how beneficial can an upward trend be?

Applying to College
1

<p>Freshman year: 3.0
Sophmore year: 3.4
Junior year: 4.0</p>

<p>SAT: 2250
SATII: 740, 730, 780, 800
AP's: 5, 5, 5</p>

<p>Good EC's
Multiple Russian Awards
10 Years Cello
4-Year Varsity Lacrosse
Acapella
Model UN
President of School</p>

<p>How crippling will a bad freshman and sophmore year be? As a junior I am taking 4 honors/AP classes and am in the 5 top of my class. [school= ISL, class size 150]. </p>

<p>I guess my question is can a low gpa freshman/sophmore year make the difference between Amherst and BU, or is it less crippling.</p>

<p>Also, This is probably a painfully obvious question, but do grades in 'art' classes factor into GPA. i.e. an A in orchestra.</p>

2

<p>It's the difference between Amherst and BU. That's two-thirds of what they're looking at!</p>

3

<p>so even if i got a 4.0 junior and senior year, college admissions wouldn't be able to rule out the 3._'s in my freshman/sophmore years?</p>

4

<p>I've heard people say that an upward trend is better than having near perfect grades overall. It makes sense, because colleges see that you're motivated and worked hard to get from where you began to where you turned out.</p>

5

<p>What do you think about this trend?</p>

<p>3.0 F
3.2 S
3.11 J (However, if you don't count first term it would have been a 3.4...it's a long story and I brought those grades up)
3.67 so far Senior year.</p>

6

<p>Mlevine: Your trend wasn't really a trend. It fluctuated and your grades did not turn out at the top.</p>

7

<p>I think if they looked at the first term of junior year they would see that I go unlucky on a test in two classes. I got Cs in AP US and Spanish III H, but brought them up immediatly next term to B/B+s. That shows a mini-trend within a term...however do they even see that?</p>

8

<p>I'm:</p>

<p>F 3.0
SO 3.2
J 3.4
SR 3.8</p>

<p>Should def. look good for BU. You should have no prob. getting in. Amherst is another story. That school's insane. You never know.</p>

9

<p>im 3, 2.75, 2.25, 3.9 :) yea...i got myself togetha</p>

10

<p>My Trend:</p>

<p>F 2.2 GPA: No IB
S 4.0 GPA: Some Pre-IB
J 4.0 GPA: All IB: Unweighted
S:3.7 GPA: So far </p>

<p>I had a huge trend and my GC explained how i found out my parents were divorced and the reasons behind it etc...</p>

11

<p>"I've heard people say that an upward trend is better than having near perfect grades overall."</p>

<p>can anyone verify if this is true?
im 3, 3.4, 4 so far.</p>

<p>also my other question. do arts (orchestra) count towards your gpa?</p>

12

<p>"im 3, 2.75, 2.25, 3.9 yea...i got myself togetha" comment, does this look good/bad/neither?</p>

13

<p>I'm guessing an upward trend would be worse than always having perfect grades but obviously better than not improving!</p>

14

<p>I can not believe some of the myths perpetuated here. Sure, colleges prefer un upward trend to great grades throughout. And if your parents got divorced they'll ignore all grades and up to 2 arrests.</p>

15

<p>Haha, suze is right.</p>

<p>Alright look everyone, I was in the same position when I was applying to elite colleges last year. I didn't do well in my first 3 semesters (still all B- and above though), but I had straight As in honors/AP classes for the remainder of high school (5 semesters). Unfortunately, those first 3 semesters hurt my GPA and class rank.</p>

<p>An upward trend is not as significant as you think, unless you've got some major hook.</p>

<p>Don't fool yourselves into thinking otherwise, because it'll only result in disappointment when you get rejected.</p>

<p>However, in the OP's case, your rank is top 5! You've got nothing to worry about.</p>

16

<p>According to an admissions counselor I spoke with, an upward trend is a hell of a lot better than a downward trend!</p>

17

<p>Perfect>Upward>Consistent>Flunctuate>Downward</p>