CA Community College Admission Requirements

Minimum requirement is any one of the following:

• High school diploma

• 18 years of age

• Successful completion of the California High School Proficiency Examination, or General Educational Development Examination (GED) with an overall average of 55 and no score below 50.

PERKS:

• No Essays

• No GPA Minimum

• No Letter of Recs

• No pressure to have many extra-curriculars to pad resume

• No SAT/ACT Scores needed

• No fees

CSU Admission Requirements

The California State University (CSU) selects applicants from the upper one-third of California's high school graduates. To qualify for regular admission as a first-time freshman you must:

• a. Graduate from high school, AND

• b. Earn a C or better (GPA Minimum of 2.5) in specific high school courses that satisfy the "a-g" requirements, AND

• c. Qualify on the eligibility index. See the website for details.

For information about all campuses and registration: calstate.edu/apply

PERKS:

• No SAT/ACT Test Scores Needed

• No Essays

• Low application fees

• A single CSU Application Portal that applies to all campuses (should you so choose)

UC Admission Requirements

The University of California selects applicants from the top twelve percent of California's high school graduates. In order to be eligible to apply, the University of California requires students to:

• a. Graduate from high school, AND

• b. Earn a C or better (GPA Minimum of 3.0 for CA residents, 3.4 for non-CA residents) in specific high school courses that satisfy the "a-g" requirements.

  1. 1. • You must complete 11 of these 15 required courses by your junior year. For more detailed information about coursework, look below.

        • Want to check if you are "a-g" on track based on your specific high school? UC as an "A-G Course" Tool! Instructions to using this tool found here!

For information about all campuses and registration: https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/admission-requirements/freshman-requirements/

PERKS:

• No SAT/ACT Test Scores Needed

• A single UC Admissions Portal that applies to all campuses (should you so choose)

Each school has their own admissions requirements and preferences. However, like other competitive campuses, they will mostly base their admissions on the following factors:

• GPA

• Transcript

• SAT or ACT Test Scores (some privates are still test-required vs. test optional)

• Extra-curriculars

• Points of excellence or achievement (awards, notable academic projects, jobs, internships, etc.)

NEEDED COMPONENTS FOR PRIVATE SCHOOL APPLICATION:

• Test Scores (varies from campus to campus)

• Transcript

• Letters of Rec (generally two)

• Applications filled out either on the Common App portal or their own personal portal

• Essays (generally the 1 main Common App essay and a myriad of extra supplemental essays.)

To find out more about the admission requirements (what is needed for you to be eligible to apply), check out the websites of each college.

To find out more about admission trends (what makes a student competitive enough to be admitted), check out these websites of tips and helpful information.

GPA Overview

Most 4-year universities have minimum GPA requirements for applicants. Most of these are suggestions rather than hard limits, but they're good guidelines to follow if you want to have a strong chance of acceptance.

Colleges with minimum GPA requirements tend to be public schools. Since these schools receive larger pools of applicants, it's much easier for them to sort students by statistics like GPA. For example, CSUs require a 2.5 GPA minimum and UCs require a 3.0 GPA minimum. While minimum GPA determines eligibility to apply, it's really finding out the "target GPA" for each campus. In general, to get into any four-year college, your GPA should be at least a 2.0 or higher. If you're aiming for selective colleges (less than 60% acceptance rate), you should shoot for at least a 3.5.

Weighted vs. Unweighted GPA

Most high schools present GPA in an unweighted fashion. This means the all courses are weighted equally in a 4.0 scale, and the highest possible is a 4.0. However, weighted GPA comes into play by awarding Honors and AP levels a possible 5.0 scale. This allows colleges to take into account the difficulty of your coursework while unweighted GPAs don't.

So, which do colleges care more about then, your weighted or unweighted GPA? The short answer is that most colleges care somewhat more about weighted GPAs because they do a better job showing the difficulty of the classes you took. But colleges do also consider your transcript in context and examine how many AP/Honors level courses are typically offered in your school.

At FUHSD

On your FUSHD transcript, you’ll see the following GPAs. ALL GPA’s are unweighted. A=4pts, B=3pts, C=2pts, D=1pt, F=0pts.

• Cumulative GPA unweighted: Includes ALL courses taken.

• Unweighted 10-12 A-G GPA: Includes all A-G courses taken in grades 10-12.

• There are NO weighted GPAs listed on your FUHSD transcript.

• To calculate your weighted GPA, use a GPA calculator

• To determine your GPA for UCs, go here

To Determine Your Chances

• Naviance is an important tool to use to measure your chances of being admitted into a selective college. Naviance compiles school-specific information and offers a GPA range that was admitted to a specific school. In our Naviance tutorials, you can learn how to use the Naviance portal to compare your GPA with the GPA range associated with admission to your target school.

Pulled from "College GPA Requirements" & "What's the difference? Weighted vs. Unweighted GPA"