University of California GPA Calculation

The University of California's admissions requirements state that only grades from the summer after 9th grade through the summer after 11th grade are used to calculate your preliminary GPA. Courses taken in 9th grade can be used to meet the Subject Requirement if a grade of C or better is earned, but they will not be used to calculate the student's GPA for the purpose of admissions to UC.

Before you set up University of California GPA calculations at your school, check the GPA requirement page on the UC Admissions Office website. The site includes lists of approved high school courses ("A-G" courses) for both in-state-and out-of-state students. The site also includes a list of courses approved for "UC honors," which may vary from your school's list of designated honors courses.

Set up the University of California GPA Calculation

The following steps will allow you to display a cumulative University of California GPA on Transcripts. Please note that student Academic Profiles do not currently support the University of California GPA, so there may be a discrepancy between the GPA that displays on a student's Academic Profile and the University of California GPA that displays on that student's transcript.

Step 1: Identify Honors or Advanced Placement courses at the course level:

From the persona menu, select Academics.
Choose Scheduling and then select Requests and schedules.
Select Departments & courses.
Using the search bar, search for the Honors or AP courses.
For each course, select the pencil icon to edit. Open the Grading tab and choose the appropriate Course Type from the following choices: Regular (default), Honors, or Advanced Placement.

Check the GPA requirement page on the UC Admissions Office website. The site also includes a list of courses approved for "UC honors," which may vary from your school's list of designated honors courses.
Select Save & Close. Repeat step 5 for all Honors or AP courses.

Step 2: Set up Grade Translation to utilize the point system set by the University of California:

Choose Grades and Grading setup.
Select Grade translations.
Find the grade translation used for regular letter (non-weighted) grades and select the pencil icon to edit.
Enter point values in the GPA equivalent 2 fields accordingly:
- All 'A' grades = 4
- All 'B' grades = 3
- All 'C' grades = 2
- All 'D' grades = 1
- All 'F' grades = 0
Select Save & Close.
If no separate translation exists for Advanced Placement (AP) / Honors courses, create one for both, or one for each if weighting is different between the two.
Once created, populate the GPA Equivalent 2 fields as follows:
- All 'A' grades = 5
- All 'B' grades = 4
- All 'C' grades = 3
- All 'D' grades = 1
- All 'F' grades = 0
Select Save & Close.

Step 3: Create the University of California Grade Average to be used for GPA calculation:

Choose Grades and Grading setup.
Select Calculations.
Under Grade averages, select + Add grade average calculation.
Follow the steps to enter a grade average calculation, being sure to choose the following:
- Under Formula, select GPA equivalent 2 from first drop down list, Not Applicable from the second drop down list, and Sum of Grades from the third drop down list. In other words, the formula is:
  
  Sum of (( GPA equivalent 2 ) * Not Applicable ) / Sum of Sum of Grades
- Select Apply Univ. of California Rules.
Select the tab 3. Grade Plans

Step 4: Identify Grade Plan Grades to be used for GPA:

Once you have filled out 1. Formula and 2. School & years, you will arrive at 3. Grade plans.

Find the current academic year and select the down arrow to expand the desired marking period.
- Example: If using Final grades to determine the GPA, expand last Marking Period or Term of the academic year for the Upper School
Each Grade Plan listed has Grade Plan Grade drop-down lists separated into Multi-term courses and Single term courses. Selections from these lists are used as the grade in the GPA calculation.
Choose a Grade Plan Grade from each drop-down menu.
Select Next to move on to the next tab, 4. Types
Under Calculate, select Cumulative GPA. Under the heading Include the following grade levels in the cumulative GPA, select grades 10 and 11.
When you have finished setting up the grade average calculation, select Save & Close.

Once you have completed these steps, you can choose to display the University of California GPA on a transcript template using the Transcript Builder.