<p>I had sub-par sophomore and freshman grades (mid 80's to a couple low 90's) because of various reasons + due to my family's no income I had no prospect for universities except University of Toronto where an 80 is a guaranteed acception.</p>
<p>My second sem math and english are low90's to very high 90's because I learned of need-based aid at cornell.</p>
<p>Now how would I go about explaining that to Cornell and if I get very good marks in Junior year will soph/fresh affect me?</p>
<p>hmmm, you might want to address your special circumstances via a letter/attachment to your app. to be honest, i’m not too sure how to go about describing the problems to the places to which you are applying to. I wrote a short 1 paragraph letter that hinted that my poor freshman and sophomore academic performance was due in part to the way I was affected by my dad’s hospitalization (which result in no income for a while and a crapload of headaches). I’m not too clear how the admissions office responded to that though.</p>
<p>to answer your other question, freshman grades do affect your chances, but less so than sophomore grades. I believe my gpa was something like 3.66 or 3.5ish during that stretch. In my case, I felt that my ECs and test scores (all my self-reported scores were >780) and essays were pretty decent to strong, thus i came to the realization that my GPA caused me to be rejected by places i shouldnt have been. anyway, it is imperative you do as well as you can junior year, doing so, you should be able to improve your standing during the application review process. </p>
<p>yes colleges note that essays, gpa, test scores, and ecs are important, but i find that GPA is by far the most important.</p>
<p>i didn’t do so hot freshman and sophmore year but i totally owned junior year and i was accepted . so as long as you apply to schools strategically and have strong testing scores, it might not hurt you so much</p>
<p>Did you get accepted to Cornell?</p>
<p>yes, i was accepted</p>
<p>How can I minimize the effect of my fresh/soph bad grades. I have some good and some mid 80’s (bad)</p>
<p>hahaha …no comments except for the fact that i have the same name as you! LOL…very rare to meet someone with the same name!</p>
<p>Anything with something worthwhile to say?</p>
<p>you just have to work your ass off junior year. 'nough said</p>
<p>Oh also would it be worth noting I was sick for around 20-25% of the term? I had approximately 18-22 absences out of a total 85 classes. (I was legitimately sick)</p>