At my (US) college, the first semester of freshman-level classes were taken pass-fail, so they didn't contribute to GPA. But that's quite a ways away, and still generally the exception. We will also sometimes report "In-Major GPA," which tends to represent later years more. I would argue the in-major GPA is more relevant than either total average or last-year average (as much as GPAs are relevant at all). This would be especially true at my college--people would finish all their major requirements early so their last semester was a nice relaxing victory lap of mostly electives.