Freshman Grades and my ADD

<p>Ok, so my freshman year, I had about a 3.68 GPA (weighted). Really bad for me. I've been noticing concentration problems all year, and it takes me unusually long for me to do my homework. It's been really bad as of lately, like I would even ask the teacher a question, and while he/she was answering it, I would involuntarily tune out. So yeah I did some researching and I found out I have ADD. My mom didn't even tell me it was genetic in my family until I told her I thought I had it. She's really against medication, so this summer I'm going to be looking up and practicing behavior modification to fix me. I'm expecting to get around a 3.9-4.0 from now on. My schedule for sophomore year consists of 4 honors and an AP class. If I consistantly get good grades from here on out, and have my counselor recommendation to mention I unknowingly had ADD my freshman year, which brought my grade down, will they forgive my freshman grades?</p>

<p>"They" surely will, my son. I know of no colleges/universities personally that place much value or concern on your freshman grades. As long as somebody doesn't nearly flunk out Freshman year, I doubt much weight is given to that year's grades at all. For example, the UCs calculate your HS GPA based on grades throughout sophomore and junior years. Nearly all schools, as far as I know, do the same. What's considered by a lot of people, I guess, most important is to show a constant upward slope with increasing grades and increasingly difficult classes.</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply, I didn't know that.</p>

<p>He is correct. accept in the fact of how it will alter your GPA. I would write an explanatory letter.. because even if they don't put much weight on freshman grades, they still have a strong affect on GPA.</p>

<p>howdy,</p>

<p>i am a sophomore at Notre Dame and I can say that my GPA my freshman year in highschool was awful (approx a 3.0) but was able to pull it up to a 3.8 to 4.0 for the rest of high school. Trust me when I say that as long as you show marked improvement in your GPA during highschool the adcom at ND will like what they see.</p>

<p>Thanks mhawk177 and ghippleh. I'll make sure to remember the letter.</p>

<p>I hate when I make mistakes with similar sounding words... except rather than accept, pardon me.. haha</p>