*If I got a C Freshman year, am I screwed?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Hello all,</p>

<p>Currently a Junior at a very competitive public school in the NE (we send approximately 30-40, if not more to the ives- not to brag, but just for context).</p>

<p>Suffice it to say, like many on these boards, I have "the ECs" and stuff- (two varsity sports team, editor in chief of paper, successful debater, dedicated community service, blah blah blah). </p>

<p>Basically, here's the deal: I screwed up freshman year, and so I think that my weakest area is almost certainly going to be my grades. After freshman year, my GPA was a 3.5, including one C+ and two B's. However, Sophomore year, I reformed myself and had a 3.9. So far, for Junior year, if I keep up with the way I've been doing, I will end with about a 4.0 (one A+ and one A-). Additionally, I'm taking the hardest courses available, and the most APs allowed at our school (I've done a whole bunch of other stuff too, like take college courses and i plan to self-study an AP).</p>

<p>So, am I going to be screwed on my college app for that C+ in Freshman year? The short story is that my forte is not math (although I am currently in honors) and our 9th grade honors is a notoriously difficult class, add to that that the teacher disliked my brother, I couldn't drop and stay in my other honors course b/c of scheduling...yada yada yada....C+. </p>

<p>So will I be automatically thrown out of Yale, Princeton, Amherst, et al's applicant pool because I got a C as a dumb Frosh? My estimated overall GPA will about around 3.85-3.9 at the end of four years.</p>

<p>I appreciate any and all honest comments and help!</p>

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<p>oh yeah, one additional thing- I have heard things like some schools (Princeton?) don't consider Freshman year very important, or even don't look at it altogether- can anyone verify this?</p>

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<p>You're fine. I have a 3.2 and I was accepted to Dartmouth.</p>

<p>And it's true, Princeton does not even look at freshman grades. At all.</p>

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<p>Not only will you be auto-rejected from every top 40 college in the country, but you'll be forced to attend (if you're lucky) a community college. No college in the nation will tolerate you making that C in your freshman year, not even Bob Jones University. Once they see that letter mark, they'll enclose a McDonald's application with your rejection letter. If you had been accepted, they'll UNaccept you. If they didn't look at your application . . . then they won't have to. If they had already rejected you . . . then they'll send you TWO rejection letters. At the beginning of the year you should get a letter from every ivy that says "don't even think about it".</p>

<p>jk</p>

<p>You've been doing awesome. A single C freshman year (considering your huge upward trend) will matter very, very little. Especially with a wonderful rank. If you were an admissions officer, would you want to reject someone in favor of someone else based solely on a frehsman grade? Good luck to you. :)</p>

<p>PS: Some schools (UMich, Princeton, Stanford) discount Freshman year altogether.</p>

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<p>He'd be lucky if Devry Online or University of Phoenix accepted him</p>

<p>I keed, I keed.</p>

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<p>I think that youl'l be fine. DOn't worry about that one C. You're right, many disregard freshman year. Good luck =] Keep improving. You have a great shot at all the tops</p>

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<p>murasaki, I'm not gonna lie- you had me going a bit at the beginning there.</p>

<p>But yeah, our school doesn't rank (which is prob a good thing for me). </p>

<p>But in this day and age, where the adcoms aren't going to look at all 20,000 applications, and instead make some cutoffs and look only at those that made it (i.e.- if you have below a 1400 on ur SAT, we aren't going to look at your app closely/at all) I can't help but be a bit concerned that maybe they will look at mine and say- "oh, a 3.85? But we have candidate X who has similar ECs, etc, but no C. " (I guess I'm speaking solely of the hardest schools to get into).</p>

<p>Protege, I've had people tell me that the C can actually be a help (though I'm not sure I buy it), since sometimes Adcoms a) purposely reject the "perfect" student to send a message (it happened to several this year), or b) like to see the whole improvement/overcoming adversity thing. Another idea I've heard is that it's better to fit right in the middle of the applicant pool than "stand out" (i.e. have a 2400 or a perfect 4.0). I know several seniors who got into great schools like Yale, Princeton, etc. by having good grades and scores (figure a 3.9ish and 2200-2300) while their counterparts who had even better scores (figure 4.2 and 2390 in one case) were rejected or deferred.</p>

<p>Oh, what a crapshoot.</p>

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<p>You all must understand . . . . </p>

<p>Pretend I'm Admissions Officer Chuck.</p>

<p>Admissions Officer Chuck works for Yale. He has 10 applications. All of them have 3.8+. All of them have 2250+. All of them are state champions. All of them have made wonderful accomplishments with 200+ hours of community service. 10% admission rate, only 1 out of the 10 will be picked. 9 people with awesome stats are rejected.</p>

<p>It isn't about 'sending a message', and the admissions game isn't 'a crapshoot'. The people with good stats that are rejected aren't necessarily (but may be) rejected because of poor essays or little EC activity. The simple fact is this: There are 10 applicants and only 1 person can get in. I'll admit-the proportion of qualified students isn't nearly that high in the applicant pool, but it isn't always because there's something wrong with the applicant. The simple fact is, there isn't enough room.</p>

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<p>I find your post problematic for several reasons, aside from its paternalistic tone.</p>

<p>"Admissions Officer Chuck works for Yale. He has 10 applications. All of them have 3.8+. All of them have 2250+. All of them are state champions. All of them have made wonderful accomplishments with 200+ hours of community service. 10% admission rate, only 1 out of the 10 will be picked. 9 people with awesome stats are rejected."</p>

<p>You misconstrue my point, and you are in fact only begging the question. I'm precisely asking whether having a C disqualifies one from even entering the "10" applications up for consideration. You say out of 10 apps with "awesome stats" only 1 can be accepted; fine- so what? Remember my original question- "So will I be automatically thrown out of Yale, Princeton, Amherst, et al's applicant pool because I got a C as a dumb Frosh?" Or, in other words, will I not even be a part of the 10 apps because I have a C and the others don't?</p>

<p>Second, you almost directly contradict yourself a line later ("It isn't about 'sending a message', and the admissions game isn't 'a crapshoot'"). If we accept your hypothetical, then it means that you can do everything to get into a college- such as 200+ hours of comm service, studying hard for tests, etc- and still not get in. If that's not a crapshoot, I don't know what is.</p>

<p>Additionally, you say "The people with good stats that are rejected aren't necessarily (but may be) rejected because of poor essays or little EC activity."
This represents a fundamental contradiction, or a double bind. If in your hypothetical the similarly qualified candidates are all assumingly "state champions" and have similar quality essays, ECs, etc. but only ONE is chosen, then it is essentially up to the mood of the Adcom on that given day- in other words, a crapshoot.</p>

<p>However, if the candidates have differing essays and letters of rec...then it should not be particularly difficult to determine who gets in and who doesn't....meaning that when you say "The simple fact is this: There are 10 applicants and only 1 person can get in," it is a wild overstatement- that one person then DERSERVES to get in because of his/her ECs, etc.</p>

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<p>if you get anything below a 95% you're an auto-reject everywhere.</p>

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<p>haha. what a dumb question. i hope schools dont accept you because you decide to ask such dumb questions</p>

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<p>OracleP7, do you go to BLS?</p>

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<p>no, I don't.</p>

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<p>a C is fine...</p>

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<p>Yeah these guys answered you question but I just had to speak out where you said the teacher dislikes your brother. That I find ridiculous. All of the teachers hate my brother, but the ones he had first and that I have now like me fine..so yeah..i don't think that has anything to do with the grade--just getting it out there</p>

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<p>logistics, </p>

<p>well it's not like the teacher decided to lower my grade automatically, but I think that it definitely had a impact. From day one (remember: Freshman year's day one is also the first day of High School) there was a sort of awkwardness or tension between us. It was mostly manifested in the small things- like I remember getting back tests and I would lose .5 more partial credit on a question I got wrong than someone else who made a similar mistake. I'm not totally putting the grade on the fact that he and my brother clashed, but I do remember always being cognizant of that fact. Also, it made me particularly averse to things like extra help sessions or seeing him to go over a test, both things that had it been a different class or teacher, I would have been doing more of (and I probably should have been).</p>