I have a GPA ~3.2 because I did poorly on my courses during my freshman year. I am currently a junior. I did terribly during my freshman year because I was experiencing culture shock and I was burned out. At that point I was thinking of being CS major and I took a class that was more advanced than my skill set; that was a big mistake, and it not only affected my grade in that course but in other the courses I was taking as well, including calc 2 (I got C).
The thing is I knew calculus well enough – I self studied it when I was in sophomore highschool and I also took it my senior year high-school, and I got all As in my high-school math. But due to lack of time and being burnt out I didn't practice enough for the final. I also had spent most of the semester trying to manage my CS class.
The following semester I had very low confidence in myself, and so I also did poorly on multivariate calculus (got C+), but my gpa was slightly higher than the first. Again I didn't practice enough for the final although I knew the material from self studying.
After avoiding math for a semester, I decided to take linear algebra, abstract algebra, real analysis, vector calculus, and combinatorics, over two semesters. I got A/A- in all of them. I hope that since these are advanced classes than calculus that they demonstrate that math acumen is not terribly low.
Currently, I am thinking of applying to Math REUs and I am having doubts whether the programs that I apply to will consider me a viable candidate due to my grades in my freshman year also considering my calculus grades. What do guys think I should do?