Value of the upward trend?

<p>Hi all, </p>

<p>I'm a Duke Sophomore just finishing up first semester of this year. I have a very significant upward trend in GPA thus far in college that I believe will continue and am wondering to what extent (if any) medical schools recognize such grade trends. </p>

<p>I received a 3.33 GPA in my first semester of college, a 3.75 GPA in my second, and a 4.00 in my third and most recent semester. I now have a 3.69 cumulative GPA and a 3.40 BCPM GPA (low because of a C+ in math first semester).</p>

<p>University of Washington is my in-state option and I know they calculate a weighted GPA that rewards upward trends by counting the GPA of each successive year more significantly: I have a 3.77 WGPA by their standards currently, which is slightly above their average for admitted students.</p>

<p>Does anyone have experience with or knowledge of other schools taking a student's time to adjust to college into account? I am heavily involved in biomedical research and would really like to go to a medical school with excellent research opportunities. I expect to graduate with about a 3.80 GPA and a 3.70 BCPM GPA. This will be below the averages for the schools I am aiming for, hence the question. I don't anticipate any problems in obtaining an excellent MCAT score, as I test very well.</p>

<p>seeing as your post indicates you are aiming for top 10 schools, your anticipated GPA will certainly be high enough to get you into some medical school so honestly just don’t worry about whether they look at trends or not. Keep doing your thing and worry about where you can and can’t get in when you actually have all the info available in a year or so.</p>