<p>Do they only see the first three years?</p>
<p>Most will see your first semester grades for senior year, and then will find out if you fail anything and kick you out if you do. I think the procedure for applying early is to submit your first set of grades (quarter, whatever other people use, etc.) when they arrive and then the rest to make sure you’re not failing anything. As for seeing all three years, some don’t look at your freshman year at all (e.g. the UCs… although come to think of it, I’m not sure that they look at your senior year at all… well, some just don’t look at your freshman year, anyway.)</p>
<p>They will definitely see your senior year classes since I’m pretty sure the Common App requires you to list them. If you apply early action/decision and get accepted, they will not see your first semester grades in making their decision, but will see them (and your end of year grades) when you submit your final transcript after graduation. I applied to a school early and did not submit any kind of grades for senior year since my school doesn’t record quarter grades.</p>
<p>Most colleges will ask what classes you’ll be taking senior year, and the summer after you graduate HS they’ll get your official transcript so they can verify you actually took them. In addition most college admissions are going to be conditional on passing those classes, often with a certain GPA.</p>
<p>The scenarios:</p>
<ol>
<li>As to being admitted:</li>
</ol>
<p>(a) A large number of colleges (including majority of publics) base admission decisions on grades through junior year and do not require you to submit mid-year senior grades for purpose of determining admission (and, in fact, won’t even use those grades if submitted). Moreover, they make admission decisons for “regular admission” often in and before February, and many of those have “rolling” admission in that they make decisions as applications are received and can begin sending out admission decisions as early as October or even before.</p>
<p>(b) On the other hand, there are a large number of colleges that make their “regular” admission decisions in March or April and most of those require you to supplement your application by submitting a mid-year report that includes your first semester senior year grades and those are used in the admission decision.</p>
<p>(c) Many in group (b) above have, as an alternative to applying for regular admission, “early action” where you apply usually by early November and get a decision in December but you are not required to attend, or “early decision” which is like early action except that you are bound to attend if accepted. A number of schools in the group (a) above also have early decision or early action. For early action and early decision, the college will rely on grades through junior year for admission even if it is a college that usually uses mid-year grades for regular admission.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>After being accepted: colleges require you to send your final high school transcript in June. If you blew senior year, they can rescind your admission.</p></li>
<li><p>As part of the application process, colleges will see your senior year class schedule, something they request (and many want classes listed in the app) and is usually included by high school when it sends your official transcript.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>They see all of your senior classes and grades. So don’t screw up.</p>