I wonder what percentage of current UC Berkeley applicants have over a 4.0 GPA?

I wonder what percentage of BearInsider posters had over a 4.0 GPA?

Just curious.

okaydo;842108159 said:

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I wonder what percentage of BearInsider posters had over a 4.0 GPA?

Just curious.

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The old high school GPA biggest c0ck contest? That's ancient history for lots of people. Let's at least do salary.


Just kidding. Or am I?

Cal79;842107911 said:

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It seems like you do your best and then it's all voodoo magic from there. My son just got rejected even though he's #2 in his class (out of 250), has an honors GPA of 4.88, got 2210 on his SAT, got 5's on all his AP exams, and 34 on the ACT...

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Wow, that's pretty nuts. Did he apply into COE? How were his extracurriculars, leadership exp, etc? Just curious because that seems really odd that he didn't even get spring admission...

I've always said that to get into Cal you either need a really high GPA, or a really high SAT. If you have both, you'll probably get into a bunch of Ivys, Furd, MIT, etc. Did he get into any of the other schools that are more selective than Cal?

I just graduated, never took the SAT or ACT. Went to community college for two years then transfered. Had a plan, followed it, and it worked out quite well!

okaydo;842108159 said:

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I wonder what percentage of current UC Berkeley applicants have over a 4.0 GPA?

I wonder what percentage of BearInsider posters had over a 4.0 GPA?

Just curious.

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Spinal Tap question

CousinVinnieB;842108290 said:

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I just graduated, never took the SAT or ACT. Went to community college for two years then transfered. Had a plan, followed it, and it worked out quite well!

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That's good to know. Thanks.

Papitobear;842108158 said:

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I'm sure he has some nice options with those stats.

Where will he attend?...

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He's going to study Mechanical Engineering and has narrowed his choices to University of San Diego and Cal Poly SLO. We're going to visit both in the next couple weeks and then he'll make his decision.

pingpong2;842108277 said:

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Wow, that's pretty nuts. Did he apply into COE? How were his extracurriculars, leadership exp, etc? Just curious because that seems really odd that he didn't even get spring admission...

I've always said that to get into Cal you either need a really high GPA, or a really high SAT. If you have both, you'll probably get into a bunch of Ivys, Furd, MIT, etc. Did he get into any of the other schools that are more selective than Cal?

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Yes, he did apply into COE. His extracurriculars are OK. Didn't get into ucla or Furd, either. Pretty crazy how competitive things have become.

Looks like our multiple generations of Cal legacy just got stomped into the dirt. Oh well, it's not like anyone from Cal's ever going to be calling and asking us for money...

okaydo;842108159 said:

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I wonder what percentage of current UC Berkeley applicants have over a 4.0 GPA?

I wonder what percentage of BearInsider posters had over a 4.0 GPA?

Just curious.

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The AVERAGE, weighted GPA for 2012 was 4.36!

See my post on "Plan C": LINK

Cal79;842111646 said:

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Yes, he did apply into COE. His extracurriculars are OK. Didn't get into ucla or Furd, either. Pretty crazy how competitive things have become.

Looks like our multiple generations of Cal legacy just got stomped into the dirt. Oh well, it's not like anyone from Cal's ever going to be calling and asking us for money...

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FWIW, Cal doesn't give you any preferential treatment for admissions for being legacy. Probably why our endowment numbers tend to suck so much.

brcal69;842111758 said:

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The AVERAGE, weighted GPA for 2012 was 4.36!

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With 6 classes a year, assuming you take 4 honor/AP classes each your soph and jr year (reasonably expected for a Cal admit), that's 56 total grade points that are possible (4*4 + 8*5). For a 4.36 GPA, that's about 52 grade points, which means you can still get 4 B's in those 2 years, or a C and 2 B's. Honestly, that feels very generous for a school of our caliber.

pingpong2;842112106 said:

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With 6 classes a year, assuming you take 4 honor/AP classes each your soph and jr year (reasonably expected for a Cal admit), that's 56 total grade points that are possible (4*4 + 8*5). For a 4.36 GPA, that's about 52 grade points, which means you can still get 4 B's in those 2 years, or a C and 2 B's. Honestly, that feels very generous for a school of our caliber.

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That shows what kind of problems you run into using GPA too heavily in admissions. How many schools have a full slate of honors classes for soph's anyway ? Lots of schools aren't really that flexible in schedules - it's all pretty linear. Should some random honors course really count at a 5.0 even if it's really just a rebranded non-honors class with the 'good' kids? People talk about gaming the SAT, but gaming GPA's is far far easier it seems.

ColoradoBear1;842112131 said:

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That shows what kind of problems you run into using GPA too heavily in admissions. How many schools have a full slate of honors classes for soph's anyway ? Lots of schools aren't really that flexible in schedules - it's all pretty linear. Should some random honors course really count at a 5.0 even if it's really just a rebranded non-honors class with the 'good' kids? People talk about gaming the SAT, but gaming GPA's is far far easier it seems.

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I went to a pretty mediocre (at best) high school, and they had a limited selection of honors courses, so I just petitioned the school to let me take some of the junior and senior AP courses instead. It did mean I wasn't able to take a certain elective class, but so be it. That's the way it is at Cal too; if you want to graduate on time you probably will have to be creative in how you build your schedule.

While using GPA isn't a great way to gauge students since not all 4.0's are equal (i.e. it's probably easier to get a 4.0 at ASU than Cal), what else is there to use? Personally I'd be OK with a comprehensive set of in depth standardized tests, but then you'd hear complaints from those who can't "train" or practice for said tests.

[LIST=1]

pingpong2;842112106 said:

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With 6 classes a year, assuming you take 4 honor/AP classes each your soph and jr year (reasonably expected for a Cal admit), that's 56 total grade points that are possible (4*4 + 8*5). For a 4.36 GPA, that's about 52 grade points, which means you can still get 4 B's in those 2 years, or a C and 2 B's. Honestly, that feels very generous for a school of our caliber.

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I think it's pretty unlikely that anybody is going to be taking 4 APs starting their sophomore year, maybe 1 or 2 and then stack on 4 or 5 during the junior and senior years respectively. 4 APs each year starting sophomore year is 12 total, which is pretty steep considering that most people will top out at double-digit AP classes.

Strykur;842112138 said:

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[LIST=1]


I think it's pretty unlikely that anybody is going to be taking 4 APs starting their sophomore year, maybe 1 or 2 and then stack on 4 or 5 during the junior and senior years respectively.

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Honors classes count as a 5.0 too. Typically if you're an "honors student" you'll take all the honors core subjects anyways, so it effectively becomes 8 honors/AP classes over those 2 years.