Hey all! I was wondering if there were any schools that recalculate GPA to not include freshman year grades? I know the UC system does (I’ve also heard schools like CMU, Stanford, and Princeton don’t either but not sure). I’m asking because I am a current senior and my UW GPA trend has been 3.00->3.33->4.0->4.0->4.0->4.0. I wanted to know whether my freshman year grades would eliminate me from contention for elite universities?
Emory does not per Jeff Selingo’s latest book.
California Cal states also do not use Freshman grades their GPA calculation with the exception of Cal Poly SLO. Also, the UC’s and CSU’s will review Freshman grades for the completion of the a-g course requirements so they have to be reported on the application but not considered for the GPA calculation as I stated above.
Thank you so much, will definitely consider Emory.
As I understand, UC’s recalculate GPA but might still use freshman year grades in admission decisions?
Yes, they will look at Freshman grades for admissions but not use them in their UC GPA calculations.
I think it’s foolish to think your grades won’t be seen…anywhere. Not put into a # yes. But seen…also yes.
For what it’s worth Princeton does consider freshman year grades.
The various universities of California are the most obvious answers.
Any university in Canada (that I know of) also will not care about your freshman year grades.
I would think that some very good (even if not “elite”) universities would be likely for admissions even if they do look at your freshman year grades.
1 Like
Like anyone, you will have to develop a balanced list of colleges that includes several reaches, a handful of matches, and at least one affordable safety.
Schools will look at your entire transcript whether or not they include freshman grades in a recalculated GPA. They will also look at course rigor, number of core courses, and number of Cs (or lower).
Your upward trend is great, but both the freshman year 3.0 and soph year 3.3 will mean highly selective schools probably aren’t reasonable reaches. What schools are on your list? What is/are your affordable safety(ies?)
I’m an instate California student who goes to a highly competitive high school, hence, I have a couple of lower tier UC’s (uc Riverside, and uc Santa Cruz) as safety’s along with Indiana university (business major). Targets were also relatively easy to find for me (Almost every UC except for LA and Berkeley), but the hardest part was trying to find reaches that would be reasonable for me to apply to (not a complete hat toss).
I actually only had bad grades freshman year (3.0 first sem, 3.33 second sem). After that it’s all been a 4.0. For rigor context my UC A-G GPA is a 4.0 uw and 4.58 weighted.
1 Like
For Biz, I’d include SDSU, as a great safety option.
LMU, USD, Chapman and Santa Clara would probably offer enough merit aid to make them cost competitive to a UC.
Is that 4.58 using this UC GPA calculator? GPA Calculator for the University of California – RogerHub
If so, I am not sure a 4.58 capped/weighted is possible @gumbymom?
The UC’s look at all 3 GPA’s, Unweighted out of 4.0, Capped Weighted out of 4.4 and Fully weighted out of 5.0. I am guessing the 4.58 is the Fully weighted.
1 Like
Yes, that is fully weighted! I believe weighted capped is 4.38