<p>I am worried about my GPA trend and was wondering if you could explain to me how colleges would feel about it. Freshman year my GPA was an unweighted 3.67. Sophomore year my grades dropped and my GPA was a 3.10. Junior year my GPA increased, but not to the same level as it was freshman year. Junior year it was 3. How are these GPA's? I was taking hard classes all three years.</p>
<p>Senior year I will be taking BC calculus and BC physics, If I increase again from junior year, will my GPA trend not look bad?</p>
<p>first off, what colleges are you interested in? If you are looking at very competitive schools, then such a drop will likely be detrimental… however, you did raise it slightly junior year, so that could be your saving grace, but the fact that you had such a high GPA freshmen year shows that you can achieve better than you did sophomore and junior year so it could be hurtful depending on the specific colleges you are looking into.</p>
<p>I’m not necessarily looking at the selectivity of colleges, but what I do want is a college that has really good academics (while having a good party scene as well). I don’t know if there has to be a correlation between the selectivity and the level of academics it can offer?</p>
<p>Also, I thought I had mentioned this but I most have forgotten, but my high school is very prestigious, and all classes (unless noted as an AP) are considered an honors course. It’s not really that I tried harder freshman year or slacked off sophomore and junior year, but my course load was just really hard. I know my letters of recommendation will be awesome.</p>
<p>Also, the GPA is really the only bad part of my app. My SAT was a 2200 and I got a 780 on Math 2, 740 on chemistry, and a 5 on both AP Chemistry and English Language and Composition.</p>
<p>Does the rigor of my school and class help lesson the negativity of my GPA? And what type of school do you think I can get into?</p>
<p>The GPA trend is not good but you certainly have good rigor in your curriculum. I doubt you would be competitive for the very top colleges but there are many others that would be a good fit.</p>
<p>They’re pretty bad. You really don’t stand a chance without 3.5 or so; even then, you’d need something else incredible to get in. Look into less competitive schools.</p>
<p>How prestigious is your high school? Is it prestigious in state/local eyes, or is it renowned nationally (e.g., Exceter)?</p>
<p>Anyway, you’re statistically a reach for WashU (solid test scores, low GPA), but don’t let that stop you from applying if it’s your dream school.</p>
<p>My high school is more prestigious than being respected on a state level, but I wouldn’t say that it’s renowned nationally, probably somewhere in between. But my school and WashU have a very good relationship, WashU understands the difficulty of my school’s classes and how they are all deemed honors courses, and every year they send people to do interviews at my school, and last year they accepted a lot of people from my school.</p>
<p>@amarkov,</p>
<p>Is the fact that I have a summer job not enough to make me stand out?</p>
<p>I also will have a very interesting LoR from my internship - my boss really likes me and is going to write a great one. Will any of this help?
help?</p>
<p>Colleges are looking for people who can do well academically, so bad grades are a pretty strong negative. But if WashU respects your school as much as you say, what you’re describing might be enough to get you in.</p>
<p>Talk with your guidance counselor and see what he/she thinks about your chances and whether WashU is realistic or not. Your GC would know the history of students applying there, their general GPA and SAT scores.</p>