How heavy of an impact do freshman grades make?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I truly regret not taking school seriously in my freshman year days; I was caught up with things I shouldn't have been doing. I ended up getting several B's and one C+ (79%) in Algebra II Honors, which looks EXTREMELY bad since its a math class. I did retake both semesters of the class at an independent studies program which I earned A's in. The A's won't cover the grade up, but will be used to calculate my overall GPA. </p>

<p>Anyway, since then, I've really stepped up my game. In soph year, I took 3 honors, 1 AP class and got 4.0 unweighted for both semesters. In junior year, I'm taking AP Lang & Comp, Spanish 4 AP, Physics Honors, AP Bio, and AP Calc BC. I'm also taking AP Psych at a local community college. (I got a 4.0 un-weighted for 1st semester junior year.) </p>

<p>Now, my 10-12 GPA is 4.64, and unweighted is 4.0
and I have a 2330 SAT I.</p>

<p>However I'm still extremely nervous on how private colleges will look at that C+ in my freshman year. I know people always talk about how "freshman year doesn't matter", but it does. Colleges still look over it. </p>

<p>What do you guys think?</p>

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<p>Freshman year does matter, but not as much as Soph or Junior. There are many schools that don’t even consider freshman grades except in their impact to class rank (like the UCs). With the competitiveness of the Ivies and other top schools your freshman year would kill you. For other schools, not so much. Just continue to concentrate on your academics so you don’t show a slip later.</p>