Whenever I apply to college, do colleges assess each high school year’s GPA, or is it a single GPA that is derived from the cumulative average of the averages of the GPA for each high school year’s two semesters?
Varies by college.
It varies by school. Some schools like Princeton don’t take freshman year into account, while others just look at your transcript.
It varies. Some colleges recalculate GPA so as to be comparing apples-to-apples among high schools with different policies and systems.
You have to do well all through high school to get a 3.8+ UW, so one number can say a lot by itself. They’ll be looking at your class selections anyway (so they will also see each separate year of your transcript by itself too), but if you have a lower GPA they will look for an upward trend, which is the next best thing to a consistently strong record.
Make sense?
Every school has their own way of doing it, but it’s rarely, if ever, just one number devoid of any context. Most schools will look at trends over your HS career, with upwards trends being looked at positively.
And, of course, it’s all looked at relative to course rigor and school grading scale/inflation, reflected by class rank if available.
All of these answers are so helpful. thank you so much!