How do colleges view improvement w/ a low GPA

Applying to College
1

My freshman year was not great, I was immature, lazy, and honestly just didn’t care about my grades. Due to this I ended up ending the year with a very low GPA and because of that my GPA can only be improved so much because of the deep hole I dug for myself.

Last year I guess you can say I ‘matured’ and I started doing my work and recieved much better grades, same goes for this year.

Currently senior year is getting closer and I’m so worried, I’m worried that my freshman year grades will prevent me from getting into a college that I would like, my GPA has improved significantly but it is low because of my freshman year.

Below are my grade trends for Freshman to Junior year: the GPA’s listed are what my GPA’s changed to after that year, not the GPA for just the one school year

Freshman Year - 2.4 unweighted 2.6 weighted
4 B’s , 2 C’s , 2 D’s

Sophomore Year - 2.75 unweighted 3.125 weighted
4 A’s , 2 B’s , 2 C’s

Junior Year (Halfway) - 2.85 unweighted 3.4 weighted
2 A’s , 1 B , 1 C

Current second half grades : 2 A’s , 2 B’s

Throughout the years I have also improved my class rigors, I have taken two AP Classes so far and have recieved A’s in them and I am currently taking two more, I also took as much honors classes as I can.

So how do you guys think colleges would view this…? I am I overthinking it?

I know that an upward trend is good, but my GPA is just so low.

2

The upward trend is good, but your GPA is still pretty low. I don’t want to repeat what you said more than that. However - you’re on the right track for sure. Keep it up, and good luck!

3

Upward trend is a good trend to have. Some schools disregard (don’t care about) freshman year grades. It may be worth looking into those schools in particular. Another alternative if you don’t get into a college you would like to attend is CC (with good grades) and then transferring. Schools you transfer into will be much more interested in how you did in college than anything from high school.

4

They like upward trends. You can always write your essay about how you changed and made an effort to be a better student.