<p>Hi!
To start off with a little background information on myself, I am currently a sophomore in a Florida high school. My GPA is horrendously low (2.3 unweighted), mainly due to the reason being, I was not primarily focused on school as a freshman. I have been taking all honors classes, however I have not participated in any AP classes yet. I view my freshman year as a wake up call, because I am now completely focused on improving my GPA to get into a good college. My EC's would so far include rowing crew, and others I cannot think off the top of my head. I am aware that rowing may increasingly attribute to my chances to getting accepted into colleges. My sophmore also contributed towards my low GPA, during the first semester. However, now in the second semester, I am working to improve my grades. I am planning on taking forgiveness courses online, for the classes I have recieved unattractive grades in. I do not plan on taking any IB's next year, however I plan to take a number of AP classes, alongside Honors classes. </p>
<p>I want to know what colleges I can even have a chance to get into, being that I improve my grades towards the rest of high school. Any and all tips, would be highly appreciated. </p>
<p>Many don’t even look at freshmen grades. Others weigh them considerably less. If you show a high upward trend and do well all 3 years you have left you’ll be ok. That being said schools like Harvard and Yale might care since they’re so selective. Unless your absolute dream schools are HYPSM don’t worry</p>
<p>Talk to your school about how they handle “forgiveness grades”. See if it’s worth it to you. Colleges will use the data the HS sends. And the vast majority of schools don’t care about ECs, mainly grades and scores. Don’t involved yourself in ECs at the expense of your grades. Those should be your primary focus.</p>
<p>You should definitely make up classes that you got a D or F (even in freshman year) in or else some colleges won’t give you credit for those classes towards the a-g or whatever each college calls them requirements. But other than that, as long as there’s an upward trend you should be fine. </p>
<p>The best thing that you can do now is show a strong upward trend in your grades. If your junior and senior year grades show that you are a mature and dedicated student, that will overcome a lot of the negative impact of your poor early grades. Taking forgiveness courses is a very good idea, as this will show colleges that you really care about your grades and are putting renewed effort into your work. </p>
<p>Strong upward trend in your grades is definitely a great way to go. Schools seeing that you struggle freshman year and are able to gather yourself and improve subsequent years speaks volumes against those bad grades. It also shows that you are dedicated and adaptable and will likely eventually end up succeeding in college. As for forgiveness grades I would say do whatever you can to try to increase your scores in those classes, having a nice shiny GPA helps out incredibly. That being said if the schools forgiveness policy requires substantial work I would be wary, or see if you can complete it over the summer. It isn’t worth sacrificing this years grades for slight improvement on last years. </p>