Important Question Regarding GPA

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Ok here is my problem, my parents did not go through the admission proccess in the US so they have no idea about college at all, and so I was given the false imperssion by some very dumb people that 9th grade and 10th grade did not matter at all and that colleges only look at 11th and 12th grade.</p>

<p>So I totally screwed up 9th grade and got like an 88% GPA which is probably only like 3.5 or something like that. I had no idea what AP classes or even honors classes were this year so I didnt take any of those either.</p>

<p>In 10th grade I also had no idea about college or anything and so I only scored 94%.
and didnt take any AP's or honors either.</p>

<p>Over the summer between 10th and 11th grade, I met up with some people who took school seriously and knew everything there was to know about college and they explained most of the stuff to me, inspiried I signed up for AP's and really focused on school.</p>

<p>In 11th grade I got a GPA of 98% which is close to 4.0 I guess, and I also took 3 AP Classes and started taking school seriously.</p>

<p>In 12th grade I plan to get a senior year gpa of over 100% and take close to 6 AP classes, but most colleges wont see this since you apply before senior year ends.</p>

<p>Due to my stupidness in 9th grade and half of 10th grade my rank went down horribly to like 110/180, but now at the end of junior year its up to like 60/180.</p>

<p>My Question: Do colleges only see a collective GPA of all years of high school (which I only have like 94%). Or do they see all years of high school induvidually, and will they notice that I started out weak and gradually got more mature and started taking school more seriously.</p>

<p>Also, if I explain this to them on my essay, will they understand that Ive matured thourgh the years and started taking school seriously, or will they just blow me off once looking at my rank and collective GPA?</p>

<p>Any help is well appreciated, thankyou :)</p>

2

<p>An upward trend is always good and some schools like Princeton and Stanford, for example, won’t even consider your freshman year grades. However, for top schools that will, even a slight hiccup in academic performance can land you into the rejection pile. Why should they take you over someone who’s been consistent throughout?
Here, you must give them a reason to take you over the others (through the essay, recs etc.).
An essay, as a Princeton admissions officer put it, is not the place to whine about your SAT scores or grades.
You can add a small note about your situation in the ‘additional information’ section though. That shouldn’t do any harm imo.</p>

<p>P.S: With a rank like that, your SAT score becomes that much more important.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>