<p>Can a steady upward trend offset a poor GPA for schools such as NYU Stern, Carnegie Mellon, and Boston College?</p>
<p>For my freshman year and half of sophomore year, I was very lazy and got pretty poor grades (88 average freshman year and 90 average sophomore year). This year, my junior year, I made some improvements, so my average should be around 92-93 by the end of the year. </p>
<p>During my freshman year, I took only 1 honors class. For my sophomore year, I took 1 AP and 2 honors courses. For my junior year, I'm taking 3 APs and 1 honors (all my core classes junior year are either honors/AP except for one). Does an upward GPA trend like mine, despite the increase of the difficulty of my courses every year, really stand out for college admissions officers? Thanks in advance.</p>