Your academic record is the core of your application. It’s important to report all your UC-approved college preparatory coursework — whether taken at a high school or college — completely and accurately. Include courses in which you have enrolled, regardless of grades, transferability, withdrawal or if they were repeated.
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The UC application encourages students to include activities which show “commitment, responsibility, leadership, and most of all, genuine interest.”
The intent of the college-preparatory elective requirement is to encourage prospective UC students to fill out their high school programs with courses taken in grades 9-12 that: Strengthen general study skills (e.g., analytical reading, expository writing, and oral communications).
The UC application essays invite students to authentically express themselves and showcase their writing abilities in four “personal insight” prompts. The Activities & Awards section, the other key component of the application, asks students to provide a comprehensive, detailed list of the experiences they’ve had outside the classroom.
That’s why your child should complete the UC Activities & Awards section first, since they can then pick and choose which activities to include in the Common App Activities section. The UC Activities & Awards section allows for 20 entries across 6 categories. There are no limits on how many activities students may enter per category.
The intent of the college-preparatory elective requirement is to encourage prospective UC students to fill out their high school programs with courses taken in grades 9-12 that: Strengthen general study skills (e.g., analytical reading, expository writing, and oral communications).
How to use the Additional Comments boxesExplain a course choice.Highlight or explain grade trends (Example: C's to A's, or vice versa, over a period of time)Share anything about your academic record not yet covered in the application.
Students can use an A-F class they have already taken which exceeds the minimum requirement for that particular area. For example, a 4th year of math can be counted as a college prep elective if no other class has fulfilled this requirement.
There are six categories:Award or honor.Educational preparation programs.Extracurricular activities.Other coursework (classes outside UC's "a-g" core subject areas)Volunteering/community service.Work experience.
If you have nothing extra to add to the UC Application, it's perfectly fine to leave those sections blank. You should not use “Additional comments” as overflow for the Personal Insight Questions or a place to add a resume or an extra essay.
A gap is any period of time after the completion of secondary school, when a student was not enrolled in school. Use the gaps in Education section to explain what you were doing and include the beginning and end dates (month/year) for each explanation.
Many high schools offer Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes that prepare students for the rigors of college coursework. Additionally, community colleges and third-party groups often present classes to students preparing for college.
General UC honors course criteriaHonors-level courses are specialized, advanced courses designed for 10th-, 11th- or 12th-graders who have already completed foundation work in the subject area. ... Courses must have established prerequisites, as appropriate to the discipline.More items...
Not HonorsDesignate the Honors Type using: ∙ AP, IB, HL (Honors Level) or NH (Not Honors).
And, yes, your application will be read start to finish. A lot of people ask: did you really read every single essay? Yes, each and every word! One of the biggest UC application tips, is to use the application to explain things like a drop in grades.
Strong applications tend to have between 8 and 10 extracurricular activities. This sounds like a lot, but many activities are seasonal, so it's possible to fit, for example, three to four sports into one year. That being said, the most important thing to keep in mind is quality over quantity.
Why is the UC Activities & Awards section important? Selective colleges and universities, including the UC schools, want to admit students who have specialized in extracurricular pursuits and distinguished themselves among their peers.
The University of Cincinnati requires that high school students applying for their first year of college at the Uptown (Main) campus have completed the following Ohio college-preparatory curriculum or their state's college preparatory curriculum: Minimum requirements: 4 units of English. 4 units of math*.
Consequently, there is not a “minimum” GPA or ACT/SAT test score, just as there is not a guaranteed admission based on a student’s profile.
In normal times, in-state applicants to UC and CSU schools would generally have to show a C or better in the 15 college prep (A-G) courses required for admission. And in reality, most students have to do a lot better than that to get admitted to top schools, like UCLA, where middle-of-the-road acceptees had an average weighted GPA of 4.18 - 4.32.
More than three-quarters of all U.S. universities and colleges aren't requiring SAT or ACT scores to be considered for admission this year, according to the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. That's a 70% increase compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 admission cycle, according to the group's data.
Some schools, including the entire University of California and California State University systems, won't look at test scores at all, known as "test-blind," when considering admission or awarding scholarships.
Admissions officers and college counselors want students to believe a school when it says it's optional to submit test scores.
It's true that other things have always counted. UC schools use a matrix of 13 different factors to evaluate applicants, many of them academic, but also including special talents and overcoming adversity.
Not surprisingly, a LOT of students wrote about the pandemic in their college essays last year, admissions officers and advisors said. Applicants this year can certainly do the same, they said, but should probably focus on how the pandemic changed them or how they overcame specific obstacles.
For students whose dreams of going to a UC, CSU or other 4-year college were derailed by the pandemic, starting at community college and then transferring is a great option, said UC Irvine's Leaman.
The UC online application functions with the following browser versions: Microsoft Edge, Firefox v26 or newer, Internet Explorer 11, Chrome 31 or newer, and Safari 10 or newer.
Campuses use multiple factors when selecting students. The way in which campuses select students varies, and it is to the student’s advantage to include as much information as possible on the application. Admission representatives want to know about the experiences, accomplishments, and challenges of every applicant. Students should feel free to discuss their roles and responsibilities at work or in community service, share their stories in their PIQ responses, and talk about their educational journey. This is because every student is considered in the context of their own environment which includes, but is not limited to, school, family and geographic region. Students are also considered within the context of the applicant pool for each campus. Each campus will complete their own individual review of the application independently of one another, which means that they’re going to review the information in the application and select students without asking what the other campuses have decided. San Diego will not call Irvine and ask if they have admitted a certain student. Each campus selects students independently. 11
The additional academic comments text box is an opportunity for students to share any information about their academic history they want campuses to know. Campuses will use this information to better understand the student’s academic context. This space could be used to discuss any significant impacts on your educational experience or context. If your school changed its grading policy due to COVID-19, please include information on the change in this section.
A check mark appears beside the section to indicate that section is complete. 46
Students can enter up to 2 parents or guardians. 22
3. Maintain status quofor the area D requirement: 2 years required, 3 recommended This announcement is public, as the letter has also been posted to the UC Academic Senate website, so please feel free to share with others as needed: https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/reports/kkb-jn-assembly- area-d-february-2020.pdf
Students can select the College view to see majors grouped within colleges. 25
You need to first select the Subject Area/Course Category of the course to be entered (e.g. English, Math, etc.). Make sure your classes align with the A-G course system that is required to gain admission into each of the UC schools. The UCs will allow pass/credit grades for A-G courses during COVID-19 to accommodate that might have been implemented by your school.
The University of California application system is designed to help each of the different schools within the UC umbrella understand what makes you tick. By carefully including information that adds valuable color to your application, you can convince admissions officers what makes you a strong fit for your dream California college. Best of luck!
Along with mentioning which school you attend, you have to mention how long you attended the institution, how the grading system works, as well as whether the school runs on a semester, quarter, or trimester schedule.
If you wish to apply to UC San Diego, you have to rank the six undergraduate colleges within UCSD (Revelle College, John Muir College, Thurgood Marshall College, Earl Warren College, Eleanor Roosevelt College, or Sixth College) in order of your preference. Don’t worry, this is just to make sure that admissions officers know what your second and third choice colleges are in case there are no spots left in your first choice, but you might fit into another school. The order of ranking of colleges does not affect the chances for admission into UC San Diego.
Instead, it determines your eligibility for an application fee waiver. This could be helpful, since the UC colleges charge an application fee of $70 per school.
Campuses & Majors - This is the section where you let the system know exactly which of the UC schools you’re interested in applying to and how many, so that all of your components reach the correct institutions.
The UCs will go test blind starting 2023. ACT with Writing and/or SAT with Writing/Essay scores must be completed by December of senior year. You must report the completed test (s) with the dates/scores or planned test date on the admission application.
1 year required. One year of college-preparatory coursework required, chosen from: courses approved specifically in the elective (G) subject area, or courses approved in the A-F subject areas beyond those used to satisfy the requirements of the A-F subjects.
The intent of the college-preparatory elective requirement is to encourage prospective UC students to fill out their high school programs with courses taken in grades 9-12 that:
Courses specifically approved in the G subject area include those such as political science, economics, geography, humanities, psychology, sociology, anthropology, journalism, speech or debate, computer science, computer programming and others or be interdisciplinary in nature, drawing knowledge from two or more fields.
Definition: Any programs or activities that have enriched your child’s academic experiences or helped them prepare for college. Examples include programs such as Upward Bound and Gear Up. The UC application includes a drop-down menu of common programs.
Since the UC Activities & Awards section is periodically updated, this guide covers the most current version. As of March 2021, students may include up to 20 activities and write up to 350 characters of description for each entry.
Simply put, the UC Activities & Awards section is longer. That’s why your child should complete the UC Activities & Awards section first, since they can then pick and choose which activities to include in the Common App Activities section.
Four years of college-preparatory English that include frequent writing, from brainstorming to final paper, as well as reading of classic and modern literature. No more than one year of ESL-type courses can be used to meet this requirement.
UC-approved high school courses. Two years of history, including: one year of world or European history, cultures and geography (may be a single yearlong course or two one-semester courses), and. one year of U.S. history or one-half year of U.S. history and one-half year of civics or American government.
You also may meet them by completing college courses or earning certain scores on various acceptable exams.
Subject requirement (A-G) Subject requirement (A-G) To meet minimum admission requirements, you must complete 15 yearlong high school courses with a letter grade of C or better — at least 11 of them prior to your last year of high school.
College courses. Grade of C or better in any transferable course(s) (excluding conversation) held by the college to be equivalent to two years of high school language. Many colleges list the prerequisites for their second course in language as "Language 1 at this college or two years of high school language.".
College courses. For each year required through the 11th grade, a grade of C or better in a course of 3 or more semester (4 or more quarter) units in English composition, literature (American or English) or foreign literature in translation.
One year (two semesters) chosen from courses specific to the elective (G) subject area or courses beyond those used to satisfy the requirements of the A-F subjects.