Do your grades in senior year really matter?Answered
Up to this point I’ve been a solid straight A student with maybe 1 or 2 B+ every semester, but in my first quarter of senior year I got like straight B’s. There’s still time to fix them this quarter before the semester ends, but even if I do, will colleges even care?
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3 answers
The accurate answer to this is that "All Grades Matter".
If you apply ED, EA or SCREA, then your admission decision will be based on the 6 semesters of grades your HS counselor provides. Depending on whether your school is on a quarterly, trimester or semester calendar, the college may want to see your quarterly grade report.
If you apply RD, then your admissions decision will be based on 7 full semesters of grades. And more often then not, your HS counselor will be required to submit a mid-year grade report as well sometime in the middle/end of February which coincides with the 3 rd quarter, 2nd trimester or 1/2 semester update.
Regardless of whether you are accepted ED, EA, SCREA or RD, your high school counselor will be required to submit a FINAL Transcript even after your acceptance. If you botch up your last semester of HS, colleges (especially the better ones) reserve the right to rescind (or take back ) your college acceptance so you will be left without a college to attend. Each college has their own thresholds of what qualifies for rescinding an application. From what I've heard even public universities like UCLA will rescind an application if your GPA drop from an A to a C the last semester. Why, there is so much pent up demand on the wait-list that these schools would rather give your seat up to someone that really wants to be there and has shown a consistent high level of academic performance and achievement even during senior year.
Perhaps during our parents generation, senior grades mattered less because nothing was computerized and no email systems existed. These days is hard to hide test scores and grades from colleges, plus if you are admitted you sign over your rights to not disclose them, they can pull your SAT/ACT/AP scores directly from college board. They can rescind you if you didn't report them accurately.
Good luck.
Hi @Ryan27!
Yes, colleges will care. Admissions decisions are be based on the latest edition of your transcript, which (if you're applying regular decision) will include the first semester of your senior year.
Since colleges look at your high school grades as an indicator of future academic performance, it won't look good that your grades are dropping right before you go off to college (if anything, colleges like to see an upward trajectory across all four years). A B is not a bad grade, but I'd recommend doing everything in your power to finish strong this semester.
Colleges will receive a set of senior year grades — often before they have to make a decision on your application. If you apply by an early deadline, many colleges will request your first “marking period” — meaning the first quarter or trimester — before they notify you of their admission decision. If your transcript is like most transcripts and includes only semester or full-year grades, then that means, in many cases, your first quarter grades from the senior year are the only quarter grades a college will ever see. Even if the college does not formally request the first marking period, you will want to be positioned to send them anyway as a sign of good faith and a positive message about your academic momentum not petering out due to early-onset senioritis. Colleges generally don’t revoke admissions based on high school scores, unless they fall below the school’s admission criteria. B grades are still reasonably good. If you have a borderline cumulative, and if there is another decision choice on the part of the college, they could ask you to wait until a later term or to take a summer course for admission.
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