How does a graduate admissions committee consider junior/senior grades that are not yet available? When transcripts are submitted as part of your graduate admission's package, how can the graduate admissions staff consider your junior/senior grades, when your applying to the program a year in advance? Basically, when you submit your transcript, you will only have your freshmen, sophomore, and junior grades listed. How do the committee estimate your senior grades when they have not been completed?
You're right, most programs simply don't take 4th-year grades into account. If you want, you can send them an additional transcript once Fall semester grades are released (some schools will request that you do this), but for the most part that's just how admissions works.