Terrible grades freshman year- will this ruin my chances of getting into grad school?

[katiejohnson]

Freshman year I went to a prestigious college in Boston and basically caved under the pressure, ending up with less than a 3.0 gpa. Then, I transferred to a school back home (not Ivy League by any means, but a decent school), was on the Dean's list every semester, and graduated with a 3.8 gpa (3.9 in major courses). Will this ruin my chances of getting into a good graduate program? In the additional comments section, should I write some sort of explanation on my application? Thanks for any input!

[psychgurl]

I got in and had a less than stellar record for my first year and a half (around 3.0). I switched majors and did much better. My intuition is that it shouldn't affect your chances nearly as much as junior/senior GPA. good luck.

[teamind]

Although I am only applying this season, and cannot say this with any certainty, my feeling is that your freshman year grades will not matter that much, especially since your GPA improved significantly. Based on other posts I've seen like this on this site, I would not make mention of your poor grades in the application.. it seems to only draw attention to it and/or seem like an excuse. the fact that you transferred will probably imply that the poor grades were indicative of some sort of program/school mismatch, personal issue, etc. Good luck!