<p>just some food for thought, any answer you can come up with to the questions below, please do!</p>
<p>how do adcoms approach freshman year grades? at the highest schools/state schools/etc?</p>
<p>when they see low freshman grades but a significantly upward trend what do you think goes through their minds?</p>
<p>how important are frosh grades?</p>
<p>They aren’t that important at all.</p>
<p>A kid with Cs and Ds Freshman year but all As for the rest has nearly the same chances of a kid with all As every year, ceteris paribus.</p>
<p>They’re interested in the kid applying right now, not the kid who screwed up freshman year. </p>
<p>Freshman year is critical in less tangible ways.</p>
<p>fascinating, i sure hope so
even at top tier schools?
ps i appreciate the latin</p>
<p>Depends on the college; some state freshman isn’t important. And can depend on what the courses were. But you said “the highest schools.” You have to understand the fierce competition from kids with rigor, top stats and good activities.</p>
<p>i see what you mean
sometimes i dont understand how kids can get perfect grades all 4 years, no improvement, just always perfect
to be honest it seems boring, you have to have some fun in high school</p>
<p>@dream: Actually, only at the top schools. Lesser schools look at your GPA, and a bad freshman year generally kills that.</p>
<p>@lookingforward: Yes, but top colleges are deciding using a totally different framework. They care about the person, not the record — and that means emphasizing indicators of what a person is like right now, not merely of how well they did in high school.</p>
<p>They are more picky, but also more discriminating. More thoughtful about this sort of thing.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>A lot of them are so perfect that they both get perfect grades and have loads of fun. Life isn’t fair, right?</p>
<p>Phil, I work for an elite. These schools care very much about the person, but can choose them from among the top performers. It’s not always fair, but it’s the nature of the competition. They need to know the kids are prepared for the challenges they’ll face, will thrive. </p>
<p>We don’t know enough about your current record, OP. Do you have a high level of responsibilities and impact in activities in and out of school? Were you stellar after freshman year, with rigor? And you’ll need to dig into whether these target schools look at freshman year.</p>
<p>Phil
show me one of those people and then ill believe you! haha im sure this type does exist…my jealousy is skyrocketing with every second lol</p>
<p>lookforward,
i have a chance thread which explains my circumstances if you’re curious
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1572735-chance-me-ed-cornell-please-ill-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1572735-chance-me-ed-cornell-please-ill-chance-back.html</a></p>
<p>We review thousands of then, dream. Many with nothing but A’s and some notable rigor. On top of that, internships, work, sports, club leadership and some impact in their communities. All SES levels. Go-getters. And their writing in the app seems to show them to be normal, grounded, appreciative- as well as motivated.</p>
<p>lookingforward,
how do you consider grading scales in this matter? gpa inflation/deflation as well?
at my school the grade deflation is incredible. a 90% is a B. teachers expect an enormous amount from students (too much in my opinion) and consequently our average gpa is a 2.8, average act is a 29. take that as you will.</p>
<p>Edited cuz I went back to look at the chance me again.</p>
<p>Yes. The colleges get a School Report from the GC, that includes this grading detail and usually shows what APs are available (or not. Or what restrictions.) </p>
<p>If we know a particular hs is brutal, that’s taken into account. Many schools do cut off A’s at 93 or so. </p>
<p>Are you from NY? The 33 is good. I think the cancer related work/comm service will show well. You did a lot, it seems, and it was meaningful to you. It will speak to your growth, since freshman year. Best wishes.</p>
<p>nope I am from IL (I feel like it is a largely underrepresented area)
thank you very much for your input!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And that means looking closely at freshman year grades? Come on.</p>
<p>Bottom line is the first thing they see is your GPA, your GPA is cumulative so freshman year can and does impact your GPA. If the GPA is too low for a school, they won’t look closer to notice that your grades have gone up. GPA is the first line of defense. When it won’t matter as much is if your within their range and they take the time to look closer and notice your upward trend. My son had a so-so freshman and sophomore year 3.3 GPA and then literally grew up overnight, realized school mattered, actually enjoyed learning and feeling smart and got a 4.3 junior year (honors and AP classes in a very competitive high school). Here we are ending first quarter of Senior year (all honors and AP) and he has straight A’s which is great. When he applies to colleges if his cumulative GPA is not high enough for them to give him a second glance nobody will see the change, the growth and who he is now. I wish there was a way to put a big alert button on an application… “really smart now, please review carefully” but he is aware that many schools he would be interested in won’t look past the 3.6 cumulative GPA. He is applying to small LAC’s where I do feel it’s a bit less of a numbers only game. He has interviewed with most of the schools he is applying to so he is hopeful that he was able to bring across his msg. enough that they will look closely at the whole package and not just the cumulative GPA.</p>
<p>Colleges don’t care about GPA. At least Duke doesn’t. One of their first steps in processing an application is converting grades into a stream of letters. Whether the kid has a 4.0 doesn’t even enter the equation once an adcom sees the application. </p>
<p>It doesn’t even make sense to think of GPA in the way you described when the meaning of a 3.8, for example, varies from high school to high school.</p>
<p>Where does this come from? We don’t convert grades, we do look at the transcript. We don’t, as moments thinks, look first at gpa. Of course there are schools that admit based on some hierarchical notions. But it’s hard to generalize.</p>
<p>We care about gpa because it is an indicator of motivation. But, as gpa can be manipulated by the course choices, the transcript carries more weight. Of course gpa is in the equation- but as one aspect of the holistic review. The problem that arises is not that adcoms don’t take one seriously if the gpa is lower- but that thousands of kids have higher, plus the rest of the story.</p>
<p>It also matters what the lower grades are in. A STEM kid with a B in English is less at risk than if the B is in math or sci. And, we have already accounted for differences in a hs’s competitiveness or grading scheme.</p>
<p>Duke says they don’t have a minimum gpa. That is common admissions-speak, meant (imo) to encourage. They also say: “Academic performance as measured by grades in academic courses.”</p>
<p>I can slightly relate to your son. Although in my opinion the fact that you pay $75 for an application fee I think would merit your application being looked at further than just your GPA. But then again im known to be a wishful thinker</p>
<p>I would have to assume that if my son sent his application into… lets say Duke just for argument sake that they would not get past the 3.6 and look further to see his actual transcript and the upward trend in his grades, is this not accurate? I by the way am fine with that, he is not a candidate for a Duke, but he is a candidate for many other wonderful schools. It makes sense that schools have a minimum GPA as a way to weed out and in potential candidates, they get thousands of apps how could they possibly not have a quick way to narrow that down to the ones that are really possible and then at that point look closer at the app, the transcript, the testing, the EC’s the essays, letters of recommendation of those that at least meet the minimum criteria?</p>
<p>Stanford says they ignore 9th grade grades and I think I have something similar for Princeton.</p>
<p>At 7% and below admit rates does it matter though?</p>