Tanked Freshman year

Applying to College
1

<p>I am asking this question on behalf of a friend, Jacob. (In case anyone is going to go through my posts and see that these stats are completely different than my states that I have posted). Jacob attends a nationally recognized private school in Michigan. </p>

<p>So, as a freshman, Jacob got a 3.45 first semester with the most rigorous course schedule possible at our school. Second semester with the same schedule he got pneumonia and got a 3.2, which included a D in Honors Biology. Also, his freshman year, he took the ACT and got a 29 with absolutely no studying or tutoring.</p>

<p>As a sophomore (right now), with a pretty rigorous schedule, but not the most rigorous possible, Jacob got all As (About a 4.1 or 4.2, not sure what it exactly is) first semester, and currently has all As this 3rd quarter and is on track to get all As second semester. </p>

<p>Assuming he gets all As junior year, and gets a 33/34 on the ACT, do you think his bad grades freshman year are going to affect him at all?</p>

<p>He is applying to the following schools: Stanford, U of Chicago, Northwestern, Brown, Cornell, Notre Dame, Georgetown, UC Berkeley, UCLA, NYU, and our state school U of Michigan (He understands that a few of those schools are stretch schools) ... Do you think he will be fine?</p>

2

<p>No it won’t affect him. He’ll be fine and his freshman year wasn’t “tanked”. :slight_smile:
When he gives your GC his “bullet point list” pneumonia second semester freshman year should absolutely be listed.
However ALL the schools on the list are reaches and some will be very expensive (UCB and UCLA cost $50,000 OOS and don’t offer any financial aid.</p>

3

<p>Even U Michigan in state would be a reach. </p>

4

<p>“attends a nationally recognized private school in Michigan.” I can rattle off the names of each of these. And his parents’ tuition goes to pay for very well informed counselor staff. Jacob should be speaking with them, first and foremost, rather than seek a friend to get random internet advice.</p>

5

<p>Thanks everyone!</p>

<p>And @T26E4 he didn’t ask me to do this, I just asked on his behalf to get some advice from people who might have gone through a similar situation. I’m sure he has been speaking to our school’s counselor</p>