I dealt with some personal trauma freshman year and it’s evident in my grades. I was in difficult classes, and ended up with a C in physics and a C in Spanish. I transferred out after freshman year, and my current school doesn’t factor in freshman year in my GPA. I’ve done very well since freshman year (95+). Is freshman year important? Please let me know what I should do. I was considering taking physics at a local university over the summer.
nah don’t worry about it. Even if colleges ask later, you can explain your situation (personal issues)
If you’re looking at Caltech, that will hurt you a lot.
For the rest, 2 C’s won’t get you rejected, there are other things that will make that happen if so.
Freshman year is important but it seems like you’ve improved from that already. You can possibly write about the personal trauma in your essay or request that your current GC can explain the poor grades in his/her evaluation. Upward trends are the most important! Colleges want to see that you are striving to be better and want to see that you are working hard to succeed. Get strong grades and test scores, participate in EC’s that you are passionate in, take the most rigorous courseload you can, and showcase your personality through essays and any interviews.
I had a rough freshman year too, but it didn’t seem to hinder me during the application process. Granted, I didn’t apply to schools of the highest caliber, so that may indeed be why. Like @TheDidactic said, upward trends in GPA are extremely important to colleges. You’re also in total control of how much you prepare for your standardized tests, so study hard for those and show admission counselors that you’ve grown since then. Getting into ivy leagues and such with Cs on your record is extra difficult, but as long as you shoot for schools that are within a reasonable reach, you should be fine.
Well, the admissions process is getting harder and harder each year. The schools that were considered easy to get in before isn’t so easy now. It’s more competitive, so if the admissions counselors were comparing one person to another, they may also look at freshman grades. Make SURE you at least pass every class in freshman year with a C or else it looks bad.
On common application, they will ask you if you want to explain anything about your grades (ex: divorce, financial problems, etc.) so you will get a chance to say your side of your story and explain why your grades were like that.
My sister did well all throughout high school except at the worst time (in the middle of her Junior year). Her second and third term grades were a lot lower than she had ever gotten… Her GPA from a 3.94 to a 3.8! All of this occurred because our parents got divorced when she was in 11th grade (I was in 6th grade, so grades didn’t matter), but her grades were still good nonetheless and she explained in her essays and was still admitted to many good schools.
Good luck!