<p>I finished my first year of High School, I currently have a 2.9 GPA. I know, not good at all. I plan on taking the most challenging classes and aceing all of them. Do you think I still have a shot at getting accepted? I also plan on getting involved in the community but that's a different story.</p>
<p>Showing an upward trend is always a good thing.</p>
<p>You need to speak to an advisor to discover what was at the heart of your academic achievement. Unless you find out what they are, you may be just taking swings in the dark. Right now, that’s your first priority – not clubs, not ECs. If you can’t salvage your GPA, you’ll face lesser college options (and selective colleges will be completely out of range). Good luck to you</p>
<p>Define “good”! There are a lot of less selective colleges, especially the CTCL (Colleges That Change Lives) group which offer excellent educations and aren’t terribly hard to get into. State flagship universities are also likely within your reach if you are raising your GPA.</p>
<p>Also, it’s just your first year! Work hard the next two years and your GPA will be a lot better, and you’ll have shown a nice upward trend :)</p>
<p>Yes! Take some AP classes and try to get A’s! This will bring up your GPA (if you can also get A’s in your non-AP classes). Study hard for ACT/SAT! Even if you can’t get your GPA up super high, don’t worry! Aim for some great recommendations, high ACT or SAT, and do lots of extra-curricular activities/volunteer work.</p>
<p>If you are in California, the state universities do not include freshman year grades in calculating admissions GPA, though the grades still need to be C or higher in order for the courses to count toward the course requirements. Additionally, the more selective UCs that use a semi-holistic comprehensive review process will see the freshman year grades (most of the CSUs admit by a formula of admissions GPA and test scores).</p>
<p>Lots of schools know that guys especially can be late bloomers, so even those that count freshman grades tend to give you a little leeway, assuming you were ‘adjusting’ and ‘maturing’ during that year. As others have said, an upward trend is what you want and yes, you can go to a very good school if you get your act together now and pull up those grades. (And no EC, no matter how scintillating, will make up for poor grades, so put your effort where it counts this year.)</p>
<p>But do take T26E4’s advice and figure out what the source of those low grades was before diving into 10th. Sometimes it’s easy - too much play, not enough work. Sometimes it’s harder - a need to plan better, organize more, ask for help sooner. Sometimes it’s a bear - an undiagnosed learning disability that only shows up when the workload starts to ramp up. If you can self-diagnose and get what you need in place, then great. If not, you might want to get some adult assistance.</p>