Say you completely fail a semester in your freshman year of high school, if you drastically improve from that semester and so on do they really base that on accepting you or not? We’re talking about a 1.0 GPA to 3.9 on a 4 scale. (they don’t have to be Ivy League colleges, however very prestigious ones such as Stanford or MIT)
Well, they will have plenty of applications from people who didn’t fail their first semester. Those are who you will be compared to.
Giannagiordani, Don’t get discouraged! Schools like MIT and Stanford will not necessarily accept someone who didn’t fail their first semester over one that did. Whether they will or will not take you or that other person depends upon a host of factors. Some schools ask explicitly about previous failures and what students did to overcome and deal with the failure. They are looking for student who have experienced failure and overcame it. Too many students have never experienced any failure, are rescued by parents throwing them tutors at the first whiff of an A- on a quiz and they are often unprepared to cope the first time they do-or even the first time they think they might. So the issue is what you do about it. What did you learn from it. Did you develop grit and overcome or did you fold up? I’d say that overcoming a really tough freshman year and gaining from it might make you a stronger candidate than someone who has always gotten A’s-especially if that person is rescued by parents and propped up with tutors at the hint of an A-. So, move on and do well. A drastic improvement will serve you well no matter what. Good luck.
OP can research what these colleges say about freshman year. He can talk to his GC. I’m not sure this is a serious question. Or even a focused one. Getting into a tippy top isn’t about failures and it’s more than grades.