<p>I kind of slacked off freshman year, didn't do as well sophomore year as I could have, but junior year I got my act together and I plan to do even better this year as a senior.</p>
<p>At the end of sophomore year, my rank and GPA were pretty bad (top 25%). Still, I showed an improvement from freshman to sophomore. By the end of junior year, I showed twice as much improvement. By the end of junior year alone, I'd brought my rank about 40 positions higher just because I tried harder.
This brought me into the top 13% of my class. The trend should continue senior year, and I think I'll be even better (at least top 10%) by the time it's time to send applications RD.</p>
<p>My question is, will colleges take into account the consistent and strong improvement and realize that I'm extremely strong now, especially compared to the start of high school? I very much hope so... because if I'd put in this much effort from the beginning of high school, I would definitely be one of the top few students.</p>
<p>I really wish GPA wasn't an average of all 4 years, but instead just the past 2 or 3 semesters or something. Students change after all, and something stupid they did early will hurt them even when they are finally determined and doing well.</p>
<p>Selective colleges will absolutely look at holistic tendencies like upward trends in your GPA (although getting good grades throughout high school is always more preferable). Get your guidance counselor to write something about it in your recommendation and everything'll work out.</p>
<p>Whoa. I'm im the same exact position as you are. The worst is that my school does not use weighted ranks. I'm bunched up on APs and Honors but kids with all regular classes have higher rank than I do. As of now, I'm ranked 51/460 (9-12) but 18/460 (10-12). But I'm a California resident and planning to apply to UCs, which dont take in freshmen grades into consideration. I would say that you try and check out the admission process for the schools you are applying to to see which one does not use freshmen grades during admission (such as Stanford and Princeton, both dont use freshmen grades, even the ranking they ask for is from 10-12)</p>
<p>A side note... as for me, since the UCs dont ask for Recs, I'm just gonna devote one of my short personal statement on explaining why I got the grades I did in freshmen year.</p>
<p>Well, GOOD LUCK TO YOU! Because you aren't alone! =D</p>
<p>Good to know I'm not alone...
and thanks for the advice both of you. Now I don't have to worry as much... just have to keep doing what I'm doing. I think.</p>