Freshman HS Year

<p>If you had a bad (3.3 GPA) freshman year, but had a very good sophmore/ jr. year (like 3.8 GPA), will CMU look greatly upon the freshman year? I know some colleges don't really look at it greatly, but will CMU?</p>

<p>meh, personally I think colleges like upward curves so I think you're fine - especially if you can explain why you did worse that year (though since it was freshman year this might not even matter as much)</p>

<p>plus depending on what school you are applying to your GPA really isn't bad</p>

<p>with decent essays and test scores you stand a good shot at a number of good colleges and unis</p>

<p>Agreed. That freshman GPA isn't that bad so I don't expect that you'd be rejected for just that if all other parts of your application are strong. </p>

<p>It is true that colleges do prefer to see an upward curve than an downward curve, but I'm sure they'd still rather see a straight line provided that line has a y-intercept of 4.0.</p>

<p>lol y intercept, good one</p>

<p>Nice mathematics :p The reason was cause I was a little lazy, but then I really wanted to go to Carnegie Mellon so I tried really hard. And since jr. year and senior year was really good, do you they might overlook the freshman? I mean, jr./senior should be the best indicator since it is the closest to what your permformance is now.</p>

<p>Like I said above, I don't think the freshman GPA will kill you if all other areas of your application are strong. I can't really say what I think your chances are without the other revelant information. </p>

<p>A Note of Caution:
If you plan on trying to explain the relatively lower GPA freshman year in your application (which I'm not sure I'd recommend doing), make sure you put a positive spin on it. Don't say that, 'I was lazy freshman year,' like you said in your last post. Say something more positive such as, 'During the summer between freshman and junior year, I visited Carnegie Mellon and really liked it. My passion for Carnegie Mellon helped me become a better and extremely motivated student the last few years, and I'm sure attending Carnegie Mellon would allow me to further grow as a scholar.'</p>

<p>Wouldn't they have record of those who have visited a college? It is true, however, that I did think about CMU during the summer and decided to work harder, but I didn't go there.</p>

<p>They probably do have some type of record, though I doubt they'd check. Besides visit can be official or unofficial. They wouldn't have any record of unofficial visits.</p>

<p>Still though there's no reason not to state the truth. Instead of saying visit, say "as I became more familiar with Carngie Mellon."</p>

<p>Hope this helps.</p>