<p>... does about 5 Bs in freshmen year hurt one's chances for a challeging/prestigious college?</p>
<p>Not really - it's somewhat understandable that students are adjusting to the new environment (transition). Maintain an upward trend in your grades. Some universities (e.g. Stanford) don't even count freshman year. Also (noting your location), UCs mostly look at sophomore and junior years.</p>
<p>They would look for a rising trend, and freshman year would not count for too much. At the super competitive colleges, however, a C in freshman year can really hurt you just because they have so many applicants.</p>
<p>its better to go from a C to a A junior year rather than Bs in junior year.</p>
<p>of course 5 B's hurts! the prestigious colleges want EXCELLENT students, not just ABOVE AVERAGE ones. however, its still possible</p>
<p>I was an average/below average student and got accepted to an ivy league school. Again, prestigious colleges do not solely want academic robots. Most ignore freshman year entirely, particularly Princeton.</p>
<p>They want real people, with real passions.</p>
<p>That's all I'll say about that.</p>
<p>I agree with post #5. Unless you have something very unique to offer, Ivy league colleges and equivalents have enough applicants with all/mostly A's. They generally don't need to take people with so many B's mixed in. Still, there are plenty of excellent colleges that will be happy with your improvement, and you may get lucky with one of your top choices.</p>
<p>It's not that simple. Some schools (Princeton comes to mind) don't even look at freshman grades. Others, as has been said, understand that it's a transition year and look for improvement. My daughter got all B's and one C Freshman year, and is at Williams. She didn't hit the straight "A" stride until Junior year, but she kept it up through senior year. Also accepted at 3 Ivies and a bunch of other super-selectives. I wouldn't sweat it too much, but you need to get it together and show improvement from here on out.</p>
<p>yeah, but were here test scores sky high? im in this position (bad in frosh and first sem of soph year-straight a's after that)</p>
<p>Yes, they were all very high. But you need that for for the super-selectives as well. My point was just that a merely "OK" freshman year doesn't put you out of the running--don't give up.</p>
<p>It is hard to interpret anecdotes. Sometimes a person will post that they got into Harvard with a 1320, and so Harvard obviously doesn't care about SAT scores very much. Then you wlll see in another post that the person is a Native American from Oklahoma. Why a person is admitted is hard to tell, especially from CC posts, but B's and C's in freshman year don't help any.</p>
<p>yeah, but if the cc stat threads have any lesson to give us its that you need a 2300+ a 4.0 val and a couple good ecs along with essays and personality to get in. that is the vibe i got from those threads. wow they are discouraging though. oh well.</p>
<p>so if you show an upward trend, then it's OK?</p>
<p>i really don't get this whole concept of an upward trend. i mean, my grades show a downward trend 0 B's Freshman year, 1 B Sophomore Year, and 4 B's Junior Year... but the thing is, the rigor of my class schedule was well beyond what most juniors have gone through. I took 11 classes: 4 APs, 5 College Courses (calculus 1,2, multivariable calc, finite math, CIS), 1 Honors (Chem), and 1 Regular (physics). so i think it depends on the situation really, it's not simply an upward trend.</p>
<p>It's better to get As the whole time, but are freshman Bs gonna kill you?</p>
<p>No</p>
<p>All else being equal, is the kid with good freshman grades gonna beat you?</p>
<p>Yes</p>
<p>What is freshman year? 11th grade (american grade system)?
Or is it 10th grade?
Because last year my grades pretty much sucked (because I was forced to take chemistry and biology and also I was a lazy bastard). I had a few Ds and Cs and Bs. This year though, grade 11, I'm doing really well and getting mostly As (one B. Nothing below that).</p>
<p>In the american system:
9 - freshman
10 - sophomore
11 - junior
12 - senior</p>
<p>Having a good freshman year is better than having a bad freshman year, but the question is how much does it hurt you. If a person with a 4.0 and no EC's was compared to a person with a 3.7 with all A's after freshman year who had great EC's; then the EC's would probably carry the day.</p>
<p>Of course at HYP, you probably need both a 4.0 and great EC's.</p>
<p>I'm screwed then... I was ok in freshman year (no ECs at the time), ok last year with some bad grades in sciences which I was forced to take (sophomore), and good this year, the Junior year, with ECs that stand out a lot.
I guess Junior year is too late to get back on track, eh.. For very high-caliber schools I mean.</p>
<p>Again, Princeton recalculates your GPA WITHOUT Freshman year grades. They are dropped ENTIRELY, as in IGNORED.</p>
<p>A great many other ivies may not drop freshman grades, but I can assure you they are last on the list of grade concerns. As long as you have an upward trend, you're fine.</p>
<p>I hope you're right Voodoovince because my trend shoots upwards like a drug addict. After freshman year, that is.</p>