How important is freshman year?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm a highschool senior now hoping to get into Cornell's college of engineering for ECE or Carnegie Institutie of Technology... My class rank is only 9 of about 250 because my freshman year wasn't too good (I'd likely be 1st if it was).</p>

<p>I have pretty many ECs and awards now, community service, good application essays, and slightly higher than average SATs for those schools. So, how much is my freshman year going to matter? ...and what are my chances?</p>

<p>Here's some scores...</p>

<p>AP History: 4</p>

<p>SAT:
740 math
660 verbal</p>

<p>SAT II
770 math IC
740 chem
700 writing
660 US history</p>

2

<p>You're scores are awesome. You should be proud of your accomplishments, those ranks are not that important, just as your freshman grades are not, compared to the last 2 years of HS. </p>

<p>Your chances might be a lot better if you took more APs, but nonetheless, good stats. Besides, 9/250 is still very very good.</p>

3

<p>my counselors told me they dont look at freshman year shankar? if they do wut all do they look at? </p>

<p>Im wondering if they count H/AP in your total from frosh year</p>

4

<p>i see you made drastic improvements since freshman. excellent job. You showed great improvement and colleges will notice dat. great job</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the feedback so far, but I might have been a little more clear on a couple of things...</p>

<p>First of all, I'm taking 3 APs classes this year (English, Calc, and Chem--only four in all because that's all my school offers), and I expect to take the Computer Science and possibly physics tests by teaching myself extra for my non-AP classes in those two subjects.</p>

<p>As for the reasons behind the freshman year being bad... It wasn't any "adjustment" problem, but rather the result of somewhat unfortunate circumstances at home, and I explained my situation briefly in my big common app essay--so all my schools should know.</p>

<p>Finally, my CMU alumnus interviewer told me (yesterday) that he didn't believe freshman year was all that important, because a lot of kids <em>are</em> adjusting, or haven't yet set major goals, etc... I just wanted some extra opinions.</p>

6

<p>DOOD!! dotn worry..tell me did u showgreat improvement..the admission ppl are gonna love u. and ur adjustment? They know that goign from middle school to high school is a huge adjustment..dont worry. just telling u ...3 AP's in one year is a lot because each AP class requires a lot of time and effort.</p>

7

<p>Actually, now that I recall, I remember hearing the similar thing that rshankar has stated from a private college counselor. </p>

<p>If you think about it, it is true. They do take the "adjusting ability" into consideration, since they do not want students who will have a difficult time coming into their atmostphere, which is COMPLETELY different most of the time.</p>

<p>But then again, as other's have apparently argues, you have made strides, which is even more important.</p>