Do colleges look at quarter GPA or semester GPA?

Answered

The accurate simple answer is that how your grades are reported on your transcript and how your grades are transmitted/submitted by your HS counselor, is what they are going to look at in the context of the school report which will delineate your schools grading system including Grading Scale, treatment of a honors, APs/IBs, DE credit, course rigor or available advanced coursework. If your HS reports grades on a 1/4 quarter system on your transcript, that is what the admissions officer will see and use. In some cases, schools like the UC system and Stanford recalculate your UC GPA or Stanford GPA based on the available information but that is their own methodology. For instance UC schools cap the amount of APs and Stanford throws out your 9th grade transcript and focuses on 10th, 11th and whatever 12th you have completed prior to applying.

Since you have 1/2 your marks a 3.7 and 1/2 your marks a 4.0, the for your Freshman year you have a 3.875 GPA. The 3.875 GPA is what they will compare your academic narrative to peers at your schools, your school district who are applying to the same college when you are senior.

If you have a rollercoaster of grades like your grades go up and down and up and down, then its up to you to give a written explanation for your the inconsistency of your grades. If you grades are 4.0, 4.0, 4.0, 4.0, 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, then they want to know what happened in your life to cause the drop. A better story to tell is someone that has a upward trend like 3.3, 3.6, 3.7, 3.9, 4.0, 4.0 because that means they are currently thriving, not suffering from some mitigating circumstance which could be a physical, mental or emotional problem or something that caused a change in their life that was beyond their control like a parent or sibling dying of COVID or Cancer, or a parent losing their job requiring them to work part time 20 hours a week to help make ends meet for their family. I think all college admissions officer are people too so they do understand that each applicant has their own unique set of circumstances.

Good Luck.

Good luck.