GPA, a three letter acronym that we all know just a little too well,  also known as the compilation of all of your grades and their weights throughout all of your classes during your high school career, but do you really know what this can mean in terms of your future? As unimportant as it may seem, freshman and sophomore year are very important in terms of ones future, these two years are essentially the building blocks and main structure on which you will place the rest of your high school career on. If you are unsuccessful and lacking academically during your first two years, catching up your junior and senior year will be ten times harder.

For me in particular, GPA has always kind of been this looming weight over me as soon as I began high school. I never really understood what it meant, until later in my sophomore year. Meaning that I didn’t realize my lack of effort early on would have major repercussions later in my high school career. It doesn’t feel that important in the moment, I mean, as a freshman it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal; you feel so small in a huge new environment, and it feels like a few bad grades here and there won’t make a difference later on. Looking back on my choices during my freshman and sophomore year, I know I didn’t put forth as much effort as I could’ve and I really regret that now.

As a general rule, A’s and B’s are very important as well as AP and Honors courses, these advanced level classes along with a heavier workload also end up weighing more towards your GPA than academic classes. Though this is true, these heavier weighted classes are only worth it if you are anticipating on getting A’s and B’s. Knowing this now, I would’ve made a few different choices when choosing classes early on. hat ends up happening is students will get C’s in AP courses when they could’ve gotten an A in an Honors or academic class for the same or a larger grade point average. This being the case, the Honors or AP credit isn’t worth all of the extra work at the end of the day because colleges would rather see higher grades with lower level classes than lower grades in higher level classes. Knowing this now, I would’ve taken higher level classes in topics I found to be a little too easy, this simple decision would’ve made a big difference on my GPA later on if I had known to do so.

It is very important to not confuse this point with not putting the effort towards more challenging classes, because as much as colleges love to see high grades and a high GPAs they also like to see students push and challenge themselves, while succeeding at the same time. Rather than just doing the bare minimum in order to get by. This is one thing I have noticed is very common among freshmen and sophomores, with all of the new freedoms you have there are a lot of new responsibilities and a lot of new students don’t realize that till later on. Just because the first two years tend to be pretty easy and grades don’t seem like they will catch up with you, but the do and this will show up later on.

Extracurriculars are also very important to have going for you as a high school student, having these show that you spend your time being not only academically successful, but that you can also be involved in the school and in the community while simultaneously maintaining your grades. I think that if I was more involved in school functions early on, I would have a lot more to offer for colleges now, this is because colleges love seeing students that push themselves in many different ways, but you must be aware that if your grades are slipping, you cannot rely on extracurriculars to hold you up. This is one thing that I really regret now, I focused so much time on my extracurriculars my junior and senior year that when my grades started to slip I didn’t really feel the need to worry; I thought my extracurriculars would suffice for lower grades.  The main thing is just making sure to be as well-rounded of a student as possible, allowing for challenge but not to much that it diminishes your efforts.

During my first two years of high school I didn’t really make an effort to get involved in extracurriculars or push myself to study a little harder to get an A on an upcoming test rather than a B or a C. I started getting really involved later in high school, with student council my junior and senior year, but it wasn’t enough. I really wish I had known the real meaning of GPA and how it would affect me later on, I found out too late and although my current GPA is not bad, it is still above the average and I started getting involved in a lot of extracurriculars my junior and senior year, I know I could have done a lot more if I had been more informed earlier on. When applying to colleges I was sure to be a shoe-in and I got denied by one of my top choices. My grades and extracurriculars were not what they could have been and because of that I got denied.

Applying to college can be scary and stressful, and the main thing is just to try your best as soon as you enter your freshman year, this will make things a lot easier and less stressful for the years to come. The harder you try now, the more it will pay off later on, you will thank yourself for pushing through to study harder and get involved in more things in and outside of school when you receive that acceptance letter to the school of your dreams. It’s better to do your best early on because just getting by until the last minute with GPA, will not suffice because you cannot procrastinate. If you do, your poor grades and lack of involvement will catch up with you, it’s in your best interest to do your best year round, you will be so happy you did.