<p>When colleges are looking at your gpa do they tipically convert it to a 4.0 scale or will they keep it on a 6.0 scale?</p>
<p>Also do they look at your accumulative gpa from all years or do they mainly focus on your junior year gpa??</p>
<p>They convert it to a 4.0 scale, to a relative extent. There are other factors in play, but for the most part, they have a scale they use to equalize all the GPA standards. It depends on the college as to how much they look at GPAs; for instance, the UCs only factor in junior and sophomore grades, while most colleges use 9th, 10th, 11th, and first semester 12th (if you do not apply early) grades to make their decision. Some, like Stanford and Princeton, do not heavily weight freshman grades, but they still look at class rank, which may be a major portion dependent on freshman success.
An upward trend can partially recompensate for poor freshman grades, as long as they see a strong trend towards higher grades and higher class levels (AP, IB, honors) in later years.</p>