Bombed Freshman year of high school, can I come back?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Hello! (ugh, my previous post blanked after my log-in timed out, so I'm keeping it short this time...)</p>

<p>I am currently a junior in the IB program over in montgomery county, MD. After getting straight A's all through 7th and half of 8th grade, I started to slack off. My grades dropped ridiculously fast, and by the end of freshman year, my unweighted GPA was a 3.19.</p>

<p>I have since gotten my act together. After a somewhat better 3.71 first semester sophomore year, I scored a 4.0 second semester. I can, in all confidence, say that I am going to score close to a 4.0 throughout the rest of high school. My current unweighted GPA is 3.45. My mock SATs tend to end up in the low 2200s, and I have currently taken two APs (gov and history) with easy 5's, and plan to take many this year.</p>

<p>How difficult will it be to compensate for my freshman year performance? Even with literally perfect grades from here on, my GPA will still suck. Will colleges look at my strong post-freshman year GPA and presume the first year was just a fluke, or will they not even bother with me after a glance? What else do I need to do to boost my resume?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

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<p>I’ve had the exact same problem as you, right down to the GPA (though my SAT scores aren’t as good). Im a senior now, and in all honesty, an upward trend as great as yours will cancel out your freshman year grades. Don’t worry about it.</p>

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<p>^ That. Also, FYI some colleges don’t consider freshman grades(I think the UC’s do this).</p>

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<p>It depends on the school. For most schools you should be fine, though some schools (like ivies) are probably slightly unrealistic.</p>

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<p>Could you please define “most schools”? I have…high expectations.</p>

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<p>Most schools is exactly what it sounds like, most schools in the US are realistic with a 3.5, you could probably get into a school that usually accepts students with grades close to a 3.6/3.7 with strong scores. Though most schools that are popular here on CC will be unrealistic. Ivies are unrealistic, so are little ivies (top LACs) and modern ivies (schools like Stanford and CMU) basically top tier schools. What schools are you looking at?</p>

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<p>I was…sort of aspiring for Ivies.</p>