<p>I recently completed my freshman year of high school. My final grades are one A, one C, and three B’s. My GPA now averages to a 2.68 UW/2.88 W. I am severely disappointed with my grades. I know that I could have done better, but I cannot fix my poor grades. The best that I can do is move forward. If I receive straight A’s moving forward, do well on my college exams, write excellent essays, and show involvement in the community through extracurriculars, how will colleges perceive my college application? From what I understand, upward trends are appreciated, but consistent performance is most admired by admission officers. I do not want to attend an Ivy League school, but colleges with acceptance rates ideally between 25-45%. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Are you aiming for private or public colleges? Schools with 25-45% acceptance rates are generally easy to get into.
As long as you have an upward trend in your grades, you’ll be fine. Aim for atleast a 3.5 weighted next year and a 4.0 in your junior. Don’t let your freshman year make you feel dumb, it happens in college too.</p>
<p>Thanks for responding!
I’m leaning towards liberal arts colleges, simply because of their small class sizes. Are all liberal arts colleges private? If so, what’s the benefits of private vs. public colleges? From what I’ve seen online, public colleges give more merit aid, and private colleges give more need-based assistance. Is this true or not?</p>
<p>
The vast majority are private. <a href=“Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Public_Liberal_Arts_Colleges</a>
Public colleges provide price breaks to in-state students.
It’s a mix. Public colleges are funded by their state to educate students from that state (thus price breaks). Some public Us want to raise the bar on their students so they offer merit aid to anyone with the stats. The majority of public Us offer aid to in-state students only. Private Us have more latitude since they don’t consider state of residence. Some (usually elite) private Us only offer need based aid. Many offer merit aid. </p>
<p>Go to the Financial Aid forum and look at the pinned threads.</p>
<p>Come back and ask these questions when you are a junior. Most colleges will shrug off freshman grades if sophomore and junior years are strong. They might have an adverse effect if they keep you out of higher-level classes that will allow greater weighting. Some colleges don’t even look at freshman grades. It’s behind you, and there’s nothing you can do now but move on. Good luck!</p>