My freshman year, I was a bio major and had a 2.8 because I’m naturally more of a humanities student, and the school was too big. I left that school and for the last 3 semesters at my new school, I’ve maintained a 3.89. How much do the grades from my first school count when I am applying to another more competitive school? Shouldn’t my more recent grades in my poli sci major matter more? I am leaving that school because I want to go to a small liberal arts college and I only went to that school intermittently because it was close to home.
When you apply to transfer (or to graduate or professional school), all college courses and grades will be reviewed (as they come directly from the college where they were taken). Any AP, IB, etc. credit will be reviewed in the context of the policy of the college being applied to.
It is likely that, for colleges with subjective admissions readings, more recent college courses and grades, especially those more related to your intended major, will be seen as more important. But it can be hard to tell how much difference it makes. For colleges that just recalculate an overall college GPA over all of your college courses and rank order by college GPA, recency does not matter.