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- A freshman receives graded assignments from his teacher.
by Connor Vasu
Many freshmen are surprised to find out that the grades they receive do not count toward their GPA. However, freshman grades do matter.
It could be easy to zone out due to all the distractions of freshman year—especially if you hold the belief that the grades you achieve do not matter.
Freshman grades serve to place students into curriculum levels for the next school year. If a student who did not put forth his best effort in a class suddenly realizes, the following year, that he is in a class level unfit for him academically, then he might have dug a hole for himself he cannot get out of.
Freshman grades are more than just a letter on a piece of paper. They represent the effort a student puts into a class. Grades, hopefully, represent good study habits and a positive work ethic.
Whatever habits a freshman develops in his or her year at the school will be kept throughout the next three, for better or for worse.
Some students say that because their grades do not into their GPA, they do not count. It is true that colleges do not necessarily base admission on freshman grades, yet the habits one develops throughout the freshman year do matter in the long run.
So while the grades a freshman receives may not count towards his or her overall GPA and college admission, they provide the building blocks for the skills one needs to learn in order to do well in this school and for the rest of one’s life.