<p>Bottom line is the first thing they see is your GPA, your GPA is cumulative so freshman year can and does impact your GPA. If the GPA is too low for a school, they won’t look closer to notice that your grades have gone up. GPA is the first line of defense. When it won’t matter as much is if your within their range and they take the time to look closer and notice your upward trend. My son had a so-so freshman and sophomore year 3.3 GPA and then literally grew up overnight, realized school mattered, actually enjoyed learning and feeling smart and got a 4.3 junior year (honors and AP classes in a very competitive high school). Here we are ending first quarter of Senior year (all honors and AP) and he has straight A’s which is great. When he applies to colleges if his cumulative GPA is not high enough for them to give him a second glance nobody will see the change, the growth and who he is now. I wish there was a way to put a big alert button on an application… “really smart now, please review carefully” but he is aware that many schools he would be interested in won’t look past the 3.6 cumulative GPA. He is applying to small LAC’s where I do feel it’s a bit less of a numbers only game. He has interviewed with most of the schools he is applying to so he is hopeful that he was able to bring across his msg. enough that they will look closely at the whole package and not just the cumulative GPA.</p>