How are first term grades senior year factored in?

Applying to College
1

Are they factored into your cumulative gpa? And if they are, are they weighted so it only counts a certain fraction of a year, or does it substitute all of senior year? Or does it just vary from school to school?

2

Of course they are. They count inordinately despite being only 1/7 of your HS grades. They count more b/c the courses you choose tell colleges how you challenge/not challenge yourself and how you fare in these courses is very predictive.

Some schools don’t count in 9th grade classes. But it does vary from college to college. But first semester Senior year grades are VERY important.

3

@T26E4 Well I know they count, but are they factored into your GPA?

4

1/7th of your grades? Absolutely. Why would any college omit them (besides for EA/ED admissions timelines)

5

You should talk to your GC. My kid’s school is emphatic that they do NOT recompute GPA based on first term grades. It says so in bold in the school profile provided to the colleges.

You should also call the admissions office of the colleges that you’ve applied to and ask what they do with first term grades, rather than solicit speculations on CC. They may only be looking for evidence that you haven’t caught senioritis.

6

@T26E4 If I am applying ED to a school, do you think it is likely that they will request first quarter grades? I think my school doesn’t send first quarter senior grades unless the college requests for them.

7

@T26E4 unless colleges manually calculate your GPA, I’m talking about the GPA that gets sent by your school along with your transcript

@whatisyourquest thanks! You’re right, I think I might just ask my GC… Actually now I remember being told we’d get new GPAs after first term, I just don’t know how much it’s weighted… :((

8

I’m referring to first semester grades. Quarter grades aren’t so scrutinized

9

@T26E4 what’s the difference? My school doesn’t have semesters, we just have 4 terms

10

Colleges don’t see senior grades… If you apply early, most people get a decision before January. 1st semester ends late January, so they wouldn’t be able to see them. Most schools ask you to send them in May, but would only take away your acceptance if you had terrible grades. The only schools that actually take away acceptance letters in may would be like ivy league schools

11

@Minnesota555 colleges definitely see senior grades… At my school at least. In fact, we’re approving our transcripts this Monday so first term grades can be sent in with our applications (and about my original question, I have a sneaking suspicion the grades aren’t factored in, which is a huge bummer since it would raise my gpa). Oh wait, are you talking about final year grades…?

12
  1. A large number of colleges, including majority of public universities, use only grades through junior year to determine admission and do not want you to send mid-year reports with your first semester senior grades after you have applied. Some of those, such as the UCs, may make specific requests of certain borderline students to send first semester, senior year grades, before determining admission, but otherwise senior year grades are used only after you send your final transcript in June to determine whether a previously given admission should be rescinded.
  2. Most high schools do not include quarter/mid-semester grades in a transcript. Moreover, Colleges generally do not use any senior year grades to determine early decision or early action, which decisions are made before you get first semester grades. However, some actually do require you to provide your grades as the exist after first quarter senior year before deciding EA or ED admission, although they will not recalculate GPA based on those. Some of those colleges also require that your first semester grades be provided when you get them so they can decide then whether to withdraw the EA or ED admission given but for others,you send grades ar end of senior year and then they decide whether to withdraw the admission given.
  3. There are rolling admission colleges with late application deadline dates such as February or March, They make admission decisions as completed applications are received and whether your first semester senior year grades will be used depends mainly on when you apply. If you apply before you have first semester grades, they are not used, if after, they are..
  4. There are then a large number of colleges that have regular admission where they issue final decisions usually after Feb, which require you to submit first semester grades, typically after you apply as part of a "mid-year" report because most have application deadlines in January. Those grades are used along with your others to determine admission. They may or may not recalculate your GPA, depending on college. There is anecdotal evidence, usually resulting from comments made by admissions officers, that such grades, if good, usually won't get you admitted if grades through junior year are not enough to do so, but, if bad, they can easily destroy a prior tentative decision to admit you.