<p>Hi:</p>
<p>My first child will be starting HS, and I wanted to know which grades' grades matter.</p>
<p>I understand that 9th grade's grades are not taken into account. One of the parent said, even 10th grade is not weighed in very much.</p>
<p>What matters is 11th and 12th. Is that true.</p>
<p>FYI, we live in California, if you're posting Cal's college expectations.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance</p>
<p>At UCs only 10th and 11th are used to formulate UC GPA. At most colleges, all years count.</p>
<p>I was told that many universities and colleges don't look at a high school student's freshman year. BUT ... I would never have told that to my children; what permission to take a year off and let things slide! It also could so easily set up bad habits. I know my children well .... :-)</p>
<p>I will second Zagat's understanding. The UC use 10th and 11th to compute their UC GPA. But all the colleges/uni's DD#1, DS#1, DD#2 and DS#2 have looked at, investigated and researched all included freshman year. And that is a whole lotta schools!! Kiddo's cumulative GPA includes freshman year grades which is used to calculate rank. It is all intertwined. </p>
<p>Hope this helps!!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Many colleges do count freshman grades. But it is not part of the UC calculated GPA, only Sophmore and Junior grades are and they are of equal import.</p>
<p>Also freshman grades are very important to sophmore and junior year sucess.</p>
<p>...but freshman year IS used to determine ELC eligibility in the UC's.</p>
<p>Some course requisites must be completed in Freshman year for ELC, but only the 10th & 11th grades are used to calculate GPA; see:
<a href="http://www.ucop.edu/sas/elc/requirementsinfo.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.ucop.edu/sas/elc/requirementsinfo.html</a></p>
<p>But, calmom, ELC is a ranking thing (right? it's still top 4%?) which, though it varies WIDELY from school to school, often calculates all four years of high school.</p>
<p>A demanding schedule is important. You must do well in freshman year to be accepted and/or to do well in honors and ap courses. It is really silly to good at the different years that clinically, deciding to do well only in years that 'count' for college!</p>
<p>I echo what others have said, 9th grade counts for most colleges. You can't really bank on 12th grade because your child may decide to apply ED/EA, in which case the app goes in before the first marking period closes. So, senior grades may not factor in. 10th and 11th definitely count, big time. The demand of the schedule should increase each year. Colleges will also look at what your child did during each summer.</p>
<p>No, the "ranking" for purpose of ELC is done according to very particular criteria set by UC - it is not the same at all as the "rank" that might be calculated at your school. It only counts 10th & 11th grade courses, and then only those that qualify for ELC consideration, but it is weighted without limitation on the number of honors and APs. The page I linked to explains the system. </p>
<p>It's very complex and also very specific in requirements. My son had straight A's in all classes in 10th & 11th grade and didn't qualify for ELC, and was taking the maximum amount of Honors & AP's that his school provided I don't remember why now. But I do recall finding it odd at the time and pulling up the requirements and seeing that he was missing something or other.</p>
<p>But, bottom line, you could be rated #1 in your class but not qualify for ELC because you don't have the right combination of courses. For example, my daughter is taking some courses out of sequence so I don't think its possible for her to meet the requirements, even though she also has straight A's (but I think I'll suggest that she double check with her guidance counselor).</p>
<p>Bettina & Momsdream, I don't think Silly Sally is planning on encouraging her kid to slack off - I just think she wants a gauge on how important things are. Freshman year is a time of adjustment for a lot of kids, especially boys. </p>
<p>Your statement about having to have good grades to get into honors and AP classes really depends on the school -- if you read the other thread about AP classes, you'll see that in many schools those classes are open to all who are interested, whereas in others there may be an application process that is independent of grades.</p>
<p>I know Stanford, when it asks the GCs to write down GPA on the counselor's report, says that it prefers GPA from the 10th grade on.</p>
<p>keeping grades up in 12th important and often overlooked....don't tail off...gives 'em an excuse to deny.</p>
<p>SS:</p>
<p>the short answer is that ALL academic grades count for the highly selective colleges, bcos class rank is important to those adcoms. But, UC's, Stanford and Princeton claim not to even consider Frosh grades. However, I would suggest that human nature would compare differently a) one kid with three years of straight A's coupled with one year of Frosh B's; vs. b) a kid with four years of straight As. Since 40+% of kids graduate with a 4.0+..... </p>
<p>Calmom: I was under the impression that the elc calc was pretty straightforward for soph and jr grades...in that UC calculates the elc gpa for 'a-g' courses only, and offers a bonus point for only the UC-approved honors/ap/IB courses found on pathways. In other words, not all HS honors courses are eligible. For example, Honors Geometry, Honors Alg II and Honors Soph English are not eligible for bonus points bcos they are not approved UC-honors courses for calc purposes even if your HS may count them for school gpa. (btw: honors Alg II used to be a UC-approved bonus point course, however, but that was changed three years ago.) </p>
<p>Is that not correct?</p>
<p>"Bettina & Momsdream, I don't think Silly Sally is planning on encouraging her kid to slack off "</p>
<p>I never said that. (?)</p>
<p>If Silly Sally's concern is choosing a more or less challenging set of courses for ninth grade (as I think it is, from her earlier posts), maybe what she needs to know is whether risking a lower ninth-grade GPA is worthwhile to take on more challenging ninth-grade courses. My answer to her would be yes, take a HARD ninth-grade schedule and don't worry overly much about the grades, based on the replies above.</p>
<p>well..a lot of colleges ont really care about freshman. (UC's, Stanford, CSU's, Princeton, etc.) dont worry, grades in freshman year is merely to look for an upward trend. or..a steady same grade trend. I mean, straight F's or D's or C's in freshman will hurt your chances anywhere realy, but if its like couple A',couple B's and like one C, it won't really kil your chances anywhere. well, in freshman, according to my counselor, having more than one C can really have an effect on your chances.</p>