How Much do First Quarter Grades count at Penn for ED?

I’ve peeked around this forum looking for answers and its probably just me but I can’t seem to find a definitive answer:
Do your first quarter grades play a big role (or any) in Early Decision?

It’s not that I’m slacking (far from it!) but for some reason my first quarter senior grades seem to be worse than my past performance in high school. Given that i’m sending quarter grades and that I don’t have the time to show a lot of improvement by sending a half-year report, etc. I’m getting a tad bit stressed about the first quarter grades. I’ve read some places that the grades are only seen after the decision and that they are just there to ensure that you haven’t slacked off.

If anyone had answer on this I’d be very thankful. Apologies in advance if a definitive answer on this already exists.

Just wanted to say thanks for asking this. I’ve been wondering this for a long time. From what I’ve heard, they are not usually seen before the decision because of the varying times that schools submit first-quarter grades, but I personally can’t verify that.

i think your right @jarrett211 I was thinking that because some schools are trimesters and others are quarters, that not all schools could get their stuff in on time and they can’t just consider some schools and not others. So they probably look after the decisions, in which everyone has theirs submitted. Also, I think UC says on their app that they don’t consider senior grades for EA, so maybe Penn does the same??

I’m not sure either of the answer to this, so again thanks for asking it! My first marking period ends at around November 4, so my guidance counselor said if I get really good grades this quarter, she could send them the grades, even though it won’t factor into my overall GPA for Early Decision. Hope that clears something up?

@shadyconcepts so it looks like the grades do get sent but they don’t impact your GPA. That might be true for me as well since I chose to send my quarter and midterm reports.

At my school at least, they don’t get sent.

At my school I think everyone sends them. I elected to send them as well since I didn’t want it to look like anything was fishy because I didn’t send them.