How much does an upward GPA trend help if freshman/sophomore grades were mediocre?

Applying to College
1

Hi! Current junior here. I’m aiming for those top tier schools (JHU, WashU, Cornell, Duke). However, I didn’t do very well in my freshman and sophomore years; in 9th grade, I got 2 B’s first semester and 3 B’s second semester. In sophomore year, I got 2 B’s first semester and 1 B second semester. However, this year I’ve gotten straight A’s and am taking a TON of AP classes. How helpful is this change of GPA from overall 3.67 UW to overall 3.83 UW? Do I still have a fair shot at my reach schools if I keep up my grades?

(For the record, my EC’s and SAT scores are excellent. I’m just concerned about my GPA.)

Thanks!

2

Obviously, any repair to your cumulative GPA is good. How much is unknowable.

3

I did exactly the same thing you are trying to pull off, and got into ut engineering off a top 16 percent rank, do I think an upward trend is a huge deal.