Huge GPA improvement in my Junior year. How do colleges value that?

Applying to College
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<p>How much do admission officers value GPA improvements? On my freshman, I had a slow start and got a GPA of 3.0 in the first semester and 3.5 in the second, both of which are out of 4.3, and only the 3.5 is shown on the freshman transcript.</p>

<p>At the beginning of my sophomore year, I moved to a different country and was at a brand new environment. Adjusting to the new environment took a while and my GPA was around 3.0. Halfway through they year before I could have settled down, our family made another move to a whole new country. The move was disastrous. I hated the new school and suffered greatly socially and academically, and ended up with a GPA of 2.6. None of my classes were honors.</p>

<p>Things got much better in my Junior year as I spent a lot of time studying. I took 3 APs=AP Bio, AP Chem, AP USH, and self-studied AP Psych and AP Comp.Gov. In addition to that I took honors Physics which was a weighted class. I finished the year with a 3.98/4.00 UW GPA. Not sure what I've gotten on the AP exams yet but hopefully not too bad. </p>

<p>That was my progression over the past three years. My average overall GPA is pretty low, around 3.4-3.5, which colleges will definitely notice when they look at my application. Is my improvement in my junior year, when things were finally settled down, going to benefit me much? I'm told by so many college counselors that colleges like seeing improvements. However, mine is rather inconsistent, even though I suppose I have a legitimate excuse. How should I go about my college application process? Do I still have a shot at some the most selective colleges? Thank you so much for your replies.</p>

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<p>Almost certainly not; very few candidates get accepted who are not in the top 10% of their graduating class. Yes, adcoms would prefer to see the highest grades in the most recent semesters where the coursework is harder, but the point about “seeing improvements” is silly when you think about it: Should the student who blew off the first two years get preference over the straight-A student because that student showed the most improvement? By that logic, the student who got straight Ds freshmen year would be the most desirable of all!</p>

<p>There are 3000 colleges in the US. You don’t need to attend one of the top 25 to get a fine education. And those top schools are still there for graduate school, if you do well in your undergrad studies.</p>

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<p>@LoremIpsum Thanks for your reply. It makes sense where you’re coming from, but honestly why do colleges tell you that they wanna see improvements when they simply just accept those who’ve always been top 10? Cause you hear that literally everywhere you go, spoken by every “college expert” in the world. There’s just so much bullcrap out there.</p>