Hi,
I’m currently a junior, and have decided to take some harder classes this year. Here are my grades for the past three years:
Unweighted:
3.64
3.86
4.0
Weighted
3.64
3.86
4.5
Weighted Academic:
3.71
3.83
4.6
What will colleges see when they read my transcript? That I have improved and mostly look at the high one, or my overall average and not care about the improvement? I am hoping to apply to several UCs, although I don’t think I am quite good enough for Ivy League.
UC’s only use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation and they have their own weighting for UC approved Honors, AP/IB or DE courses taken during Sophomore to Junior year. Your Freshman grades will be reviewed to make sure you meet the a-g course requirements only. An upward trend is always good, so keep up the good work. At the end of Junior year, you can calculate your UC GPA (capped weighted and fully weighted) using this calculator:
I once heard someone say that colleges see an upward trend as extremely good, nearly as good as getting all A’s in the first place, though obviously the latter still holds higher prestige. I have no clue, as I’m really by no means an expert, but I think especially if you play up a supplemental essay or two with a story on how you realized something was wrong and made subsequent changes to your academic career, you could kind of give the numbers a story in a way and help explain your transcript.
Also grade numbers don’t matter incredibly much in a sea of a bunch of others and buoyed up with high standardized test scores, your GPA may not matter overly much.