grade trends

[boilerguy84]

how much do schools look at grade trends when assessing a transcript? i did very poorly my first couple semesters, but have a very sharp upward trend.

[kmac128]

i dont know, i think the gpa thing is driven by the goal of keeping or improving rankings.  lets be honest that how most ppl choose their schools, and it the prob the single greatest part of a schools rep, the US news rankings.  and part of that is gpa.  unfortunately, there isnt a trend in gpa stat for that ranking so it doesnt really matter.

that being said, a upward trend has to be better than a downward one

[the marauder]

So is trend not as important as people think?

[Navlaw]

I think an upward trend is important if say you have good LSATs or you GPA is just a little low.

[indyguy7484]

Trends are important, but only to an extent.  Given the choice between someone with a 3.0 and a strong upward trend and another person with a consistent 3.0, the committee might prefer the upward trend.  At the same time, a 3.5 beats a 3.0 regardless of trend.