How Do Colleges Look at Upward Grade Trends?

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm still waiting to hear back from some schools, and my top choices are Cornell and Tufts (econ/math major). I don't know many people who were in the same boat that I'm currently in when they applied, but I figured some CC people could give me an idea of how college admissions offices look at upward trends in GPA and course rigor.</p>

<p>Overall GPA: 3.7 UW
Freshman Yr: 3.3 UW in CP classes
Sophomore YR: 3.8 UW in CP classes
Junior Yr: 3.8-3.9 UW in mostly CP, some Honors/AP classes
Senior Yr: 4.0 UW in 4 APs (Econ, Euro History, Physics B, AP Lit+Comp), switched into AP Calc AB from pre-calc for 2nd semester, ranked 1/263 for 1st semester alone
SAT I: 2330 (780 M, 750 CR, 800 W)
SAT II: USH 760, Math1 780</p>

<p>I've gone to the same public school for all 4 years, but for grades 9-11 I also attended a performing arts magnet school, spending half of the day at each (I was much more focused on music than academics for most of that time). This is the first year that I am attending an academic-only school exclusively, which has given me time to take more AP classes and excel in them. My extracurriculars are almost exclusively music-related.</p>

<p>It's hard to be objective when talking about essays and teacher/counselor recs, but my recs strongly reflected my upward trend (one was from math teacher who had me freshman yr when I was a more or less average student, then again senior year in honors pre-calc until she recommended that I switch into AP calc, she wrote in the letter that she had never known of a student in our school doing so before me)</p>

<p>Where does this put me when applying for competitive schools like Tufts or Cornell? My interviews for both schools went overwhelmingly well, but I'm still a little bit apprehensive about hearing my results. Will my past grades put me in poor standing, or are admissions officers ultimately looking at the end product (i.e. senior yr courses/grades)? Will I still be a competitive applicant compared to others with higher cumulative GPAs? So far I've been accepted to UConn's Honors Program (similar average SAT scores to Tufts and Cornell) w/ an academic scholarship. Any input would be appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Some schools will specifically give information on how they look at the grades. Stanford, for example, does not even look at the Freshman grades at all. But what most selective schools do, is go through the transcript and standardize it so that they can quickly compare a 4.2 student on one scale withe a 87 average student on another vs some really unusual grading scales. They don’t just look at GPA at some schools but at what comprises it and some trends. However, when you are talking about highly selective schools, having an upward trend only puts you ahead of those with the same grades and with a downward trend It’s not as though you get a lot of brownie points for the upward trend. What consideration you may get is really a tip factor, not a huge deal. A downward trend is a flag that outright eliminates some students at some schools.</p>

<p>All of this is a fuzzy area and schools like to keep it that way using that leeway so that they can make holistic decision without having to follow rules for things like this.</p>

<p>It’s great if your counselor in the refs will bring this up and give you some accolades about it.</p>