<p>I know that liberal arts colleges really appreciate an upward trend, in terms of grades. How true is this when it comes to Ivy Leagues? Do they consider an upward trend a strength or are they stricter and completely rule kids like that out of the admissions process? </p>
<p>All LAC talks I’ve attended have told me my upward trend and progress will be seen positively and appreciated. But I have often wondered how Ivy leagues would respond to it? The same way or just no, do they want good grades from start to finish? </p>
<p>My 9th and 10th grade grades were horrible. But I have shot up HUGELY in the 11th and 12th (my term is different, don’t get confused :P) and I have now have Ivy league “type” grades. Help please!</p>
<p>Well, don’t get carried away here. Nobody really thinks that an upward trend is better than having had high grades from the start and kept them high. And everybody thinks that having an upward trend is better than having low grades at the start and never raising them. But the way some posters on College Confidential venerate the upward trend is almost enough to make you think you should tank your first year of high school just so that your upward trend can give you a leg up getting into Princeton.</p>
<p>It can’t.</p>
<p>Let’s ignore for a moment the difficulties in lumping all the Ivies together for almost anything but sports, and the even greater folly of lumping all liberal arts colleges together. The key difference, for purposes of this question, between most liberal arts colleges and the Ivies is that the Ivies have much lower admissions rates than most LACs. True, Amherst (admits about 13%) is just about as selective as Dartmouth (10%) and Cornell (18%), but Oberlin isn’t (about 30%), and Grinnell (about 50%) certainly isn’t. The bottom line is, when you admit 10% of your applicants or less, you can pretty much select only the students who have always done top-quality school work–and in many cases, fill your entering class even before you take all of them.</p>
<p>So I’d say, while philosophically the Ivies might view an upward trend as a positive thing, realistically, it’s only in very rare cases that an upward trend will be positive enough to help a student over the admissions hurdle. And in most of those cases, there will have been some other attribute (e.g., being from a family of wealthy donors, being a movie star, being one of the most sought-after high-school linebackers in Texas) that had an even greater positive influence.</p>
<p>Schools, unfortunately, say a lot of disingenuous things to get more applications. A top LAC is no more likely to admit a student with 2 years of bad grades than an ivy.</p>
<p>Quite so. If I suggested otherwise, I didn’t mean to. I meant to suggest that someplace like Grinnell–a good college in its own right, but nowhere near as selective as the tippy-top LACs or the Ivies–is much more likely to admit a student with an upward trend in his grades than either Amherst or Dartmouth is.</p>
<p>OP, what you should glean from the 3 people to respond above is that the criteria you’re trying to use to “chance” yourself is wrong.</p>
<p>Almost every single school will of course look at an upward trend more positively than a downward one. But that will have far less of an effect on your “chance” of admittance than the overall admit rate, your EC’s etc., your class rank, your GPA, and your hooks. </p>
<p>An upward trend won’t be a positive on your application (or necessarily a negative), so it’s much better to see how you fit into the last freshman class as a whole.</p>
<p>Haha so I infer that there’s no redemption! </p>
<p>My dream school is Brown. I was made to believe that my grades then wouldn’t hurt my chances now, provided they were up to mark now, which they are. So you guys think there’s no chance, or if at all, very rare?</p>
<p>Here is my best advice – if Brown is your dream school, apply there. I certainly wouldn’t recommend that you apply to all Ivies and Ivy peers – two bad years will be hard to overcome, but to try for one super reach – why not. And that way you won’t have to go through life wondering whetheryou would have gotten in.</p>
<p>Perhaps – talk to your college counsellor, get a list, then when you finish all your other applications, do the Brown one as a reward to yourself for all the hard work you’ve put in.</p>
<p>Your grades (as you call them terrible) make it unlikely that you will be accepted, but like bluebayou said, go for it. You’ve worked hard this past year, no one should be telling you that you don’t deserve to apply somewhere. My grades weren’t all that bad freshman year, but I didn’t get my act together until I found CC 2nd semester sophomore year and I ended up in a very good place. In the end, build on your great grades this past year and hopefully senior year with the knowledge that no matter where you go, hard work and dedication will take you far- be it at Brown, your state school, or a liberal arts college.</p>
<p>Okay, thank guys! I feel better about this because zephyr15 said, I don’t want to go through life thinking WHAT IF. I guess in this situation I have everything to win and nothing to lose. If I do apply, which 90% I will be, should I consider ED? Because I’m sure Brown is where I want to be. But I’ve heard ED is more competitive than RD and it’s better to apply RD. But I feel that applying RD, for me, would be kinda stupid bc I already have this peculiar situation at hand.</p>
<p>You have two years of “horrible” grades and at best will only have one year of good grades by the time your ED application will be submitted. Students with upwards trending grades should not apply ED since the extra semester of strong grades senior year needs to work in their favor.</p>
<p>When a school has to reject greater than 90% of its applicants as Brown does, “Ivy-league type grades” are approaching an UW 4.0. If you somehow meet some special institutional need they will make exceptions but please craft your list from the bottom finding safety schools you would love to attend using your full three year GPA as a selectivity guide.</p>