Low GPA, Good upward trend?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

During my freshman year I did poorly, finished the year off with a 2.4 unweighted GPA and a 2.6 weighted GPA.

The first half of my sophomore year I didn’t do so great, but it was an improvement from my freshman year grades. However, the second half of my sophomore year I began caring much more and I guess you can say I matured. I finished the second semester with 3 A’s and a B, one A being in the first AP Class I’ve taken. I ended up finishing the year with a 2.75 unweighted GPA and a 3.125 weighted GPA.

I’m currently a Junior and the first semester recently ended, my unweighted GPA is going to become a 2.85 and my weighted GPA will become a 3.4. I am hoping to achieve a 3.0 unweighted GPA and a 3.7 weighted GPA by the end of this year overall.

I have yet to take my ACT and SAT, however I have been studying for those and will be taking the ACT in March and the SAT sometime before my Junior year ends.

I’ve been involved with clubs as well, such as TSA and Key Club.

I’ve been very worried about college, I am afraid that my GPA will end up getting me rejected from colleges, because no matter how hard I keep trying my GPA can only go so high since I dug such a deep hole for myself.

Will colleges consider my upward trend?

Does rigor of classes play a part? I have been taking mostly honors courses, I have taken two AP’s so far and have recieved an A in both of them, I will be taking two more this semester.

If I score well on the SAT or ACT will it help me alot even with my low GPA?

Does class rank matter that much? The last time I was informed of my rank it was 200/439 but it has probably changed after my 3.4 unweighted, I am not aware what it currently is.

Colleges I am interested in :

•ECU
•UNCW
•Meredith
•NCSU (I am aware I have a very low chance here)

2

An upward trend is always looked upon positively. If you screwed up freshman year, that might be forgiven, provided that you really got it together sophomore year and forward.

3

GPA is the pure definition of work ethic. Unfortunately, that work ethic comes in many different forms: cheating, grade inflation/deflation, or like 90% of the students in America, you simply get out what you put in. A high SAT or ACT will not offput a bad GPA, it just assumes laziness. With a GPA that low and a rank that good (you would probably be in the bottom 5% at my school, if not lower) it suggests some form of inflation, but schools won’t know for sure unless it’s viewed in context of your HS profile. So in short: raise your GPA, you are in charge of that. Prepare for the ACT and/or SAT well, but don’t think it offputs your GPA.