<p>I finished high school freshman year with a cumulative of 3.8. However, in sophomore year, I let my hard courses (APUSH & Adv. Pre Calculus) take advantage of me and my gpa dropped to 3.24. Will colleges still care if I resume back to a 3.8 by the end of sophomore year? Or will I have to explain it in my applications?</p>
<p>(I'm thinking of applying to schools like UCLA, Berkeley, USC. Is this too big of a stretch?)</p>
<p>If your GPA went from a 3.8 to a 3.24, I think you must have actually failed those courses, not just a B or a C. That’s impossible to bring back up to an A, so you may have to settle for a 3.5-3.6 GPA, assuming you get stellar grades for the rest of sophomore year. Colleges only see the final grade of a course, so you may be able to pull it to a B, which isn’t unacceptable at top-tier schools.</p>
<p>^^ But wait you still have junior year though, By my caluations you need to make straight A’s to get it back. But then again I don’t know how many classes you take in a semester (my school have a trimester).</p>
<p>We take 7 classes over two semesters. I’m going to try for a 4.0 this semester so my cumalative gpa returns to at least a 3.7. (By the way, the 3.24 isn’t cumulative.) My cumulative is a 3.6 at the moment.</p>
<p>Oh, that’s much different. A 3.6 cumulative GPA can definitely be saved.</p>