worried about downward trend in GPA

Applying to College
1

Hi everyone, there has been an unfortunate downward trend in my GPA throughout high school. However, my course load has been increasingly significantly. Here are my grades:

FRESHMEN YEAR:
honors bio: B
honors geometry: A
honors english: A
honors world history: A
health: A
sports/entertainment marketing: A
programming 1: A
guitar 1: A

SOPHOMORE YEAR:
honors chem: B
AP Human Geo: B
latin 1: B
honors english 2: A
honors algebra 2: A
drafting 1: A
adobe visual design (photoshop): A
honors programming 2: A

JUNIOR YEAR:
AP environmental: B (very hard class at my school, surprisingly)
honors Latin 2: A
AP psych: B
honors english 3: A
CURRENT SEMESTER JUNIOR YEAR (PREDICTED GRADES):
AP statistics: B
honors pre-calc: B
lifetime sports: A (needed a fun class because I didn’t want to be TOTALLY miserable)
APUSH: B

My UW GPA has declined throughout the years but my weighted has risen. By the end of this year, I am predicting a 3.6 UW and a 4.46 weighted. Will colleges look down on this? Everything else on my application (essays, EC’s, test scores, recommendations) should be stellar, but I’m worried my GPA will kill my chances. Also, I go to the number 1 high school in my state, according to USNWR. Should I consider ivies and other colleges of that caliber or will my GPA kill my chances at any selective colleges?

2

bump

3

You need to go on Naviance or whatever you have for your school and see where people got in with your unweighted gpa. I would also see what happens without your freshman year, how much do you go down and see where people got in and sort of look between those two data points.

The other thing is, you still have time, it is only March, get to work.

4

It looks like you’re having problems with the AP-level classes. Those are your Bs. Are they going too fast? Do they require a different note-taking method? You might want to talk to your teachers about what you need to get the A. Also, find a tutor for the AP classes - they may have ideas what you’re not quite getting. You obviously are a smart and capable student; it just looks like you need a little help finding your way.