So my brother is a freshman and he is not looking too good grade wise for top colleges. He got lot’s of B’s throughout the year and I finally got him to start caring about school and pull up his grades, but it’s too late at our school because it’s the fourth term and so it’s effectively “over” for this year. He will get all if not mostly, B’s for his final grade freshman year. My question is, can he get past this? I know he is a smart kid if he just applies himself, he took a summer course in geometry before entering high school and got an A, but ever since he stopped caring. He told me that he is finally going to take school seriously, so I’m left wondering, what should we do? he wants to go to a top university but I’m not sure. How much do freshman year grades matter to top colleges?
I don’t have advice, but I just want to say that it’s so sweet that you care about your brother and want to help him, he is lucky to have you.
Thank you @TeamJet
From what I have heard from others, colleges like improvement in high school GPA. If he gets all A’s for the rest of high school he has an about equal chance if he explains himself to admissions
@RyanSeacrestType I thought that might be the case. If it is, then I guess he just tries to get all A’s from now on.
Speaking as a faculty member at a UC campus:
There are really three GPAs in any application, undergraduate or for graduate school - overall, last two years, and within area of interest/major.
The first one, overall GPA, is the least important of these. Everyone - and I mean everyone - struggles to adjust to new schools, demands, and circumstances. Getting “Bs” (which means ‘above average’, not ‘utter failure’ as too many people seem to think) your Freshman year is not going to seriously affect anyone’s prospects as much as later work and overall ‘fit’ with the intellectual community of a university or college.
Relax.