<p>I vaguely recall reading something on here about JHU not heavily weighting your freshman year grades or looking at them but not using them to calculate your GPA. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
Thanks.</p>
<p>Freshmans grades are calculated based on a satifactory/unsatisfactory basis for first semester freshmans. Second semester, it reverts back to the alphabet system we all know and love. First semester grades are essentially pass/fail. They implement the same system at MIT, which is okay since it eases you and guides you into campus life and somewhat gets you adjusted to the college workload. Although many will say its just an excuse to slack off and have a good time since grades are not of importance, there is a lack of motivation, you can do whatever you want. THAT IS NOT THE CASE. Even with pass/fail, I was immensely stressed out about not being able to pass biology or chemistry, I had to work much more than usual to catch up with all the work that I missed due to laziness, not feeling to work due to covered grades. It is very tough work, even with covered grades.</p>
<p>First semester grades appear on your transcript as a bunch of 'S' or 'U' where 'S' is C- or above and 'U' is D and below. These grades are not calculated into your GPA.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info but I meant in regards to admission. Really though, I didn't know that and that was very interesting.</p>
<p>are you talking about 9th grade grades or first year college grades.</p>
<p>A couple of years ago, I called Hopkins admissions and they said they look at the 9th grade scores, but don't include them when calculating your GPA.</p>
<p>You could call JHU admissions office and see if that policy is still in effect if you want to. The phone # would be on the home page of their JHU website.</p>
<p>Although I wouldn't be looking at that university unless you could get pretty substantial financial aid. They charge $49,000 a year now. My d has legacy there, but it's just too expensive.</p>
<p>I'm talking about 9th grade grades. I might call, just to know for sure. My 9th grade grades weren't that great so I was just thinking about that. Money is definitely an issue though. I have heard that they are generous with FA but it depends on that basically.</p>
<p>If your finaid situation is kinda type, apply to a broad range of schools to get a full view of the financial aid offers. AFter that, its really cool to see which financial aid offers you get. From there, compare the range of schools. I was surprised that Hopkins offered me $15K in grants up from $10K the year before. Thats actually kinda great.</p>
<p>That's what I'm planning on doing. </p>
<p>Anyone else know anything about the 9th grade grades thing?</p>