Grade Year Importance

Applying to College
1

Hi, I am aware that junior year is generally the most important year in terms of college admissions, and that freshman year is generally the least important. Which year is considered more important to college admission, sophomore or senior year? Could I make up getting two B’s in sophomore year by getting straight A’s in junior and senior year?

Will a strong junior and senior year hide getting two B’s my sophomore year?

Thanks

2

Admissions officers love seeing upward trajectories. So, yes, a senior year that improved on junior year that improved on sophomore year is good.

3

It depends - first semester senior year grades, if received prior to them reviewing your app, will generally have greater weight. I’ve heard it’ broken down like this before: Junior year --> 1st semester sr year --> sophomore year --> freshman year/2nd semester senior year.

In general you apply to colleges near the beginning of senior year. If you apply early (EA, ED, etc.) colleges may review your app prior to having senior grades in which case sophomore grades will be what counts more. If you apply later (RD or towards the end of rolling admissions) they may have your first semester grades and those will generally be considered more indicative of you than sophomore grades.

The only other important things to consider are not slacking off senior year (your 2nd semester grades, if extremely lower than normal, can result in an offer of admission being rescinded) and really doing well to hopefully get off any waitlists you get put on.

4

So I’ve talked to a few admissions people and some representatives from different schools and the one thing they all have said was they wish they could stress to parents and their students the importance of grades starting with their Freshman year. Yes, they like to see an upward trend but most of the time they are getting Juniors and Seniors that are just starting to look at schools and realizing the importance of their grades and at that point they’ve potentially lost 2 years that they can’t get back.

They also stressed the importance of your Senior year, and not taking a bunch of easy classes or taking it easy and letting your grades drop. Two schools warned that they do ask for the final transcript and that offers can be rescinded and have been due to poor Senior year grades.

Each school is different but I’ve had around 5 people at 4 different schools plus our HS staff that have said almost the same thing about wishing the message was stronger to HS Freshman and their parents the importance of their school work and setting themselves up for college.

5

Additional thoughts/quick rundown:

  1. 2 Bs is not a major problem
  2. Good senior year grades will not "hide" getting Bs sophomore year, but they will help show an upwards trend which is better than a downwards one or consistent Bs
  3. It's likely that when colleges view your application they will not have access to 2nd semester senior grades so the only grades that will impact admission decisions will probably be fall (unless you're waitlisted)
  4. Rigor is important as well - don't take all easy classes to get an easy 4.0
  5. If your freshman year grades were poor, consider schools that only calculate GPA based on 10th, 11th and 12th fall grades.
6

UCs and CSUs won’t consider senior year grades for admission so sophomore year is more important.

7

UCs also don’t look at freshman year grades.