How important is an upward trend?

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Les12345

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I'll be applying in the upcoming cycle and I was wondering how much stock ADCOMs put into an upward trend of GPAs. I have an okay UG GPA (3.59 sGPA/3.63 AO) plus a graduate (MS degree) GPA (3.89 sGPA/4.0 AO). I started out in college just totally lost, but figured it all out by sophomore year and ended up improving my GPA every semester except one plateau semester. Do you all think that my strong upward trend will make my low-ish GPA look better?

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Excellence in graduate school is typically expected, so a strong grad school GPA probably won't play a significant role but it'll help a bit. That said, your UG GPA isn't particularly bad, and your upward trend during UG will definitely be beneficial!
 
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I had a strong upward trend with a cumulative 3.5. I don't think my school even noticed the upward trend. I just had an advising meeting and my advisor said "wow we are really impressed with how well you are doing considering your relatively low incoming GPA." my last two years of college GPA was like 3.95 :smack:


All that to say, don't count on it helping a ton. ADCOMs don't have a ton of time with each app, and its easier to pick someone with a 3.7 over a 3.6 with an upward trend..
 
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If most of your bad/less good grades come from freshman year, I do think adcoms tend to cut people a little more slack for that, especially if you improved later on. All told though, a ~3.6 GPA isn't bad. As long as your MCAT/extracurriculars are all set, you should be fine :)
 
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