Does a bad Freshman year affect college admissions? Can upward trend make up for it?

In CC. I go to a pretty competitive public high school (around 500 ranking on us news) in California. In middle school, i got 4.0 gpa and I expected myself to be the same in my freshman year. However, I haven’t lived up to the expectations due to many reasons. First, Im gonna admit the fact that I slacked off a bit too much in certain subjects. Im a very situational procrastinator and I only procrastinate on specific subjects. Second, due to the difficulty, it was pretty hard for me to adjust and I had some family issues too. I have been worried if my poor year will affect college admissions. I have high hopes to major either in biochem or biology and follow pre med pathway and eventually become a doctor. I am unsure if my bad freshman year will take a tole to the time in which i apply for colleges.

I also took geometry summer school and I got a B because it was a huge pain learning so many concepts and theorems in 5 -6 weeks.

Here are my first semester classes and grades

Geometry summer school

Biology Honors: 86.5% pretty disappointed by this grade I didn’t know how to study well and this class had pretty dense material. I used my mistakes to help me second semester.
French I 91% Really hard tests but me and the whole class somehow managed with an A
Photography : 96%
Alg 2 : 92% (I never rly studied for this class but its still an a)
Eng I honors : 86% pretty hard class but if I worked harder i think i couldve ended with a better grade

Now my second semester grades

Biology honors : 92% worked my ass off some of the material is AP level so im proud of myself.

French I 90% Im worried this might drop down to a B+ so i need to work hard on the next tests.

photography 98%

Alg 2: 95%

Eng I Honors: 80.3% Yikes, this grade is rly bad. Basically, my first semester teacher passed away (yes this is true) and I got switched to another teacher and she is extremely difficult. Its not just me having a bad grade, its all my peers too having B- averages. Only 1 person has an A in the class and everyone has Bs and Cs its rly hard. Personally, I hate english so much and I sometimes procrastinate which is another reason. Also, my schedule is messed up and when I have my JV Tennis games I have to miss class 3x a week so making up the assignments is a big pain.

In total i get average 3 hours of homework and some days it can get pretty hard to manage it so I sometimes slack off on my homework depending on how tired I am.

I just want this school year to end really badly. I feel like I need a break in which I need to just breath and not stress too much about school (even thou im taking a summer school course but its easy). Geometry over the summer in a way has took a toll on how I did over the summer because it was so much work to do (average 6 hours homework daily) and I didn’t get any time off. This caused me to assume school was this hard and I think this caused me to be unmotivated and not achieve as good grades as middle school.

As for this summer I am looking forrward to taking a break and trying to focus on my goal to get a 4.0 sophomore year which i think is doable. I know this sounds harsh considering how I slacked off this year but I have experience now and understand how to manage time and study. Here is my schedule for next year.

Chem Honors
French 2
AP Human geo
Math analysis honors/ pre calc honors
English 2 regulars
PE/Tennis JV

Now my question is, If i either get a 3.8 or a 4.0 gpa sophomore year then will it replace my bad image of my freshman year?

Whoops I didnt mean “In CC” Lmao i meant “HI CC” I cant edit the post
also for now my academic gpa is a 3.5 and class rank is unweighted and its 234/540. A lot of people in regular classes got better grades so Idk if this class rank is an accurate representation of class rank

For the most part, an upward trend is considered good. You’ll want a 3.8+/4.0 to be competitive at highly selective colleges (not only your sophomore year, but overall), and it helps to have As in classes related to your major. Work hard, and do your best. Perhaps pick up a book at your library this summer to brush up on study skills and time management to give you a leg up for next year.

UCs look at 10-11 grade GPA for example, so doing well starting sophomore year would be helpful.

The one concern is taking APHUG instead of World History in your sophomore schedule, as most California high schools expect that you take World History as a graduation requirement.

Closing thread. Repetitive posts are not allowed,and this is about the 5th time you’ve asked this question, and the answers will not change. In the meantime: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/2026961-what-to-do-when-you-arent-doing-well-in-a-hs-class-p1.html