My GPA has risen significantly and steadily since I was a freshman, along with me taking increasingly harder classes (a 2.8 during my first freshman semester to around 3.8, which is what it has been for my senior semester).
Do most colleges look at rising grades? Should I wait until the end of the semester to submit my 2nd term transcripts for more proof of this, or simply submit my applications and wish for the best?
Will this affect my admission chances, or will I still be considered an unqualified applicant if I am somewhat distant from the median high school applicant GPA?
Very rigorous. This semester, I am in 3 AP classes, 1 college level class (college chemistry), 1 college prep class and band. I have A’s in all of them. Next semester’s schedule is similar.
Throughout all of high school, I have generally avoided electives, choosing to replace them with extra math, science, social studies and world language credits.
It’s not that was ever incapable, but until my senior year, I tended to get a bit lazy with my grades. Last year (junior), I had one C+ (first semester) and one or two B+'s (second semester).
As long as the grades rise to the level that’s unquestionably competitive for that school. Grades rising to something “sorta in there” isn’t going to help. Basically, grades rising to a 4.0 and staying there solidly can help undo the concern over numerous Frosh sins.
Back in grad school we used to talk about what the perfect UG record would look like if you were going to game it and we decided that a totally chaotic Freshman first half followed by pulling it together some by Soph year and then academic perfection for the rest would be pretty compelling. We thought any but the most hardened admissions committees would be able to relate to that.
My sophomore year doesn’t have any grade letter because I went to a charter school that year. I doubt it will affect admissions negatively, but there’s less to offer as proof of rising grades.