<p>so ive heard an upward trend in grades are looked at favorably by colleges. how much of a difference does it make?</p>
<p>Consistently high grades look better. And consistently mediocre grades or a downward trend looks worse. That’s about all there is to it.</p>
<p>yeah, but how much of a difference will that make? lets say guy 1 consistently gets around a 95 average in all his semesters. and guy 2 started out with a 88 average his first semester and got higher averages in his following semesters and until he reached a semester average of 97. who would the college look at more favorably? guy 1 or 2?</p>
<p>Guy 1. </p>
<p>As the poster above you has said, even an upward trend of grades will not have as much an impact as those who have had their grades up consistently.</p>
<p>Honestly… I think top school admissions are so competitive, I think they just count up the number of non-A’s you have, and see your course rigor.</p>
<p>Well it really doesn’t matter. I mean I had a lot of 90s and only a few grades that were 95 or over. I think the actual numerical grades matter less than the rank and GPA which colleges probably rely more on to gauge your academic preparedness.</p>
<p>I agree with Dbate; colleges are looking for qualified applicants with potential, which doesn’t mean they strictly rule out those “diamonds in the rough,” people who have shown growth. Both guy 1 and guy 2 show room for further growth in their college years, so it really comes down to the little details that tip the scale in their favor.</p>
<p>What if someone was sick for several weeks, should the applicant put that in as additional info. I was very sick and some are usually out a month or 2. I did 13 days out and about 20 other 1/2 days. I had 5 classes- 4 APs and 1 Precalc. I ended up with 3-Bs and 2 A…and an A in Community College language class. Still have a weighted 4.6, ranked 30 out of over 800 and received 3 -5’s in AP, and 1 4-English. Past APs were 3 sophomore/4 freshman year, so I should get AP Scholar with Distinction. 32 ACT (34 math/36 reading), 10 essay.</p>
<p>Not sure if I should put the illness in application. Don’t want to think I was lazy…and blew off class. This summer doing college calculus at top 25 school.</p>
<p>Yep, you can either include it in one of your essays if you chose, or ask your guidance counselor the mention it in his/her reccommendation.
Definitely mention the illness, you’re right, you don’t want them to think you were “lazy” or anything!</p>
<p>No, you shouldn’t include the illness you should ask your counselor to include it. If you say you were sick it would make it seem as if you were just making excuses but if a counselor speaks about this it sounds much more legitimate. I asked my counselor to do a similar thing to explain why I couldn’t take BC Calc my senior year.</p>
<p>Edit also, 3 B’s isn’t all that bad. I read somewhere that the former admission officer said that on average applicants had about 4 B’s and that was fine. I had 6 B’s altogether when I was admitted. You should also try to up your ACT score, a 32 really isn’t good enough. I had a 34 and was hooked (I’m black) and still got rejected from some top schools like Princeton and Harvard. I think however that you have an excellent chance of getting into lower level Ivies such as Penn or Cornell, and assuming you have solid ECs then applying ED would be a good choice. As an aside, Yale and Penn allow you to only submit the ACT and you don’t have to send any SAT or SAT 2 scores.</p>
<p>hmm. thats good since i got my best grades in my junior year.</p>