<p>Okay, so I'm currently a junior at my high school with a 4.5 GPA and half my classes are AP's. Soon i'll be seriously looking to apply for some colleges and universities. Here is my predicament; When i first came to high school i couldn't care less about school, i was completely reckless with my grades. I ended up getting many D's and C's that year. But ever since that year i got my **** together and only received 1 B in Honors Chemistry and the rest straight a's. How does my freshman year grades affect my chances to get into a school now? Am i completely out of luck? What can i do to best try to offset those grades from before. I have 300+ hours of volunteer work, 3 years of varsity swim. Any advice and input is helpful! Thanks!</p>
<p>IIRC, several schools such as the UCs, Stanford, CMU, and others pretty much ignore freshmen year for that exact reason. You can try applying to those schools, not to mention that if you are not looking to a very selective school at all, then you could still apply to a less selective one and have a decent chance.</p>
<p>Does UCLA and Berkeley ignore freshman grades? Im in the same boat.</p>
<p>Its not so much that they ignore freshman grades as they focus on your rigorous courses (in your case, AP and honors). These are high predictors of collegiate success. An ideal transcript would show rigourous courses in each of the core subjects with As or Bs in those classes. Nothing shows them you are ready for college better than taking college level courses and doing well. GL.</p>
<p>Your UC GPA does not include freshman year grades. <a href=“http://collegetools.berkeley.edu/documents/cat_113-128/Calculating_GPA.pdf[/url]”>http://collegetools.berkeley.edu/documents/cat_113-128/Calculating_GPA.pdf</a> However they are most likely still considered in your HS ranking.</p>