Do colleges like seeing big increase in grades?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hey everyone, so I am currently a sophomore at a rigorous private school and am curious about peoples thoughts on making big strides in grades. What happened to me is freshman year semester 1 i had 3.24. A gpa thats fine but not the kind that the colleges im interested in would find adequate. I finished semester 1 of sophomore year with a 3.75 so as you can see ive been doing better and better in school as well as taking more and more advanced classes. I plan on doing better than a 3.75 gpa but I also know that my cumulative gpa will lag because of my freshman year. So what I'm wondering is how much colleges do take in the fact that someone truly did improve a lot in school. The colleges that I am interested in are Colby, Colgate, Connecticut College, St. Lawrence, Middlebury(reach I know), and others like them. It would great if people could comment on this but if not thats fine. Just want to know about how colleges see improvement in a student's grades. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>An increase in grades is always good, unless it has increased for any of the following reasons:

  1. You dropped down to less rigorous classes
  2. They are increasing an unlikely amount, like going from straight Ds to all As (with the same score on each assignment as the smart kid you sit next to…hmmmm)
  3. You have more time to dedicate to each class because you are taking significantly fewer classes to the point where you’re practically taking no classes.
  4. You have more time to dedicate to each class because you quit all of your ECs.</p>

<p>If none of those reasons applied to you, then you should be fine.</p>

3

<p>They like seeing grade increases, but that doesn’t mean they like seeing low grades.</p>

<p>However, many schools don’t care much about freshman year anyways, so those grades won’t hurt too much and the upward trend will help a <em>ton.</em></p>

<p>They’d much rather see you start off a bit slow and then improve your grades than to start off well and crash at the end.</p>

<p>Keep up the improvement!</p>

4

<p>thanks so much you guys. and good news 2chillaxin. none of those apply to me. since last year i have taken more advanced classes and bumped up my ECs</p>