<p>My grades in my Gr. 9 year were low...</p>
<p>I had </p>
<p>2 - A's
3 - B's
3 - C's</p>
<p>Those 3 C's were in honours classes. As were 2 of my B's (the other was Phys. Ed. pfft).</p>
<p>Does this damage my GPA so much that I can't get into any selective American universities?</p>
<p>I can't believe how bad I was and I've been killing myself for this all day (not literally, lol).</p>
<p>It depends on how selective the university is. You now have about a 2.87 GPA. If you were to take 8 classes a year for the next three years, and get an A (4.0) in each class, you would have a 3.71 GPA unweighted. </p>
<p>All you can do is try. And score well on the SATs.</p>
<p>My school had a guy from UNC CH come and speak to us about admissions and he wanted everybody to know that a bad freshmen year is not a big deal at all. As long as you have the upward trend afterwards you should be fine.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any success stories about bouncing back from a freshman slump and getting into good universities?</p>
<p>Some schools (like University of California) don’t even look at Freshman year.</p>
<p>I was not aware of that. Thanks for the insight.</p>
<p>I had a bad freshman year with mostly B’s. I got straight A’s for the next 3 years and I’m getting waitlisted or rejected pretty much everywhere right now, although I still have a few schools to hear from. Not to say this is going to happen to you (I think my barely top 10% rank hurt me) but in my case an upward trend didn’t cut it at the top schools.</p>
<p>I’m sorry to hear that.</p>
<p>Where did you apply to?</p>
<p>My top schools were georgetown, duke, and brown. I applied to a lot but they’re all listed in my stats profile.</p>
<p>Colleges look for grade curve (improvement), SAT’s, leadership, Extra curriculars, etc…etc</p>
<p>same thing… it sucks but does anyone kno how much ecs are worth when colleges look at it. iknow every one says it depends on the college but on average, part selective schools how would they look at it?</p>
<p>it will put you at a disadvantage compared to people who did good in freshmen year and an advantage compared to people who didn’t improve.</p>
<p>People may use the excuse that freshmen grades shouldn’t count ask much because you are getting use to a new school but for the schools that do count it, your transition to college will be MUCH harder and they expect you to still get good grades. Good luck.</p>
<p>Are you from Britain, Australia or Canada, John (your spelling gives it away)? And why do you want to go to an American college?</p>
<p>I’m from Canada. I find the United States very alluring. I grew up in a relatively small suburb and heading to an American. metropolis to study has always been a dream of mine. I’ve lived in Canada for 10 years and I still don’t feel a strong connection to the culture. I know this will be different in the U.S. I know I want to start my adult life in the U.S. and most likely stay to start my career there as well.</p>
<p>Canada is lovely but the U.S. is more of a match for me. I hope that’s not too vague. I honestly don’t have specific or concrete reasons for wanting to study there. It might just be my Canadian inferiority complex. I might end up wanting to stay within Canada or even within my province but I want to do everything I can to keep my U.S. options open.</p>
<p>Excuse me for not wanting to blame myself, but I think I would have been a better student in my freshman year had I known that those classes factor into my U.S. GPA as much as any class in my junior year. All of these Canadian-American differences are just killing me…</p>
<p>Best case scenario on my transcript, the admissions officers will see my letter grades and not my percentages and they’ll decide that the British Columbian curriculum is rigorous enough to warrant an A at 85% and just follow the B.C. guidelines instead of doing it by the standard American way. Maybe they’ll give me half points for honours classes. All of those C’s on my freshman year were actually B’s here but the ones that I considered C’s are below 80%, making them “American C’s”.</p>
<p>If you give extra points for honours classes and APs then that’s considered weighted correct? And unweighted is without those additional half points or full points?</p>
<p>i had a bad freshman AND sophomore year. and it definitely did hold down my gpa because now i only have a 3.17 even though i get a’s. BUT i’ve gotten into Emerson, BU, American, Ithaca, Quinnipiac, Rider and Suffolk. So never give up even if your counselor tells you that you won’t get in because mine did and i applied anyway and got in.</p>
<p>have faith!</p>
<p>Thanks for the inspiration.</p>
<p>I had a pretty bad freshman year. No C’s, but I did get mostly B’s. However, ever since then I have pushed hard. I’ve gotten all A’s ever since, and pushed my rank up to barely top 10%. I also studied very very hard for the ACT and got a 34. So far I’ve been accepted to Northwestern, Boston College, and University of Texas! Still waiting on Notre Dame, Georgetown, Brown and Columbia. Don’t give up, just make up your mind right now to push hard the next three years.</p>
<p>Dear NeoEpisteme,
Currently I am a freshman in high school and the year has one week left. I am likely to finish with a 4.0 on a 5.0 scale. This grade point average is a horrific reflection of my true mental capability, and going forward I was wondering what gave you the motivation, drive, and will to earn those straight A’s after freshman year. Everyday I find myself thinking about how next year will be different and how I will get a 4.7 or 4.8 but I can’t just say it I have to do it. I find myself spending more and more time about thinking about how I can improve and not actually doing so. Overall I was just wondering what gave you the personal motivation, and drive to succeed. Did you do something different with your studies, change rooms, or what? Please reply here or personal message me. Thanks.</p>
<p>The last time the OP posted was in 2010. Try starting your own thread.</p>