I had a bad Freshman year. Will this effect my applications to colleges?'
Freshman year was my COVID-19 year where everything was online, and I had severe depression at the time. Currently, I am a Junior taking two AP classes and have had almost straight A's (with the exception of one or two classes which were graded B+) since sophomore year. I have also taken four honors classes in the past and am currently enrolled in two (that aren't APs). Even though my grades are much better now, would colleges reject me for a bad Freshman year? If so, are there any things I can do to improve my initial look when applying?
I don't mean to dictate how you write your essays, but I don't think it'll hurt to show how you were able to recover from a bad year. It's also going to be important to keep up your grades as colleges won't just care about your past grades, but will also notice improvements made, even up to your senior year. You're gonna be okay, this happened to a lot of us.
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I was in the exact same boat. I'm a junior too, taking a few APs, but freshman year was hard! But it happened to everyone, and colleges know that, so they'll be more gracious when considering those grades. There is also a section of most applications in which you can explain circumstances, and it would be a great place to include information about your experience during COVID-19. Also, it sounds like you're showing an upward trend it grades, which means your grades got better as your classes got harder, and colleges will appreciate that too. I believe you'll be just fine. Best of luck!
make sure to include these experiences in the "do you wish to explain any circumstances in this application?" part of the common app.
I'm sorry to hear that you had severe depression. However, I don't believe colleges look at your freshman grades. But that doesn't mean you should slack off! The grades you get in those classes determine your GPA. Anyways, I think it's great that your grades improved over the years! I don't think they will reject you just because your freshman grades were poor. They look at other things, too!
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While that sucks that you had to experience that, there was really nothing you could have done about it. Colleges know that COVID was hard, and as made evident by the MCAS from my freshman year (Also during lockdown) you will be graded less harshly than others who got to start high school in normal times. It might be good to mention how you recovered from the hard times in your application essay since this shows perseverance and the ability to come back after a bad experience. PT1