.6 uw, 3.85 capped, 4.3 uncapped) and a C, but high test scores, great extracurriculars (two research projects and publications, two software development internships, personal CS projects/hackathons (plus hosting my own), programmer on robotics team, competitive programming, creating an app startup, a little bit of leadership), and great essays? AFAIK, getting into EECS without a 3.9+ uw, 4.2+ capped, is pretty much unheard of. I did have a few personal issues my first semester of junior year, but I did much better my second semester (not a 4.0, but still very good considering my rigorous courses). I'm also taking a few math and CS courses at my local community college and earning A's, which helps my GPA a little bit, but not too much. Should I even apply to EECS with my GPA? And yes, I know you're not an adcom, but you probably know a little bit more about this than I do. Thanks!

Roger: I think your GPA is lower than that of most admits, but most EECS freshmen don’t have any prior programming experience. If you don’t want to apply for EECS, have you considered applying undeclared to the College of Letters and Science?

Hey Roger,

Just wondering, do you think you could update this calculator? Things have changed a lot over the past few years, especially this year (though maybe it was an anomaly). First of all, the SAT is still the old one (3 sections), which they got rid of like 3 years ago. Also, the calculator only uses capped GPA. From what I know, unweighted is the most important and uncapped also matters a lot. Also, race and ethnicity seemed to affect the results and from what I know, UC's are not allowed to use race in admissions criteria. Not trying to be rude, just a heads up here.

Also, do you think this calculator is really helpful for estimating chances at UCB and UCLA? I've heard that they're "holistic," which is definitely true to some extent, but I don't know how much. Do you think that if your numbers are extremely high and you're from California, you're pretty much in?

Oh, and you kind of are a local celebrity, especially around finals week. :)

Roger: I’m unable to update this calculator right now (see my reply to “Leslie” below). The original statistics I used to create the calculator offered weighted+capped GPAs, so that’s what I used. Race and ethnicity should have no direct effect on admissions, but they’re nonetheless correlated with admissions based on indirect factors (high school rankings, family’s education history, etc). This calculator isn’t good at estimating anything (see my past responses), but thanks for the feedback!

Hey Roger,

I was wondering if “Health Professions and Medical Sciences” includes the Pre-Medical program? Also, that major cluster is included twice.

Thanks

Roger: I’d assume so. Whoops, you’re right. That choice is displayed twice if you pick “UC Irvine”. But it’s purely a user interface bug and doesn’t affect the underlying result. I’ll work on getting that fixed. It might take a while, since the build pipeline for this page’s source code is rather out of date.

I was wondering is this updated?

Roger: Nope.

Hello! I currently have a 3.8 GPA unweighted and a 4.6 GPA weighted and got a 29 on my first ACT. As someone who wants to get into UCLA next year, how much of an ACT score increase do you think is best to improve my acceptance odds?

Roger: Well, the trivial answer is that increasing your ACT score to the maximum score of 36 would be best, of course.

Hello Everyone, I thought you might find this article useful. It might help explain some of the admit patterns we are seeing for very bright children. Good luck to everyone out there.

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2018/03/26/reports-circulate-even-more-difficult-year-be-admitted-leading#.WrngbzMQNuk.email

Hi Roger,

I have heard that UC Berkeley considers applicants' "full weighted GPA." However, your calculator asks for weighted and capped GPA. Is this accounted for? Should I enter my full weighted GPA for the most accurate percentage?

Roger: My impression is that admissions looks at your whole transcript, not just any particular GPA. In any case, this calculator expects the weighted and capped GPA, because the original dataset contained only the weighted and capped GPA.

Hey roger, i got Holy smokes or high 60s for davis, santa barbara, and irvine. Ive gotten flat out rejected from all 3. My essays were pretty good i think, and my ecs were pretty good, working with nasa in high school and being the founder and president of a club. :(

nice calculator, but i think its pretty outdated now. Ive pretty much given up, with all these rejections, but thanks for giving us hope!

Roger: Sorry to hear that! The data used in this calculator is a bit old, and the UCs understandably aren’t keen on publishing enough data to update these models. At some point, I’ll probably start sunsetting this calculator.

Hey there. With a ACT score of 33 and GPA of 4.24, my daughter got a Holy Smokes for UC Davis. Her personal statements were neither about torturing animals nor pyromania, she is president of a club, has been a peer tutor for 3 years, and played a varsity sport for 3 years. Yet she was wait-listed.

Tomorrow is UCSB decision day; another Holy Smokes result, but I'm not holding out much hope!

Roger: Sorry to hear that, but good luck with UCSB!

Hi Roger!
I posted back here in the past (November) about my low GPA and high test score. I was recently accepted to UCLA! Hopefully that'll add a lil bit of data.
Thank you for this calculator!
Emily

Roger: Congrats!

Is the data you use for this up to date? I know you pull numbers from the uc system, but does this calculator adjust based on the most recent data?

Roger: Nope, not at all. Check out my reply to “Leslie” below.

Hi Roger,

ik you arent an admissions counselor/expert or anything but was just wondering from your personal experience: Do you think first sem. senior year grades matter for UC's?

Roger: Not unless you get a C or lower, I think.

Was curious how this calculator factors the high school of the applicant? The reason I ask is because when I enter a high school that is ranked in the top 20 of California I get a lower chance than if I enter a school that is ranked considerably lower (i.e. - > 1000) even though all the other entries are exactly the same.

Roger: It’s been a long time since I worked on this calculator, but I vaguely remember that school rank had a nonlinear affect on admissions. I obviously can’t explain the correlation definitively, but here’s my guess: Students at really great schools tend to be disadvantaged because of grade inflation and competition. Students at really terrible schools are disadvantaged because their schools are terrible. Given the same GPA and test scores, admissions odds tend to favor “pretty good” schools, simply because it’s easier to stand out.

Hey Roger is it common for many people to apply undeclared? If so does it give people a certain advantage?

Roger: At UC Berkeley, it’s very common (probably because it’s mandatory for the College of Letters and Science).

Hey Roger, excuse me for asking this,but where did you go to college?

Roger: UC Berkeley (it’s on my home page).

What if your 1 B (out of state student - really a B+) was sophomore year in a Math class that was one year advanced (Trig)? Is the calculation different?

Hey Roger. This is helpful, but can you make an updated version with the new SAT and updated stats? It would help me and a lot of other current high schoolers. Thanks!

Roger: Glad you found it helpful! I answered this question a few times below.

You're like a local celebrity in our grade! People have gone to nickname you things like "My Boy Roger," or "The Young Roger."

Roger: Haha

Hello Roger,

Thanks for making all these cool websites and applications, you've become a living legend in our high school.

Roger: Glad you like them!

Hey Roger,
How did you create this calculator and how did you collect the stats?
Thanks, Sherman

Roger: Check out this blog post.

Hey Roger,

I have straight A's except for a B in an art class, and an A- in my English class. My UC weighted GPA is 4.7, and I got 1590 on the SAT. DO you think I'll get into Berkley.

Roger: Sure I do.

Hey, I just wanted your advice. The gist is, in my sophomore year I didn't try at all. In my junior year, I didn't try at all until a month ago. My SAT is above average for nearly every UC, sitting at a 1490 on the 1600 scale. But the fact that I didn't try at all until a month ago has me only achieving a 3.43 GPA at the end of my junior year. But there will be an upward trend for sure, seeing as how I have been getting A's or high B's on everything ever since I started trying a month ago. I also played volleyball, and am board for one cultural club and expect to be board for at least 2 next year, as well as member of a few others. Also, I started volunteering at a science museum. So with all this said, do you think UC's would overlook my poor GPA in favor of my test scores, extracurriculars, and upward trend? Thanks in advance.

Roger: I think you might have misunderstood who I am. I don’t actually know anything about college admissions. In my personal experience, I never met anyone at Berkeley whose low high school GPA was overlooked based on test scores and extracurriculars. Pretty much everyone I knew had decently strong GPA and test scores across the board. I think that large public schools don’t really have the patience for upward trends and overlooking deficiencies unless the candidate is particularly unusual. That being said, your GPA isn’t all that low (is 3.43 your unweighted GPA?), and your SAT score does seem high. Good luck!

Hi, Roger,
my name is Ryan and I'm applying for UCSB... I was wondering if you had any insight as to whether or not I'd be accepted or deferred. I currently have a 3.77 UC GPA, and a 3.90 weighted HS GPA, I have a 1250/1600 on the New SAT and a 22/24 on the essay portion. I'm a first generation white college student. I only applied to UCSB (for the UCs) and I addressed my Prompt 8 (Besides the information provided in your application, what makes you stand out among other candidates to admission faculty?) to UCSB admission readers themselves and told them how diligently I would work if accepted and how hard I've worked throughout the past 4 years. The admission calculator gave me a 48% chance, but I read that it is based on 2009 data. Any input is appreciated, thanks!

Roger: Hi. I think you might be asking the wrong person. I don’t really know anything about college admissions, and I don’t even know where Santa Barbara is. I’m a computer programmer, not a college counselor. Anyway, good luck!

Hi, with the larger class size for 2018, I was wondering if this data is still accurate. http://www.ucop.edu/institutional-research-academic-planning/_files/factsheets/2018/fall-2018-applications-table1.pdf

Roger: Not at all. Check out my reply to “Leslie” below.

Hi!
I was just wondering if you could change the format of the calculator to the new SAT it was really throwing me off haha

Roger: Check out my reply to “Leslie” below.

accepted. thank you for delivering the letter of rec

Hey Roger. I saw how you mentioned that most eecs freshman didn't take AP physics c; however, do you think that earning a b in a stem class junior year would still negatively affect me for eecs at Berkeley? I messed up this semester pretty badly and will probably earn 3 B's (AP physics c, apush, AP stats) and 3 A's (AP English, Spanish 3, AP calc bc). I know that junior year is the most important and I feel so screwed right now. However, if I pull it together and get straight A's next semester and have great test scores and ec's, do you think I'll still have a decent chance? My uw should be about 3.82 and w 4.55. Thx!

Roger: I don’t think it’s a big deal to get a B in AP Physics C, especially because a lot of freshmen EECS majors take an equivalent course during their first year (e.g. Physics 7A and 7B) and plenty of them get B’s. For what it’s worth, I never took AP Physics C in high school. My school didn’t offer the course or the exam. I self-studied for the test and tried registering to take it at another school, but I fudged the registration and ended up never taking the test. (I never took AP stats either, but that’s just because it sounded boring.) Also, consider applying to the College of Letters and Sciences instead of EECS (assuming you don’t actually want to be an electrical engineer). At Berkeley, L&S students don’t declare a major until after they start taking classes. You can enroll undeclared and then switch to L&S Computer Science during your sophomore year along with everybody else.

*Forgot to state that I am pursuing Computer Science from College of Letters and Science.

Roger: Glad to hear you’re studying computer science! Have fun.

What are your opinions about my chances of getting into UCLA or Berkeley? I currently have a 1400 SAT score, 18 on the Essay. UC GPA: 4.46. Numerous ECs and I am an out of state student. First generation going to college with Chinese background. 9 AP classes Senior year.

Roger: You sound like a great candidate, but I’m not at all qualified to give my opinion. (Maybe you’re mistaken about who I am?)

What is a total semester?

How come when I put my SAT score it doesn't work?
Math-36
Reading-36
Writing-38

Roger: If you’re referring to the input labeled “total semesters of AP, IB/HL, or CC courses”, then “total” is an adjective describing the number of semesters (not the semesters themselves). Also, this calculator uses the old 2400-point SAT scoring scale. Check out my response to “Leslie” below for more information about why this calculator is out of date.

Thank you for giving your personal insight to all these comments
Really means a lot to everyone

Roger: Glad to help!

Hi, I am a Senior and I am taking a Community College course right now. I will know my grade in the middle of December, which is after the UC deadline. Still, will that be counted in my UC GPA?

Roger: You have the option of submitting a mid-year report to the UC’s, which would contain your senior year grades for the first half of your senior year as well as the community college course you’re taking right now. But as far as I know, the report is optional and most students don’t submit it. Does that answer your question?

Hi Roger,
I'm an out of state applicant and because my honor courses aren't counted, my gpa is extremely low (3.7 uc gpa). However, I do well on standardized tests and I got a 1540 on the SAT. But if I put this into the calculator, it says my stats aren't believable and I can't get a result. Can this be modified?
Thank you,
Emily

Roger: You should only have that problem with the top UC schools. There simply weren’t enough applicants with that kind of GPA and SAT score for the models to make a confident prediction. Since there isn’t any new data available (see my reply to “Leslie” below), this is unlikely to change. Sorry!

Hey so I really wanna study physics at Berkely, I have a 4.19 UC GPA although I got 540 English and 580 math and 21 ACT ;( I’m a bad test taker when it comes to timed especially, I know the material but the time get me especially reading since I’m a slow reader maybe because Spanish was my first language but I do Alof of community service and am even in charge of my schools JROTC, are my chances really below 10%?

Roger: I think you’re asking the wrong person. I’m a computer programmer and I don’t actually know anything about college admissions. Anyway, good luck!