As the end of our high school years slowly approaches, we realize that our grade point average (GPA) is not exactly where we want it. But we cannot bring it up anymore, because it is simply too late.

Sometimes, our grades as freshmen are what brought our GPA down.

This is an understandable situation to be in, as ninth grade is a huge adjustment. Academic expectations, social life, and even the transition from middle school to high school cause stress as a freshman. 

Ninth graders have to find their own study habits and learn how they personally learn best, especially with the new difficulty of classes thrown at them.

Although it is difficult to adjust, school goes on and we do receive grades, though they may not be great.

The majority of colleges do see freshman grades, so trying harder as early as possible will keep your dream colleges attainable by keeping your GPA as high as possible. 

In the past, upperclassmen and other people have given freshmen “advice”. 

They advised freshmen to relax during their freshman year and work hard for the rest of their years. In my opinion, however, this is not good advice. 

Freshman year is a good prediction of how the rest of high school, and even college, will progress. Research shows that the higher a ninth grader’s GPA is, the more likely they will be to go to college.
In a study done by UChicago Consortium, they identified a relationship between a student’s freshman GPA and their junior GPA. 

The student’s grades were nearly identical.

Also, if a freshman gets used to not caring about their grades in ninth grade, it will become harder to start working hard for the rest of their high school years. Ninth grade teaches students how to study and the most effective way to do well for themselves personally. Students learn about their strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they think and what makes them successful. This year is an important time to learn time management, something students may not learn if they slack off for a year.

Furthermore, ninth grade is the foundation of your learning in high school. Failing to understand some concepts early on will make it harder to catch up in the future. 

Nevertheless, colleges do like to see improvement in grades, so a bad freshman year may not be as harmful as you believe. They are generally more lenient when it comes to freshmen grades versus sophomore and junior grades. 

Some colleges do not even factor in freshman year into the overall GPA.

On the other hand, if a student has great grades as a freshman, but is not able to maintain those grades for the rest of their high school years, colleges will not be impressed, and the decline in good grades will be looked upon negatively.

Colleges may not look at freshman year’s GPA with too much weight, but they do look at overall high school GPA in high regard, and your freshman year GPA is factored into that.

Ultimately, ninth grade is an important year and will pave the way for the rest of high school. However, if getting good grades is not a reasonable goal, there is no need to stress too much, as there are always other ways to compensate for bad grades.