How Hard Will It Be to Raise Your GPA?
If you’re feeling a sense of urgency about raising your GPA before college admissions, it’s important to understand how difficult it will be to make changes based on how far along in high school you are.
If You're a Freshman:
You've most likely only completed one semester of high school so far, so there's plenty of time (five semesters!) left for you to raise your GPA.
The majority of your classes are still ahead of you. If you make wise
changes to your study habits now, you shouldn't have a problem improving
them. It's important to take action as soon as possible if your GPA is especially low so that you don't get stuck trying to climb out of a much deeper hole your sophomore or junior year.
If You’re a Sophomore:
At this point, you’ve completed two
or three semesters of high school and have three or four more to go
before you apply to college. This means that at least half of the grades that will make up your final GPA for college are still ahead of you, so you have a pretty strong chance of making improvements. If
your GPA is currently, say, a 2.7, by putting in more effort over the
course of the next year or so you can most likely raise it above a 3.0.
If You’re a Junior:
You’ve completed four or five
semesters of high school now and have one or two semesters left to go
before you send out college applications. Even if you’re still in the beginning of junior year, your grades this year will only comprise a third of your cumulative GPA. You will have to improve drastically in order to make a positive impact on your GPA before you apply to college. You may still be able to make small changes, but a major increase in your GPA is likely to be out of reach. You might decide to focus on standardized test scores over GPA at this point if you’re nearing the end of your junior year.
If You’re a Senior:
You will already be starting the college application process at this point, so you can’t improve your GPA before you send in materials to schools. The only thing you can do is try to improve your standardized test scores. Raising your scores is your best bet for getting accepted into a selective college despite a GPA that’s on the lower side. You
should be able to take the SAT as late as January and the ACT as late
as February if you're looking to submit your scores along with regular
decision applications.
