Hi everyone hope you are all well. I just received my senior year first marking grades and they were the best grades I’ve ever had. 3.7/4 UW and 4.52/4.93 W in 3 AP and 2 honors classes. I have been a b+:A- student in regular/ honors classes/ 1 Ap class throughout high school. I know that colleges will like these grades but if they were on the fence about giving me admission, could these senior year grades help me? Will these grades pull some weight in the admissions process?
Thanks and hope you have a nice day.
All available data goes into an admissions decision, so grades that pull your GPA up and show an upward trend will be beneficial.
There are some colleges that require mid-first semester, senior-year grades for early action or early decision, and thus those grades could have some impact in that situation. Otherwise, those mid-semester grades will have little to no impact. Colleges typically come in two forms, ones that make decisions based on grades through junior year and ones that want mid-year reports providing first semester grades before making a decision. For the former those mid-semester grades will have no impact. For the latter those mid-semester grades will also likely have no impact because what matters is the end-of-semester grades and usually official transcripts sent by high schools to colleges do not include mid-semester grades.
Does your school report grades as quarters or semesters on your transcript? If they record as quarters with assigned # of credits earned, many colleges will calculate them into a recalculated GPA as they are grades plus credit earned. If no credits are attached, they will look at your grades to determine a grade trend which may be one factor in how the admission decision is made. It is very much dependent upon the individual institution.
Yes, my school reports grades as quarters. In fact, they are actually sending out my first quarter grades to colleges next Thursday. Also, I believe that my GPA is recalculated at my school either after the first quarter or semester.