Do middle school grades matter for college applications?

Hey, guys! Hope everyone is doing well. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on this - do the grades that I received in middle school impact my prospects for college admissions? I've heard mixed opinions on this from different people, and I just want to clear my doubts.

In the college admissions process, colleges focus on your high school performance - grades, course rigor, extracurricular activities and, in certain cases, your SAT or ACT scores. Colleges do not consider your middle school academic performance since they use your high school grades and experiences to predict how well you'll do in a college setting.

Your middle school achievements might come into play indirectly, though. Middle school is often the time when students start exploring interests that they then continue to pursue in high school. For example, if you played a sport or learned an instrument in middle school and then continued to pursue and excel in that activity in high school, your middle school experiences indirectly affected your college application. Similarly, if a certain project or class in middle school sparked an interest that you followed through high school, leading you to take AP classes and become president of a club related to that interest, you might mention the initial spark in an essay.

So, in summary, while your middle school grades don't directly impact your college admissions process, they do set the foundation for your academic and extracurricular interests in high school, which do matter for college admissions. The key takeaway is to make the most of your high school years, both academically and in terms of extracurricular activities.