Hi I started my 1st semester of 9th grade really bad (3.06) and increased it to 3.38 by 2nd semester. Now I am wondering if it would be better to have high cumulative GPA or just keep showing the progress by increasing GPA consistently like exponential graph. Because I’ve once heard that if I get 4.33 GPA or something like that for all the high school year, colleges will assume that my school’s curriculum was too easy…
Any answers will be greatly appreciated.
Consistent high achievement > improvement > deterioration > consistent low achievement
in my opinion. So the best you can do now is that upward trend, which will look like you got your stuff together and did well. Some colleges don’t even look at freshman year.
Since most college admissions officers read applications by region and are experts on the high schools that they read for, the representative for your area will probably be familiar with your high school and have a good understanding of how challenging the classes are. Colleges will definitely not assume that the classes were too easy just because you have a consistently high GPA, especially if you are actually taking challenging classes (AP, IB, Honors, whatever your school offers). An upward trend can look good, but a consistently high GPA looks just as good. Don’t try less hard now just because you want to show improvement; get the best grades you can, and your effort will be obvious.