Bad freshmen year.

Hello I am a freshmen at a high school in California and I struggled this freshmen year. I figured it would be like middle school and I wouldn’t have to study for anything and still get A’s. Unfortunately I quickly found out that’s not the case. These are my grades: A- honors math-- B+ fine art-- B language-- A- physics-- A theology-- and a C+ in English, amounting to a 3.5 GPA. I struggled in that semester and I was wondering if I’m automatically cut from getting into the top schools, considering I got a C and my overall performance was bad. I’m now on my second semester and doing a lot better but some input would be nice. Thanks.

Of course not, some top schools don’t even look at freshman year! Like the UC’s, Princeton, MIT, and Stanford. Other colleges also like to see an upward trend, so try hard sophomore year. Another tip, for the rest of freshman year work on your studying skills this will help a lot!

getting a C doesn’t mean you won’t get into a good college if your GPA is still pretty high. I had a 3.71UW GPA but I had 1 C freshman year.

What about your ec’s? My ec’s for my freshman year are pretty bad.

My ecs are a bunch of clubs the basketball team service hours and a couple other things

I’ve heard of the upward trend, will it negate the bad performance or will it still hang over my head.

Probably negate. What colleges are you aiming for?