<p>Hello CC,
I am currently a junior at a very rigorous prep school in Washington, DC. I'm just getting into the college process, so I was seeking some knowledge from the CC community regarding grades. My GPA through the first two years of high school is around a 3.2-3.3. This may not seem high, but my understanding is that it is a very solid score given the difficulty level of my school. I really didn't become motivated about grades until junior year when I started to think more and more about college. My grades from freshman and sophomore year were not nearly as strong as they could have been. So far this year, I have boosted them greatly. I would guess that my GPA from my first two years of high school is around a 3.1, while my GPA from this year thus far is around a 3.4-3.5. Will college admissions offices be impressed by the fact that my grades went up during junior year, or will they look down at the fact that they were not all that strong freshman and sophomore years? Like I said, I am somewhat of a newcomer to the whole college admissions process, and I do not get a college advisor for a few more weeks; internet research is really my only basis of knowledge so far.
In addition to the question about freshman/sophomore grades, I would love it if you guys could give me some feedback on whether or not I could get into a few of the schools that I have been thinking about: Colby, Tufts, Boston College, and Colgate.
My junior year grades are:
AP Biology--B+
AP Spanish--B
Regular Precalculus--A
I didn't list my 2 humanities courses because they are both electives that are unique to my school, but I currently have an A- and a B+ . I have taken the PSAT and scored a 1990--96th percentile for the DC area--but I expect that my score will go up after I start taking SAT prep courses. Math is my weakest subject, which is not reflected in my grades because I am in a regular, as opposed to advanced, math class. </p>
<p>Thank you.</p>