I slacked off a lot Freshman Year, and achieved a 3.5 u/w, and I didn’t take an AP classes so it’s the same unweighted too. did As an unweighted gpa, it’s OK, but if I had missed so many asignments I could’ve gotten a 3.9+ easily. I fixed things up as a Sophmore, though. I stopped being lazy, didn’t deny when I needed help, and I got a perfect 4.0, 4.2 weighted. Now, my teachers claim I can get into a pretty high tier colleges, but I’m not convinced. 3.5 by Freshman standards aren’t very good, and I didn’t take very many AP classes Freshman or Softmore year. (Only 3). From an academic standpoint, could I do it?
High GPA all years > increasing GPA > anything else. Many colleges like a student that upped their game.
Some top schools don’t look at freshman year. Really a 3.5 is a fine GPA and will get you into a fine school. You need to spend the next three years working hard and exploring what you like not obsessing about what “top tier” schools think