Colleges looking at Freshman year GPA?

Question

I'm a freshman in highschool. I received a 3.7 GPA first semester (2 B's), and a 4.0 GPA second semester. What are colleges going to look at? Will they see the 4.0, or 3.85 (average of the two semesters), or both semesters?

Answer 1

Colleges will look at your accumulative GPA from Freshmen to Junior year. They will look at trends in your grades, like, if you always get B's in math and science, or if you had horrible grades freshmen year and then Spohomore and Junior year you have had perfect grades. Colleges at first just look at your GPA and SAT or ACT scores, and then after they see that your GPA and scores are good enough for the school, they will look at your extracurricular activities and trends in your grades.

Answer 2

Well, when you send your transcripts to colleges, they have all of you grades on them. So, the colleges will see your first semester and second semester of every year and there will probably be an average for each year as well. It sounds like you're starting off just fine, but if you're not happy with your grades, don't worry. Colleges like to see improvement over the four years of high school.

As for which is looked at first for admittance, it depends entirely on the college. Some take the top test scorers and then out of that pile then look at GPAs, or some look at GPA first and then test score. Some even look at them together. But, there are also many other things that  they look at. Contrary to popular belief, although they are a major part of acceptance, GPA and test scores do not 100% determine whether or not you will be admitted.