Does freshman GPA really matter?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>I'm just new to this forum, and I just wanted to ask some quick questions.</p>

<p>So I came to my school last year, and due to my shy personality, I screwed up my GPA(I know, this is just some bs).</p>

<p>I got a 3.25 first semester, and a 3.38 second semester.</p>

<p>This year(Sophomore), I got a 3.78 for first semester, and is confident that I can get over a 3.9(4.00 being the highest GPA) 2nd semester.</p>

<p>I have done or will do</p>

<p>AP-WORLD HISTORY, BIOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY, CHEM, CALCULUS(A/B, B/C), ECONOMICS(MACRO/MICRO), PHYSICS B(and maybe C)</p>

<p>4.SAT2-BIOLOGY(E/M),MATH, PSYCHOLOGY, WORLD HISTORY+CHEMISTRY(not sure about CHEM yet)</p>

<p>And on top of that, all my ECs are connected to my major(science, medicine)-this is pretty da*n good, my uncle's a doctor and he helped me a lot with it.</p>

<p>I got a 1750~ on my PSAT(Math is 400.. FML, I can raise that to a 800 within a month, though), reading 650 and writing 700</p>

<p>So, the question is, will freshman GPA do any negative effects on my resume?(I'm planning to go into at least one of the IVY's, since everything else is focused on my major, which I think is the most important thing for me and the college)</p>

<p>I really don't want bull shi*, If there's no hope, please don't give me any hope. Just say I have no hopes of getting into one of the IVYS. I read some threads similar to mine, all they say is, just get a 4.0 and the increasing trend will mostly help you out, which to me, sound like some total bs. </p>

<p>I mean, I would love it if it's not bs, so that's why I'm trying to confirm if the previous answers are true or not.</p>

<p>Thanks, and sorry for an unexpected wrong post.</p>

2

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<p>For the Ivies, Yes, Frosh grades matters bcos class rank matters. For example, ~40% of the unhooked matriculants to Dartmouth were Val or Sal. (HYP is probably even higher.) So unless you are a hooked candidate, you should consider colleges lower down the food chain.</p>

<p>Definitely apply to any college that you are interested in, but your chances of an Ivy admission have dropped precipitously. ED would help.</p>

3

<p>Alright, thanks for the heads up. But, If I get a 4.2 all through the rest of my 3 years, would it still be impossible?</p>

4

<p>Well, actually, I just calculated</p>

<p>(3.3+3.925+4.2+4.2)=to about 3.9, which is an OK GPA, right? </p>

<p>I mean, IF i do all those SAT2s+APs+
ECs(which include my research paper which is going to be published in a medical journal in Korea(I got a help from my uncle writing it after a series of private experiments with mouses and rats involving PCRs , dissection, etc.)</p>

<p>Is there still no hope of going to an IVY?</p>

5

<p>^^ Isn’t it impossible to achieve a 4.2 GPA, since in an unweighted GPA your +'s and -'s do not count to your GPA. Any A will count as 4.0, be it A+ or A-. </p>

<p>This would make your max GPA a 3.80, now that did include your senior year (I believe). And your application would most likely not include that senior year GPA, as it is not done yet.
So this means that your max GPA would about 3.74</p>

<p>I am not saying what that will do for you because I am not completely fluent in that area. </p>

<p>If anyone can elaborate and check over my logic, that would be great. I am not 100% certain about what I’ve told you though, however I believe it is correct, can someone verify?</p>

6

<p>Your freshman year GPA does matter, but to an extent.</p>

<p>A lot of colleges will look at whether or not you keep your grades up, so since your GPA went up significantly after your freshman year, I would see that as a good thing! Just make sure that you take your AP Tests, seeing as these will be good practice for college courses, take challenging courses (AP, IB, Honors), and most importantly, keep yout GPA up!</p>

7

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<p>It will be impossible to make Val and Sal at your HS which, again, comprise nearly half of some Ivy classes. So then the question becomes, how many students does your HS send to Harvard? Ten, one or one every decade? How many to HYP? How many to Dartmouth, Columbia, & Brown? (Cornell is a little different since its individual colleges have different admissions criteria; Cornell-CAS is just as competitive most the other non-HYP Ivies.)</p>

<p>The reason those questions are important is that is your competition, to be blunt. Why would HYPSM et al pass over all of those higher-ranked students to pick you? From a practical matter, it rarely happens unless you have a hook.</p>

<p>As an example, our public HS (550+ students) sends 12+ kids to the Ivies each year, but the only acceptance to Harvard is the Val. A non-Val has never been accepted to H, although plenty apply every year. Thus, the non-Vals are really hoping to be struck by lightening.</p>