UC Merced offering unique program to keep local high school students around KFSN MERCED, Calif. (KFSN) -- UC Merced announced a unique program designed to keep some of the area's top academic talent in the Valley. Students in the Merced Union High School District who qualified to attend UC Merced will automatically be accepted for admission. Over half the student body in the district went back to school on Monday. Many El Capitan High School students resumed in-person classes. But they also learned about how they could take a direct path from high school to UC Merced if they could maintain at least a 3.5 GPA with no "C" grades.