<p>Long story short, First year and a half was terrible(2.5, yikes i know), since 2nd semester of sophomore I have been getting my act together and have not gotten below a 3.42 in a quarter report during that time-span. Junior year so far i am doing exceptional, I am looking to get 6 As and 1 B for this semester pending my exam results. Anyway i need to know how much junior year helps. I know its an important year but just how important?? PLEASE I NEED SOME ENCOURAGEMENT</p>
<p>P.S: I'm not looking to get into ivy league schools as those were a far reach about the nanosecond i stepped into high school. I'm looking at top 50 schools like Pitt, Ohio State, Maryland, Syracuse, temple etc. </p>
<p>Also i'm Nigerian if that makes a difference in college admissions.</p>
<p>First off, junior year is considered the most important year in all of high school to most colleges. Also, colleges love to see upward trends, which is also good for you. If by the time you apply your cumulative gpa is reasonable, then colleges will not be too concerned that you started out poorly but showed good improvement. Keep improving, have some good ECs/recs/test scores and you could make top 50 schools.</p>
<p>Also, Nigerian is a minority and being a minority helps (but in no way guarantees you an in)</p>
<p>Let’s say you maintain the 6 As and 1 B for the remainder of your time in HS. That would mean 3 semesters of 3.857 GPA. But you already have 3 semesters of 2.5 and one semester of 3.42. All combined, your 7 semesters (by time you apply to colleges) will give you a cumulative GPA of 3.213</p>
<p>See how that compares with the schools’ “common data sets”. You can google this information to see what the stats of accepted students look like. Are you a US citizen or permanent resident?</p>
<p>It is common knowledge that junior year is by far the most important year, which should be a comfort to you. Junior year you are an upperclassman, most likely taking some of your most challenging courses, and it is the last full year on your transcripts. Also, as Laeven said, colleges like to see an upward trend. If you really work your butt off and maintain your grades (and ace important tests like the SAT), I don’t think you’ll be at too much of a disadvantage. Good luck. :)</p>
<p>A bit of a different situation here - great freshman and sophomore grades but IB started this Junior year. Fall semester was a gpa killer, a lot to do with marching band commitment. My son is hoping to pull his grades up before end of year but the way they grade in IB is odd - all 3 Internal Assessments during 1st semester in Biology - I don’t really have a handle on how this works. He’s considering not marching his senior year but our last 2 drum majors were in IB and he feels like he should be able to handle it. Will college admissions see the conflict of IB starting Junior year AND marching band? Or is there anyplace to explain the sliding in grades?</p>
<p>3of3, you can try to explain it but you’ve already stated the last two drum majors were able to handle it. It’s not just time saturation, it’s also ability/tenacity.</p>