<p>I am Junior in HS and I want to know if my grades first semester will affect the GPA that I send on my application. This is very important to me because I REALLY messed up my GPA sophomore year (like a 2.5) and it seriously dropped my overall HS GPA. Since then, I have really turned my grades around, I have straight A's my junior year so far, I got a 2110 on my SAT, and I will qualify for a National AP Scholar award at the end of my Senior Year. </p>
<p>But my overall HS GPA is still not anywhere near where I want it so I want to utilize every semester to bring it up, which is why I am concerned whether my 1st semester senior year will affect my the GPA colleges see on my application. This is considering if I applied for regular decision. My fist choice in Universities is UMD College Park but I have a lot of others in mind.</p>
<p>These are the colleges I want to apply to:</p>
<ul>
<li>University of Marlyand College Park </li>
<li>University of Michigan--Ann Arbor</li>
<li>Georgia Tech</li>
<li>University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill</li>
<li>Virginia Tech</li>
<li>Pennsylvania State University--University Park</li>
<li>Purdue University—West Lafayette</li>
<li>University of Illinois--Urbana-Champaign</li>
</ul>
<p>For most schools, yes…I really learned here on CC that not every school wants to see first semester grades from their RD applicants, including one school that OP lists above.</p>
<p>My daughter was in a similar situation, with a low GPA due to health problems sophomore and early junior year. Not only is she making sure her 1st semester senior grades are sent (all of the LACs she’s applying to require them anyway) but her guidance office also sent her first quarter grades. (She’d sent her applications in November, even though they were for regular decision, and wanted to be sure that her new grades were in her file just in case it got read before the mid-year grades showed up in early February…)</p>
<p>As others have said, check with the individual schools. In our experience the smaller LACs seem to welcome any and all information that can help them assess candidates, but I’ve heard that the bigger Us might see this very differently and not want a lot of extra stuff in your file. Why not call the admissions office, explain that you’re doing well and improving your GPA and would like them to see that, and is it OK to have your school send first quarter or mid-year grades?</p>
<p>OP, as an aside to your question I see public Us from 8 different states listed. You will be out of state for at least 7 of them and will have to pay a premium to attend. Check the Net Price Calculator on each school’s web site and see how much your family will have to pay. Discuss this with them now before you become wedded to your college list. OOS can cost as much as $50K+/year which is a shock to most family’s budgets.</p>
<p>Among the schools on your list, UNC Chapel Hill does not ask for mid-year grades. As BrownParent says, Penn State may be the same, so you should check all the schools that you are interested in. Not asking and not accepting are two different things. Even if a school doesn’t require mid-year grades as part of the application, you could still send them in. Whether they’ll be considered or not, you would have to ask each admissions office.</p>