GPA Improvement Curves: How much do they REALLY help you?

Applying to College
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<p>Scrolling through chance me threads, it seems like a huge portion of people had relatively poor (in the context of applying to selective colleges) grades freshman/sophomore year and then picked up the pace later on, finishing with GPAs high enough to keep them competitive. </p>

<p>I’ve heard college admissions officers say they definitely value improvement curves, but to what extent is this true? Enough to put you on par with someone with a consistent GPA? Most kids who fall into this boat seem to have substantial explanations – for me, I transferred to a new, much harder boarding school and had to adjust; others’ families moved or went through financial trouble; others had medical problems…</p>

<p>We can totally come up with some good reasons improvement curves would look pretty - e.g. they show you got motivated/interested once the work got engaging, that you really can perform at a high level in classes comparable to college level, etc. We can also probably come up with reasons they don’t look so hot – you started actually doing the work when you figured out how close college was rather than really caring about academics, you’re a genius and a slacker, etc.</p>

<p>To use my own grades as an example, I go to an ‘alternative school’ that uses number grades on a scale of 1-7 instead of letters or a 4.0 scale. 1=failing, 7=very rare, 6=equivalent of an A. Most kids who go to Ivies have ~6.4. I transferred in as a sophomore, kept a solid 6.2 through sophomore year and my junior fall, then got a 6.4 junior winter, a 6.8 junior spring, and a 7.0 senior fall. Here’s my question: am I and everyone else in similar situations gonna be viewed as capable of 6.4-quality work, which is my official GPA, or of 7.0-quality work, considering I got 7s in classes on par with college freshman work? </p>

<p>So what do we think? Anyone have experience getting in/getting rejected with an improvement curve? Any college admissions officers willing to share how they view kids whose grades improve sharply over time? </p>

<p>If anyone can find other threads that address this and could point me over there, that would be super too.</p>

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<p>I don’t know how much they matter, but I hope that it’s quite a bit- but I don’t think you have to worry. You’ve been an A student the entire time.</p>

<p>I wonder though- does anyone know admissions opinions’ of dips in the middle? I did okay freshmen year, terribly sophomore, well junior. I’m wondering how that’s going to impact.</p>

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<p>I don’t know how much admissions value them but I hope they hold them highly. I screwed up freshman and sophomore year but picked it up junior year, which was also the year I took more APs and stuff.</p>

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<p>You will probably be looked at as a student with the potential for 7.0 work; but one that for some reason did NOT do that. Schools certainly like students who have improved their GPA, but they always prefer GPAs that have remained excellent.</p>