Question about GPA?

<p>I constantly hear people talking about grade trends. My question is, if you have a high overall GPA anyways (3.75 up), do they really matter? I'm thinking about big public universities (University of Washington, University of Minnesota).</p>

<p>All the upward-trend talk on College Confidential makes me mental. Somewhat obviously, an upward trend is much better than having low grades that stay low over the years. Equally obviously, an upward trend is not as good as having high grades at the beginning and keeping them high. </p>

<p>But the way you hear some people go on about it, you’d almost think you should tank your first couple of semesters of high school, just so you could have that elusive talisman, an upward trend. This, of course, is nonsense.</p>