How important is an improvement in grades on your transcript?

<p>Hey everyone, I have a quick question.</p>

<p>I'm a junior in High School, and I was wondering something about the college admissions process.</p>

<p>When I came in as a freshmen, my grades were mediocre, around 3.8 to 4.0 weighted. I basically got B's in all 4 honors courses and an A in a regular placement course. My sophomore year, I dropped an honors course because I switched my language (from Spanish to latin), but my grades did improve. I got a 4.2 and 4.4 weighted each semester. I also took the AP Euro Exam and pulled off a five. </p>

<p>This year, I'm back in 4 honors and 2 AP classes, and from the looks of it, I should have a 5.0 this semester. Best case scenario, my Weighted GPA averages out to a 4.35ish at the end of junior year. I recently took the ACT and got a 33 if that matters. I'm going to take it a few more times and try to manage a perfect score. In case it matters, my senior year I should be doing 5 APs and one honors course.</p>

<p>So I was wondering: because I am aiming for some higher tier schools, how much do they take improvement into account? I mean, a GPA of 4.35 weighted probably isn't that much to, for example, University of Chicago (my preferred school). Is a steady record of improvement a plus, or is my failure of a freshman year going to screw me over? </p>

<p>To sum up my question: Is it better to get, say, 4.35s all throughout high school with no improvement (thus averaging a 4.35) or to get an average GPA of 4.35 after three years of improvement?</p>

<p>Colleges don't care about your school's weighted GPA, only unweighted. This is because weighted calculations are so different for each school, and most schools only weight AP classes.</p>

<p>Question still stands, though. Just replace the 4.35 with a 3.7ish.</p>