Freshmen! Class of '27

As new students to Steele, Freshmen will be experiencing Dual-Credit and College classes for the first time. Dual-Credit classes are courses that give you both high school credit that will go towards your graduation and college credit that will go towards your associate's degree. These classes can be hard and, at times, a lot of work. In order to succeed in these classes, you must have determination and commitment to success. There are plenty of resources at your disposal that can help with studying, note-taking, and test anxiety. Just ask a teacher- or especially a peer!

The class rank system orders students on academic achievements. The student with the highest GPA will earn the first rank, followed by the rest of the students in descending order. The higher the class rank the more scholarships and grants will be awarded when applying for college. It is important to work hard to maintain your GPA as a freshman to ensure that you can keep a high GPA in the future. Class rank can be found in HAC under the transcript tab. 

An important thing to remember is that before you take any Dual-Credit or college courses, you have to take the TSI (Texas Success Initiative). This test will be provided to you through Steele and Tarrant County College. 

Freshmen take 3 Dual-Credit classes during their Freshman year. In the first semester, as a Freshmen, you will take Learning Frameworks, a starting class on the basics of studying, academic honesty, and more. This class will introduce you to college, the environment of college, and what you should do as a college student. You will also learn how to live a healthy and well-balanced life as a college student. In the second semester, as a freshman, you will take Speech and Kinesiology. These courses will require a passing grade on the English Language Arts portion of the TSI exam.

GPA stands for Grade Point Average.  Keeping your Grades up in the 90s will give you a 4.0 and 80s equal 3.0. If you take AP classes your weighted GPA will increase up to  7.0. Your weighted GPA will calculate your class rank. Colleges look at your GPA to see if you took challenging classes and how you did in your classes, looking at your effort.

Remember that GPA is not everything. Colleges do look at GPA but most importantly they look at what you can input into their campus and how well you fit what they want in a student. Put your mental and emotional health before your GPA :)