Will Harvard dismiss me as a candidate because of poor freshman year grades (2.3 total gpa) or would they be impressed to see growth my following 3 years if my total gpa’s were in the 3.5 - 4.0 range each year? As well as how does Harvard choose candidates? What other factors will they include?
Harvard Admissions looks at your cumulative unweighted GPA, meaning your freshman GPA is averaged in with your sophomore and junior year. AND if you apply SCEA, Harvard makes their decision without even looking at your senior year grades. Please see Harvard’s Common Data Set, specifically the C11 data points: http://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2014-15.pdf
So, to answer your question:
Yes, but no . . .if your cumulative unweighted GPA is below 3.75 for your freshman, sophomore and junior years.
In terms of how Harvard chooses applicants, please read: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/application-process/what-we-look
If this is a serious post: why do you want to go to Harvard? Why it, and not other schools? Just because it’s famous?
Realistically: I don’t think you can overcome a 2.2. freshman GPA for Harvard. You’d have to have SERIOUS extenuating circumstances. Harvard, thus, is likely not a good fit/aim for you.
There are so many schools out there, including those where you will be able to overcome that freshman year GPA (some schools don’t even look at freshman grades). Don’t focus on Harvard. Expand your focus, and more importantly: do well the next few years and think about colleges as a junior.
I too cannot believe this is a real post! And yes, why do you want to attend Harvard? With your current GPA, you would most certainly flunk out,
Look at this another way. Here’s a post from Harvard’s Golf Recruitment page: http://www.gocrimson.com/sports/mgolf/faq
If that’s what Harvard looks for from their athletic recruits – who are thought to have lesser stats – you can be assured they want higher stats from their non-athletic recruits.
IMHO, you need to forget about Harvard, get off of College Confidential and start cracking the books – otherwise schools like Boston University and NYU will be out of reach too! Best of luck to you during your sophomore year!
@Tyler16309 I agree with the other posters - you shouldn’t even be thinking of Harvard at this point.
If you can get your sophomore/junior year GPA to near 4.0, do well on your SAT or ACT, and make sure the rest of your application is solid, then you can consider possibly attending Harvard.
I had a 2.2 total gpa my freshman year and am currently going into my sophomore year. Will Harvard discard me as a candidate because of this as it will severely hurt my total gpa as if I get a 4.0 my sophomore, junior, and senior years it will only be a 3.56. Or will they be impressed to see a growth in my total gpa for example say sophomore - 4.0 junior - 4.0 senior - 4.0?
The point of the post was a guideline for other colleges. There is a 99.99999999999998 chance of me not getting into Harvard because of my freshman gpa.
^^ Then you should not have specifically posted in the Harvard forum, you should have posted in the chance forum. to get an opinion about other colleges. FWIW: Without a B average (3.0 unweighted GPA), even these schools are going to be reach: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/a-plus
@Tyler16309 Then you should’ve stated so in your original post. Otherwise it misleads everyone else.
As for other colleges, check to see if they have any minimum GPA requirements, and other factors including acceptance rate and GPA of accepted students. But your first priority should be getting your grades up.