Will a upwards trend in junior year show very selective/ competitive colleges that I can handle course rigor?Answered
The answer to the question seems obvious but I'm wondering if the answer would change depending on my particular circumstance. My grades in freshman year were pretty good with only one B for both semesters, but in sophomore year I had a tough time with managing everything and ended up getting three B+s and one B for both semesters, a significant drop from the previous year, leaving me with a current 3.85 gpa. However, if I get all As junior year, it is possible for me to get a 3.9. I know that this is a pretty good GPA, but what I'm more concerned about is what colleges will think as they look at the trend over the years. If they see my good grades in freshman year and my sudden drop in sophomore year but then (hopefully) much better grades in junior year, will they see me as a student that can handle rigorous coursework (taking mostly APs/honors courses) or will they see me as someone who pulls myself together last minute?
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2 answers
Colleges will see you as a student who can handle rigorous coursework. They will look at your sophomore year as an outlier on an otherwise solid academic record.
If there were any extenuating circumstances that lowered your sophomore year grades, such as an illness, caring for siblings, etc., then you will want to highlight those in the Additional Information section of your applications. This information will help make your sophomore year even more of an anomaly compared to your other years. Hope this helps!
To answer your question directly, colleges will see you "as a student that can handle rigorous coursework". Getting 4 Bs doesn't really mean you can't handle rigor, especially if you got that Bs in AP classes. One question I have is why did you get those Bs? Was it because of a family problem or because the classes were just that hard? And what has made you get As in junior year? Are you working harder to match the level of rigor in AP classes or have you taken easier classes? Answers to these questions provide great insight into your grade trends.
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I got those Bs because of a difficult teacher and just a hard class in general. The thing is that there were two teachers who taught the same subject but at completely different difficulty levels, and I ended up getting the hard teacher, so I'm just a little concerned that the admissions officers would see the other kids with good grades in the advanced courses and compare them to me even though we had different teachers. However, I did take more advanced classes for junior year.