<p>My question is to students who have been accepted into Ivy League schools and other top tier institutions (or current students), how did your freshman year of high school go? I am a student who recently has completed my freshman year of high school. Instead of doing what most freshman CC'ers do and just wildly predict what their future grades, ECs, or test scores will be, I only have my current grades to work with. So I was wondering how my freshman year stacked up against those who have been accepted to top universities (which of course is my goal).</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’ll count Duke as an Ivy League-type school, but my freshman stats were all high 90s in rather easy classes (my high school didn’t offer any honors or APs for freshmen). I only was in a couple of ECs also, but nothing major.</p>
<p>Freshman year, I was kind of out of it with the ECs but focused and did well in my classes (no APs offered freshman year back then). I only really started w/ involvement in clubs my sophomore year.</p>
<p>My thoughts on freshman year in admissions: freshman year is a relatively unimportant year for college admissions as it is far-removed from when you’ll be applying - that’s why freshman grades on the transcript aren’t given as much weight. The important part is that you focus in your classes for good rank,etc. and getting your feet wet w/ clubs and activities to see what you like/don’t like and so you know what you may want to devote your time to in ensuing years.</p>
<p>Your freshman year is essentially irrelevant. Just get good grades. People who get into top schools get good grades throughout highschool.</p>
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<p>Duke is a top-tier school and should be considered similar to Ivies.</p>
<p>As for the OP’s question, freshman year is the least important, but there will be plenty of people who did very well their freshman year, so it’s still important to have done well for the top schools. An upward trend is seen as favorable, but it’s still not as good as having consistent As all four years. Further, it still counts toward your GPA and class rank, and I’ve yet to hear of a high school that weights freshman year differently for those purposes.</p>
<p>My ECs were practically nonexistent freshman year, and I did well in admissions to top schools.</p>
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<p>Yeah I know that, but sometimes people are asking specifically for Ivies.</p>
<p>Duke is extremely competitive, considerably more competitive than Cornell at least in my opinion. </p>
<p>I got accepted to 2 ivy league schools and carnegie mellon. My freshman year was ok, but was the lowest of 9th, 10th, and 11th, grade averages. I had about a 94 GPA freshman year then shot up to ~99 in 10th grade and ~98 in 11th grade (no AP classes 9th grade, 1 AP class 10th grade, 3 AP classes 11th grade, 6 AP classes this year). My reported class rank ended up being high in the top 10%, but I had basically perfect test scores, excellent essays (must have) and some really nice math and science awards and EC’s, which i think got me into those 3 schools (I got into the engineering schools at cornell, columbia, and carnegie mellon).</p>
<p>Yes, freshman year isn’t that important because you are taking relatively very easy classes (compared to AP), but it is important to do the best you can so you will rank very high in your class.</p>
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<p>Usually when people do that I tell them off for failing to recognize that the Ivies are an athletic conference, not an exclusive club that contains all of the top schools ;)</p>