<p>Does Stanford use freshman year grades when claculating GPA?</p>
<p>Last year they didn't.</p>
<p>i don't think they do this year either</p>
<p>how about the first semester of sophmore year? (lol im pushing it)</p>
<p>Yes, sophomore year is in there.</p>
<p>However, if you show a definite improvement in grades, then they'll much more heavily factor in what you're doing now, as opposed to what you've done.</p>
<p>improvment from freshman year on, or from sophmore year on??</p>
<p>Uncle Feezus really? I had mostly B's in my frosh year/ first semester of soph year, but since then ive <em>dramatically</em> improved. I have a 5.0 w in more ap classes then anyone in my school. The only problem i have is that my rank is only 34/360. how will they look at that?</p>
<p>I actually did the same. I had a few B's from freshman year and then one or two sophmore year. From then on, I got all A's, but I only got to 21/503 in my class. I mean, they understand that not everyone enters middle school with a well determined plan for their lives from 6 - 12th grade (shakes fist).</p>
<p>I explained it away, though, by saying I had really ADHD that didn't really go away until freshman year. I could barely sit in a desk. So, some explanation would probably help, if you can incorporate it into one of your essays.</p>
<p>What if you have a lousy class rank, but after they throw away freshman year you have a 4.0, an would be top of your class (since our school's rank in unweighted anyway). Will it make up for the lousy class rank?</p>
<p>Yes, definitely, soccerfanatic. They don't even look at freshman year.</p>
<p>On a different note, check this out:
<a href="http://archives.cnn.com/2000/CAREER/jobenvy/12/15/admissions/%5B/url%5D">http://archives.cnn.com/2000/CAREER/jobenvy/12/15/admissions/</a></p>
<p>what if we have no real excuse? i mean to be perfectly honest i was lazy. i dont want to give wimpy excuses, i want to tell the truth and that is it. i snapped out of it and started working very hard though, almost as if to make up for my poor frosh/ first soph semester grades. i always took all honors clases, and now im taking the most ap classes in my school and im doing great in them. what can i say? any advice?</p>
<p>I mean, you don't <em>need</em> an excuse. I think they throw away freshman year grades because they know that not everyone adjusts immediately to high school. So I'd think that they'd weigh B's sophmore year much less heavily.</p>
<p>Here's to hoping grad schools don't count freshman year grades...</p>
<p>Here's my story. I had a terrible freshman year due to a bunch of personal events, and ended up getting very bad grades. I received a D in Honors Geometry and an F in Spanish II that were made up in summer school. I totally rebounded sophomore and junior year, and am currently taking Multivariable Calculus. I self-studied an AP, and I took six more inside the classroom. I was active in the community, the school, and the classroom. I have very good test scores and I believe i completely turned my life around. How will Stanford look at this? Do they totally disregard freshman year or what?</p>
<p>yes, they dont even look at it. They request GPA from only 10-12 grade</p>
<p>damn...hope they look at weighted too!</p>
<p>yeah, on the app, i says they prefer weighted, 10-12th</p>
<p>good because starting in 10th i piled on the aps and honors classes.</p>
<p>haha.</p>
<p>Even if I failed some classes, they don't care? That's great news!</p>
<p>How fair is that though? My school offers no reward/incentive to take AP/Honors classes because there's no weighting. I challenged myself because I wanted to, and got a lower GPA than my peers. There are a few students ranked ahead of me that took fairly easy classes or did not choose as rigorous a curriculum as I did. </p>
<p>The school's argument, which is fairly specious, is that students who aren't bright would feel compelled to take those harder classes and would do worse if there was weighting. I feel this is complete BS. In addition, there's no weighted ranking. But we still have a ranking system! Either we should have weighting or no ranking. But I can't do anything about it now...I hope Stanford understands my situation.</p>
<p>EDIT: The only good thing is my counselor wrote a pretty good rec, thats what she told me, and said she would make mention of the fact that my current senior year classes and previous classes are THE most rigorous offered. For example, my school only offers 5 AP classes; I'm taking 4 my senior year. This is my first time taking APs, so it's tough, but I am getting used to it. Sigh...I set my goals on Stanford for several years...I'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.</p>