i know that consistent A’s are always better than an upward grade trend, but by how much?
like, how much of a difference is there between a student who had all A’s vs a student who got B’s his sophomore and freshman year, and got all A’s his junior year?
assume that for both students, they both took the same rigourous classes
Well, at super-elite schools where plenty of unhooked kids with perfect grades and test scores are rejected, I’d imagine that the difference between having all A’s and having an upward trend is the difference between having a legitimate chance of being accepted and not having a legitimate chance of being accepted
What you describe is the difference between a 4.00 GPA and 3.33 GPA.
In your proposed example, the student with all A’s has the higher GPA, so will be better off. Perhaps a better question might be two students with a 3.7 - one with consistent A- average over all three years, and one with 3.3 freshman year, 3.7 sophomore year, and 4.0 Junior year. In that case, the upward trend is probably preferable.