Do college admission departments look at freshman grades?

<p>When you go to apply to a school, do your freshman year grades really have an impact or make a difference to whether you are accepted or rejected. If I am trying to get into a top university, but I get a 3.6 UW and a 4.0 W by taking honors classes, will they hold anything against me. What I'm trying to ask is, do your freshman grades make a difference?</p>

<p>Every college is different. Some will drop the freshman year, others will weight each year differently. Generally, the most selective schools will take into account the freshman year (they need more ways to elminate as many applicants as possible). You can call the admissions office at the colleges you're interested in and see if they will tell you their methodology, but from my experience, they rarely give you a straight answer.</p>

<p>I would think sophomore and junior year grades are emphasized more than freshman year grades.</p>

<p>At Stanford, Princeton, University of Michigan, no; freshman year grades are excluded, and GPA is only calculated on grades in core classes through semesters 3 through 7.</p>

<p>The more selective universities do look at your freshman grades, but they don't really have an impact. Berkeley, for instance, looks at them but doesn't use them to calculate GPA.</p>