<p>When applying to colleges, do the admissions officers pay more attention to your overall GPA, or individual grades. Because say if one did not do well in the beginning of their schooling, and got a 3.0. But then brought it up to 3.5 as a sophomore, and 4.00 as a junior. Would they take into account that their GPA is "up there"?</p>
<p>At the, say, top 30 Unis and top 20 or so LACs, there are typically three categories of applicant: in for sure, out for sure, and maybe. Only the Maybes get an actual transcript review. for the In and Out groups, Rank is used, then GPA is Rank is not available.</p>
<p>Class rank and how well thought of your school is are two very important factors.</p>
<p>No offense but a 4.0 at a high school with a 60% dropout rate is not a great indicator of intelligence.</p>
<p>I’ve spoken with admissions counselors who have said that they don’t even look at “GPA.” They look at individual grades, the transcript as a whole, and trends over time. For all students, though students who are pretty clearly not getting in (Ds and Fs all over the place) don’t get as deep a look.</p>
<p>A sharp upward trend like yours is definitely good news.</p>
<p>i’ve been wondering that too, especially if an upward trend helps make up for class rank. my school doesn’t officially rank but it shows graphs, and i’m most likely in the top 10%, but it shows that i’m probably outside the top 5%. however, the overall GPA that puts people in the top 2% of our class is what my junior year GPA will be (basically, only 2% of students get over a 4.5, and this year i’ll get a 4.5 or a 4.55, but my overall GPA will be around 4.39), so do you guys think that for top colleges, an upward trend will make up for a class rank that’s not entirely at the top?</p>
<p>I think it can help make up for it, yes. It did for me, to some degree.</p>
<p>probably starting with a 3.0 then 3.5 then 4.0 is better than just 3.5. College really like to see improvement, especially as course loud gets tougher. It’s a plus if one had such sharp improvement.</p>