I have a massive upward trend. The lower grades in my freshman and sophomore years were solely due to me being lazy, which colleges won’t know unless I choose to mention. Course rigor increased as the years went on as well. AP adds 1.0 to the weighted gpa. Honors adds .5.
Freshman: 3.5uw 3.6w
Sophomore: 3.6uw 3.7w
Junior: 3.79uw 4.39w
Senior: 4.0uw 5.0w
Some will like it, for some, it won’t matter. It depends on the selectivity level of the schools you’re targeting. For reference, use your cumulative GPA – regardless of your “trend”. That’ll steer you in the right direction.
Try the SuperMatch tool on the left panel of this page. Input your cum GPA.
If you’re wondering if the tippy top schools are still in reach, likely not. Unless you have an extraordinary story, they have a surplus of 3.9 and 4.0 applicants.
I ended up getting the 4.0 unweighted and 5.0 weighted!!
It depends on your cumulative GPA and what you consider as “top colleges.” An upward trend is also good, but many students who apply have top grades. I’d say that at any top 20 colleges, anything less than a 3.8 is going into a slippery territory if you look at their CDS and how many students they take outside of the top 10%. A great midyear report will never compensate for mediocre grades throughout high school. Unless you are a D1 recruited athlete, though, you should speak to a coach for more helpful information.