<p>Hi. Thanks in advance for reading this and any input.</p>
<p>My freshmen and sophomore years, I did pretty good in a competitive high school. I took the most rigorous courses offered and had 3 A's and 1 B, with a 4.4 or 4.5 W GPA for those four semesters (only academic classes). However my junior year, I think I overloaded myself with AP's and Honors (4 AP's and 1 Honors), and got only 2 A's and 3 B's first semester, and 1 A and 4 B's second semester (only academic classes). My junior year W GPA was probably only around 4.1 or 4.2. </p>
<p>I'm applying to competitive schools (Claremont McKenna, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Carnegie Mellon, U Michigan Ann Arbor, and several others). Does my downward trend in GPA significantly reduce my changes? I don't have any real excuse to explain my bad grades (no depression, family issues, illness). My only excuse was overload of AP's and personal issues that colleges won't excuse. So how much do you think my chances are affected? </p>
<p>I agree with Erin’s dad. Don’t forget that most colleges also look at senior grades so do well this year so they can see that you really are a good student. I would also recommend having good test scores that reflect this as well.</p>
<p>Okay. And do any of you know if they look at freshmen grades or count them in my GPA? This would boost my GPA and help me, so i’m curious to know.</p>
<p>It could hurt you, since technically that’s a downward trend. But if you seriously increased your workload for junior year and colleges can see that you were taking on a lot, I think it could be fine since you’d be seen as challenging yourself. It really depends on the college, honestly. The good thing is your ‘screwed up’ junior year really wasn’t that bad- you still had over a 4.0! The move downward in grades might hurt you a bit, but just focus on making your apps great and doing better your senior year and you’ll still have a great chance at these schools :)</p>