Big Downward Trend with GPA, Class rank not so much?

<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>Well I have a pretty huge downward trend. Courseload just got very hard I guess.</p>

<p>Freshman year, I'd estimate a 3.8 Un-weighted
Sophomore year, maybe a 3.3 Un-Weighted (ouchers)
Junior Year, around a 3.1 Un-Weighted</p>

<p>Now the thing is, freshman year I was ranked very high (top 5%) and Now, Junior Year, I'm still in the top 10 percent (out of a class of 300). </p>

<p>So will colleges take that into account? It's a steep drop but my courseload got really hard, I've been very involved in a few leadership activities and my rank didn't drop by THAT much, and with a high ACT score (aiming for a 33, got pretty close on practice test) and good extra curricular activities, do I still have hope for some great colleges?</p>

<p>Great colleges? Sure. Extremely competitive schools? Maybe not so much. Downward trending GPAs are generally a concern, unless you have some explanation for it, other than courseload difficulty. Especially with high ACT/SATs, some consider this a flag for someone not working up to their potential, and the concern would be whether your grades would continue trending downward into college. Look into the “Colleges that Change Lives” or the various threads “for B students” for good matches.</p>

<p>Yeah that’s no good…idk how the colleges will feel about that. Cause it sounds that when the work got harder you couldn’t handle it. And since the college work is going to be harder I don’t think, they will think favorably about it.</p>

<p>Change in Rank/GPA won’t matter unless your schools is very strange and reports the history of it. Most just give the most recent and give the history of all your grades in your classes.</p>

<p>I don’t know if they’ll think I can’t handle it. My ACT is high and my level of writing is very high too, I just couldn’t handle so much busywork with all my other stuff. I enjoy sleeping and being healthy, is that too much to ask for? And I never gave up on HOnors because it interested me and intellectually engaged me, but I think when work is too much then it’s too much and not worth it, I like enjoying life a bit too.</p>

<p>Yes, colleges won’t look favorably at this. Many other applicants are able to get good grades with a demanding courseload. All you can do now is try to improve w/ the time you have left in high school.</p>

<p>what if you got 3.818-3.934-3.682? is this declining? take into account that my schedule got a lot harder.</p>