forgiving poor freshman year grades?

<p>my gpa is 3.81 currently, after my junior year. however, it is a 4.0 since second semester sophomore year. i did really poorly freshman year because of laziness and overconfidence. i could ace all the tests, but i failed the projects and homework checks. i gained a work ethic over the summer, and began fixing my habits.
i have always taken the hardest classes available. i have taken 6 years of a spanish and two ap's, and im not a native speaker. i took ap bio as a sophomore (not allowed for anyone else). i took all ap classes this year and got straight A's.
i have the EC's, but I'm afraid the schools im looking at (Williams, MIT, Cornell), are not going to overlook my poor freshman year grades. do you think they would?
btw my school doesnt rank but im still in the top 10-5% of my class</p>

<p>Some top schools do not look at freshman grades (UCs as well)</p>

<p>yea i know that and ive considered it but none of them im really interested in, except maybe berkely. im pretty sure all my favorites take them into account</p>

<p>Yes, they will take them into account, but what is the point of holistic review if poor freshman grades are an automatic ‘out?’ They could eliminate you by formula, in that case.</p>

<p>If your record is otherwise stellar, I wouldn’t lose sleep over freshman year. Schools understand that many kids (and many, many boys) need an extra year to get their acts together in high school.</p>

<p>ok thanks so much!</p>