<p>Yes, sophomore gpas matter. Schools do look for an upward trend. Don't count on your weighted GPA because selective schools will use the standard 4.0 scale and will look at your unweighted GPA</p>
<p>Sophomore year counts. Improving from one year to the next helps but sophomore year can be crucial at some colleges, like all UC's and Michigan, which rely only on grades in sophomore and junior year to determine your GPA for admission.</p>
<p>why wouldnt sophmore year grades count. the only grades that dont really matter are your last quarter senior year grades. other than that, frosh, soph and junior and begining of senior yr counts. make sure u take competitve classes, thats even more important.</p>
<p>Well for UCLA........To find your UC GPA you only use sophomore and junior year grades for only a-g classes (this excludes pe, health, etc.) And with a UC gpa they cap your honors and ap courses at 8 semesters.
So basically every a=4, b=3, c=2 and do that for all your semester a-g classes and then add 8 points pts and divide by the number of classes and there is your UC GPA. And by the way UCLA's UC GPA was 4.17 this year.</p>
<p>They matter, but the fact that you made a huge increase like that will defintely work to your advantage b/c colleges will see how committed and serious you became. Good job there. </p>
<p>I mean, they may frown somewhat, if it's an Ivy League School perhaps, but I think they can look past it.</p>
<p>It matters, but I effed up sophomore year too. But I (like you) used it as a springboard for an awesome junior year. Be sure to mention your upward grade trend in an essay/short answer.</p>
<p>I guess that means that I'll have a better shot at an Ivy than Stanford..</p>
<p>I think what the question was asking was, if all of the other years, including jr, sr, and frosh grades were all relatively better than the sophomore year, (ie all 4.0 and 3.0 based on 4 scale) will it hurt the application a lot? (such as automatic rejection) Please correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>I got a 4.0 in sophomore year, but my schedule was hardly tough (3 advanced classes (1 AP, 1 honor), two language course, introductory science and a bunch of reqs... blah). That could hurt.</p>
<p>I'm really happy that you worked so much! That's great...I think this shows your dedication, and despite the fact that you brought it up with tougher courses, is something colleges will notice.</p>