CameronGiven the freshman year course selection policy, a 9th grader at BASIS is required to take 2 honors English classes, 1 Math class, 1 Chinese class, and the seemingly most demanding class of the year that is AP World History. Thus, 5 out of 8 classes have been mandated. In addition, all G9 students have to choose one among the three honors science courses (honors physics, honors chemistry and honors biology), all students choose one honors science. Students have the autonomy to choose 1 or 2 electives based on their own competency and academic interest. This curriculum design tries to lay a solid academic foundation for students who have just entered the high school stage, but also requires ninth grade students to have very good time management skills and be able to fully take into account the needs of various disciplines. However, for some students who are STEM-focused or humanities-focused, their course grades may well vary from one to another, resulting in unsatisfactory GPA in the ninth grade.
Admittedly, performing poorly in first year of high school inevitably impacts students’ college admission as an unsatisfactory freshman year GPA brings down the cumulative GPA during application, especially a yearly letter grade of C or below in a subject may raise serious concerns or even a red flag in regard to the student’s academic competitiveness, readiness, commitment, and attitude.
However, negative impact does not necessarily equal to the doom of college admission as such impact can be mitigated: colleges review applications holistically. Though started off with a poor 9th grade, students do have their chances in the rest of the high school to demonstrate growth, strength, and potential. Remember, resilience against setback and adversity is as important, with progressive improvements over the next a few years, a low GPA in 9th grade will be somehow compensated.
Here are two follow-ups to be considered:
Reflect and analyze the past year with counselor: as mentioned above, freshmen students are given less flexibility during course selection; therefore, it is crucial that students and their counselor work together to go through the areas that students struggled. Then, the two discuss, analyze, and identify students’ weakness and strength to develop a more strategic and personalized course schedule for the subsequent years. If possible and applicable, students are encouraged to take more challenging courses and succeed in these courses of more rigor to offset the poor performance from the previous year by demonstrating an upward trend of grades.
In any event, if the student underwent unusual incidents, particularly extenuating circumstances that prevented them from achieving a higher GPA in 9th grade, student should always report that to counselor so that this contextual factor will be addressed and explained in counselor recommendation to validate the hardship that student had endured, which influenced their academic performance.
Seek involvement in academic competitions and extracurricular activities: Once the student secures their academic interest, they can always enter academic competitions/contests to accentuate their academic interest, time commitment and expertise in their chosen area, thus further “debuff” the negative impact of an overall GPA in freshman year.
In addition to reveal their scholarly identity via grades and competition prizes, students also showcase their characters and passions through participations in extracurricular activities that include but not limited to sports, clubs, volunteering, community services, arts, internships and etc. While knowing what does one care and concern about is vital, showing their effort to express such care and concern is of equivalent importance. Involvements in these activities enable students to highlight the unquantifiable skills: communication, organization, coordination, the practice of leadership, and the overall commitment to a cause of good.
Earning a low GPA in freshman year can be indeed frustrating, but in general, students are transitioning from middle school to high school, confronting more subjects and more challenges, it is common that freshman year GPA is the lowest among the four years of high school. Nevertheless, GPA at a certain stage is not the sole determining factor that results an acceptance or a rejection in college admission; through progressive improvements on grades in the following years, proactive involvement in activities, solid accomplishments in academic competitions, competitive scores in standardized tests, plus teachers and counselor’s words in recommendations, students have multiple approaches to wash off the negative impact of a weak freshman year on their college application. A high school experience where a student strives to help himself through the challenges, is much more appealing to admission officers.
Tips: After all, University of California, all nine UCs don’t look at freshmen year grades, only grades from sophomore and junior year!