<p>Many top colleges (including my dream school Hopkins) do not consider freshman year when they recalculate GPA. However, I had a very lackluster freshman year (a few B's in honors classes). Since then I've become a straight A AP student, but I'm still worried that this may cause me some trouble down the road. There's really nothing I can do about it, and it's all because of one marking period (in one marking period alone I got an pneumonia, bronchitis, and food poisoning [from the school mind you]). This six week screwed up my semester and even though I got A's the first two marking periods, the third one was so bad it dropped me down to a B. The teachers were not very accommodating.</p>
<p>As long as you adequately explain your unique circumstances in your admissions essay, I can’t see why it would be too much of a problem. While it will have a negligible detrimental effect upon your chances, your most recent performance and the trend in your grades are more important factors.</p>
<p>To be clear, it was 2 or 3 B’s. My GPA has pretty much recovered due to the high amount of AP Classes I’ve been involved in, but I’m still worried. </p>
<p>Well, it certainly won’t help you. But, as I said, the effect will be negligible – it will hardly have any impact on the final admissions decision. However, it may come into play when colleges are trying to decide between two equally qualified students; in such a circumstance, the tiebreaker may very well be freshman grades. You shouldn’t worry about it, though – the chance of that minor blip being the difference between an acceptance and a rejection is minute.</p>
<p>Most schools de-emphasise freshman year grades. Moreover, Bs are not bad grades – be reasonable.</p>
<p>You might also want to reconsider Begoner’s advice to explain that blip in your essay. That could be forced and a waste of space: admissions essays should reveal your character and personality, not explain (or even necessarily relate to) the rest of your application.</p>
<p>u should be fine w/ those grades even w/o those situations..just focus on junior yr grades..i ve been getting few Bs every sem from freshmen to now..and even some cs senior yr..and i ll be heading to hopkins this fall =)..so just dont stress urself out too much</p>