<p>I am currently a Junior in High School, and for the past year Cornell has been my top choice for college. In fact, I plan on applying early decision next year. </p>
<p>Getting to the point, I did rather poorly my Freshman Year, hence the title of the thread. To give you raw numbers, I had about 2 B+'s and 1 B as final grades, 2 B's if the two semesters of English are counted separately. I got straight A's in the rest of my classes, but those B's did drag down my overall GPA.</p>
<p>During Sophomore Year, I worked much harder to improve my performance, and received 3 A+'s and four A's. Right now, I have an A+ in AP Physics, AP Microeconomics, and Chinese H, along with a 96 in AP Calculus. My question is, will the B's I received Freshman year significantly affect my chances of being accepted into Cornell next year? If it would help, I can type up my transcript.</p>
<p>It will affect your decision somewhat, more than how much you would like, and less than how much you fear. But there is not much you can do right now. So I suggest trying your best, hoping for best, and applying to “safeties” too.</p>
<p>I agree with the above poster. Freshman year DOES count and there will be plenty of applicants without B’s on any part of their transcript. But B’s aren’t the end of the world either and won’t mean much. C’s and D’s would be a different story. Also, I’m guessing those grades weren’t in particularly hard classes since it was your freshman year; that you’re getting A’s/A+'s in honors/AP classes has a lot more weight than potential shortcomings from other classes.</p>
<p>It depends upon your high school and your test scores, and what the other applicants are showing your year. I have seen admittances to Cornell with B"s. More than yours and not just in freshman year. HPY, I have not.</p>
<p>No, not that much; it’s much more important to be receiving As and A+s in ap classes and as cptofthehouse stated its not that uncommon to see a student with one or more Bs get into Cornell although you virtually won’t see that at schools like HYP.</p>
<p>I’m hoping that the fact that I’m an upward trend will serve to offset my poor performance freshman year. And on tests scores, my SAT II Math Level 2 score is an 800, and my SAT I score will probably fall around 2200-2300 based on practice tests I’ve taken. Writing is typically my worst area, so if Cornell doesn’t count that, my score will probably be above 1500. Will that be enough to make up for my B’s?</p>
<p>It’s a moving target, Wikitiki. If you apply to a school at COrnell and it happens to have a lot of students that year that they can pick with test scores in categories as high or higher than yours, and better grades, you won’t make the cut. Schools generally do not look at every single number by the way, and they will rate you by your grades/class rank and test scores in categorys. So a 1500 and a 1470 could be identical in terms of test score effect. Your B’s might still put in the same category as kids with lesser or better GPA’s, depending on how the school categorizes. </p>
<p>So no one can really assess your chances accurately because a lot depends on who else is in your applicant pool and where COrnell will thus choose to make their categories. Do talk to your counselor about who is getting into COrnell from your school. If only your val and sal and specially hooked kids are, then your chances are not so good regardless. IF kids like you are getting in–if a handful are accepted each year, then you are definitely in the running. At my older kids’ school, it wouldn’t make one bit of difference with those grades you have. At my younger kids’ school, ummmm. It’s still possible, but it would be straddling the line.</p>
<p>Regarding other kids at my school, all I know for certain is that a pretty smart kid (but nothing amazing) got accepted into Stanford, and many kids closer to average get accepted into schools like Rice, Columbia, and even Cornell. I’m going to get more info tomorrow, but hopefully this gives me a sporting chance.</p>