<p>I was curious, how do the top colleges, including HYP, view upward trends in grades from pretty low, average or even lower then average, to high standard or very high grades towards the later years, like Junior and early Senior? And what if it does effect class ranking, for the worse, because of the lower then expected grades in fresh-sophomore year?</p>
<p>For example, what if basically you have done not too well in Freshmen year, and substandard in Sophomore year, but then do perfectly in Junior year. How do top colleges consider this?</p>
<p>Another question also would be, do they look at each year individually? Or do they only look at the cumulative GPA for all 4 years without considering each particular year? Ofcourse, if you didn't do well in your early years, the GPA and class ranking wouldn't be too high, even if you did perfectly in your later years.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long question, but I am pretty curious. :)</p>
<p>EDIT: Also, if you want to factor in Low Income URM vs. non-URM into the question, try to, but I don't think it would make a difference either would it?</p>
<p>they get an official transcrip that your school sends and it's bsically a one-page thing that's divided into four quadrants for each year. they'll see your final grades for each class in each year. from that they'll be able to see that you have upward trend. and they regard upward trend VERY HIGHLY. i know what i'm talking about because i've heard this from an ex-harvard/MIT admissions officer.</p>
<p>I have an upward trend. I had 3 semesters of B's and then straight A's. I know they will think it is good, but is it good enough? After all, we are competing with students who have straight A's for all 8 semesters instead of 5 like me.</p>
<p>Basically, its the old argument, why should a school admit a student who had good grades half the time over a student who had good grades all the time? Maybe they see some charecter or something in it. </p>
<p>Hey, just so you know, Stanford and Princeton don't factor in Freshmen grades when they calculate your gpa so apply there.</p>
<p>They love it. If you go from a 2.0 to a 4.3, colleges look at it very highly. That doesn't mean you should get Cs in freshman year then get A+s in junior year. If you go from a 3.0 to a 4.0, that's just as respectable as a 2.0 to a 4.3 :)</p>
<p>Well, do top schools like HYPMS like it as much? How much of a disadvantage is it (over a person with a 4.0) </p>
<p>Also, our ranks are lower-would colleges take that into account?</p>
<p>And does it have to be a gradual increase or can it be sudden? (Like does it have to be 2.0 Frosh year, 3.0 Soph year, 4.0 Junior year or can it be a jump like mine between semesters?)</p>
<p>Most schools prefer it to a downward trend, for example my friend and i both applied to msu we had similar GPAs but his GPA went F-4.0 S-3.5 J-3.0 and mine went F-2.8 S-3.3 J-3.5, long story short, I got in right of the bat and he had to wait and send in mid years and stuff, but he ended up getting in anyways.</p>
<p>An upward trend is great, but most accepted to top 20 schools did well throughout high school. If you're a low income urm from a school without a lot of opportunities, top schools may well give you a break.</p>
<p>Btw, I believe the other thing that would be hit is the class ranking... with bad freshmen grades I don't think it will be easy to get into top 10 even if you get straight A+'s in Junior year. </p>
<p>--
I am sure it would help if you had good AP scores, great SAT/PSAT and SAT II's too. Plus some EC's. </p>
<p>In my case, just to use for a general example, last year I had a not so good 2.85 unweighted GPA for freshmen year, this year I will have been able to raise that to 3.5 or so, next year I'm aiming for 4.0. Plus I plan to self study AP's, SAT II's, etc. Given that I do well in the standardized tests, get some EC's (not spectacular... given that our school does not have too many opportunities) and being a low income URM, what would be my chances at top schools like HYPS generally speaking?</p>
<p>I didn't want to make this thread about me particularly, but using the above might be a good example.</p>
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they'll see your final grades for each class in each year. from that they'll be able to see that you have upward trend. and they regard upward trend VERY HIGHLY.
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They love it. If you go from a 2.0 to a 4.3, colleges look at it very highly.
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<p>Sorry to burst everyone's bubble, but they don't care that much. If everything else is the same, an upward trend is preferable to a downward trend. But the problem is at top colleges, they have so many people who have had strong grades all four years that if you have a bad freshman or sophomore year it really hurts.</p>