While many in-state students aspire to admission to the University of California (UC) campuses, most are unaware of the selectivity of the nine campuses.
An analysis of 2024 admissions data from the UC Info Center reveals the admitted ranges of the UC GPA for each campus. These GPAs are an alternate calculation of the high school GPA, limited to the inclusion of 8 additional honors points only.
While academic performance is one of the multiple factors considered by admissions officers, aiming for a higher GPA is bound to increase your chances of admission to your desired campus. It is also important to keep in mind, that admissions considers the whole transcript and will see if you have taken more than 8 advanced courses (AP, IB, honors for in-state students, etc.). It is unclear in the UC data how they include this overview in their calculation, but be rest assured they do.
- Consider what coursework will maximize your UC GPA.
- In-state students can refer to this UC webpage to figure out which courses from their high school are given honors credit.
- The UCs use grades from the summer following a student’s freshman year through the summer following a student’s junior year.
- Summer classes after 9th grade count as 10th grade
- Summer classes after 10th grade count as 10th grade
- Summer classes after 11th grade count as 11th grade.
- For out-of-state students, honors points are only awarded for AP and IB courses. High school honors courses will not be considered for out-of-state students.
Other Things to Consider
- Eight advanced courses between sophomore and junior year is a heavy courseload, especially for sophomores who may have only just adjusted to the increased difficulty of high school.
- To lighten the load, students can take UC Transferable courses at California Community Colleges during the summers. To view which community college courses are UC transferable, students can use the browsing tool at assist.org.
