Hey all,
This is my first year in high school and well I haven’t been doing well in terms of grades (A- to B- range). I realized this about 2 months ago and I have been stepping up my game ever since. I want to finish the year off strong, like any other, but I really need some help of staying on track. Any tips would be great.
Also, I would like to know the importance of grades for college applications, freshmen year specifically. I want to finish off with more A’s than B’s, but so far that has not been happening. My parents say grades are the number 1 thing and their logic is that they will see it first before any other part of the application. And if my grades are not straight A’s, then my application will be rejected. I want to aim for Ivy Leagues like any other, but anyone who goes to one or a parent who has a son or daughter going to one, I would really appreciate it if you can explain me the proper way colleges look at grades. I do believe grades are important, but not to the extent my parents say so.
Thank you all very much.
It’s still recoverable. If you get 4.0 GPA for sophomore year, it will look very good (the upward trend). Not the end of the world buddy.
Do your best and then pick colleges that fit your stats. Don’t pick colleges now and then try to wrestle your stats into fitting those schools.
The average GPAs at Ivies are very high. But those aren’t the only good schools out there.
@tellmecombo is the upward trend better than getting good grades in both years? The highest grades I can get this year are B’s and one A…
dude, even if you had a 4.0, your chances just a priori for the ivies are still low. This is because the application has a lot of randomness to it. So don’t even worry do your best, shoot for a 4.0 for the remaining years. Good grades both years obviously is better than upward trend lol. Like if I were to pick between have straight B’s 9th and straight A’s 10th and 11th vs. straight A’s everywhere, which would I pick? 
Yes grades are extremely important. I actually just went to a tour at Duke and was suprised to hear one of the people from admissipns say they are more important than SAT/ACT scores. That being said, he also said freshman year counts the least in terms of grades though.
Some very good colleges don’t even look at fresh grades (UCs IIRC) Just try your best to bring them up. Like what was said above, upward trends look good.
@mrtadashi1 of course an upward trend doesn’t look better than good grades both years. Grades are the most important factor in college admissions, they should be your number one priority. That being said, grades aren’t the only thing considered. Take a look at the admissions threads for some ivies/other top schools, there are people getting in with as low as 3.7-3.8 unweighted gpas. With regards to strategy, I’d say put less effort into the classes that are already above an A, and get the classes that are B’s up.