How heavily do colleges weigh freshman grades? Do they compare freshman grades/schedule in relation to sophomore and junior years?
<p>Some of them (e.g. UC system) don't count Freshman grades towards your GPA, although they do ask for them. I guess each individual university has its own policy with Freshman grades.</p>
<p>Princeton doesn't count Frosh grades, either</p>
<p>University of Michigan does not look at Freshman grades.</p>
<p>Peg</p>
<p>Heh, I was wondering this myself. My freshman GPA is about a 3.3-3.4, but my soph-junior UW gpa is a 3.94 (using the typical 4-3-2-1 scale, using our stupid proprietary scale where its -.125 for every point below a 96 per class its about a 3.85).</p>
<p>Me too, I had an abysmal freshman year with a 2.9, then soph with a 3.7, then junior with a 4.2, then this year, so far i have a 4.5. I really hope colleges i applied to won't dwell on freshman grades that much.</p>
<p>Freshman grades hold little weight if nothing at all. They know that freshmen year the last thing on your mind is college and getting good grades. If they reject you (or me for that matter) you should not be going to that school. If I was a college admissions officer I would weigh junior and senior year grades the most because they reflect your academic performace recently, not your performace from two years ago. This is just my two cents but it makes the most sense to me. Don't worry about them and if your GPA trend is upward that will help you more than some kid who got straight A's their entire high school life.</p>
<p>If Freshman grades are considered when creating a class rank, then they could have an impact even at schools that say they don't consider the GPA from freshman year. Even the UC system considers the class rank and I believe the freshman grade is considered when determining the top 4%.</p>
<p>Glassjawer, I don't know if I agree with you, but after a very poor first term (freshman year) of high school, I hope you are you correct. Does anybody else actually think that college admission officers give PREFERENCE to upward trends (after freshman year) over straight A students?</p>
<p>Mr. B:</p>
<p>you are partially correct, in that HS can rank anyway they choose for submisson to UC for ELC review. As a result, that ranking could include Sheltered classes, auto shop, PE, and health, if that's how the HS cranks out its reports. Because each HS ranks differently, UC requests from each HS a list of the top 10% plus ties, so UC can recalc the top 4% list based only upon UC-approved courses for Soph & Junior years. So, in that case, the HS ranking becomes irrelevant to the ELC, (unless the HS follows UC's rules of ranking).</p>
<p>Glasjawer: for many schools you are correct. For the highly selective schools, however, admission would be extremely difficult for someone with poor Frosh grades without a significant hook or great excuse -- according to Ivy stats, 30-40% of acceptances are valedictorian or saltutorian; there are just thousands of kids with a uw 3.9 or better over four years, complete with honors and AP courses, and plenty of ECs. Look at it from the adcom perspective, they need a great reason to admit someone who will bring down their average stats, bcos they don't want to look bad to the press and the alums.</p>
<p>Killaerone: do I think adcoms give "preference" to upward trends vs a straight A student is becomes valedictorian...human nature says no. May they overlook the Frosh grades with a great reason, yes.</p>
<p>is moving from a different state considered as a "great reason"</p>
<p>just for the sake of moving, not likely, kids whose parents are in the military move every two years and seem to keep grades up. But, if your GC could explain your drop in scores, for example, bcos the new state curriculum was far more advanced, and you weren't properly prepared, then adcoms would likely take that into consideration. Or, if the move resulted from a death in the family (and you had to go live with Uncle grouch....those ARE extenuating circumstance, IMO)</p>
<p>Well for freshman year grades im talking like a 3.6 w GPA, not a 2.5.
I don't agree that class rank based on freshman year grades are totally important. My school doesn't rank but if I were ranked I'd be ~10%. Which is excellent but becuase my grades were not great freshman year my overall GPA is not high. But first semester senior year I pulled a 5.0 w GPA. All A's in all AP's. This reflects my ability now and is NOTHING like my ability freshman year. So why would they want to care what I did freshman year when I did so well senior. Will I revert back to my freshman year GPA?</p>