I got a B in English because I was ABSENT for a day! Does it effect my chances for top universities? I’ll try to maintain higher GPAs in the next 3 year.
No. It shouldn’t drastically affect your chances for top universities. Freshman grades don’t really matter.
anyone?
@gingerspark99 thanks for responding!
I believe a few schools look at freshman grades (i.e. Cal Poly), but if you only had one B it really doesn’t matter. Getting a B isn’t the worst thing that could ever happen to you. As long as you maintain an upward progression in grades in your sophomore and junior year, you’ll be fine.
No, it absolutely won’t be a problem. Just try to avoid getting more than one B per year throughout the rest of high school! Colleges like to see an upward trend.
I can’t believe anyone thinks one B and all the rest As is a problem. Especially if you are in honors classes or an accelerated math path, I really don’t think this is a problem. Many, many kids at our very intense public high school get into Ivies and other very selective schools with a few Bs on their transcripts.
Also, is that true that schools don’t look at freshman year? I’ve never heard that. Our school reports the students’ GPA and that includes freshman year.
What your school reports in one thing. What is used as part of the HS assessment by the colleges is (or can be) different.
Yes, it is true that many colleges do not look at Freshman year.
OP, please do not freak out. You’ll do fine.
I do want to say that if it is school policy to receive an excused absence and thereby forego a penalty by supplying a reason for the absence, you might want to pay close attention to that policy and comply.
I did a little searching on Google and found many sites that said freshman year grades do count. Only some CA schools, including Stanford, do not look at them at all. Those grades are also included in your class rank if your school ranks students. The most likely way that schools look at freshman grades is as a starting point for your high school career, meaning that if you have a few slips ups, it’s not a big deal and the most selective schools will look for improvement as your move through high school.
And, again, one B for the whole year is amazing! Our school does not inflate grades and getting all As and one B for our son in all honors classes required a crazy amount of dedication! Many kids got half As and half Bs or even a C in the hardest freshman class (Bio H).
One B freshman year won’t ruin your life but, it is on your transcript. It really depends where you apply. UCs calculate your GPA several ways(UGPA, Capped, Overall are 3) Of course, it impacts your class rank, which can be a significant factor at very selective schools like Stanford and CalTech. SDSU doesn’t look at it at all.
What is on the rest of your transcript will carry far more weight. Do your best and don’t obsess about the admission standards until later. There are very good colleges for students with far worse report cards than yours.