Chance me for a scholarship? Low GPA, High SAT's

<p>I messed up my freshmen year pretty badly. Sophomore year, I took a ridiculous schedule (AP euro, ap chem, calc bc) don't know what I was thinking.</p>

<p>GPA(UW): 3.44 (will be at least 3.5 by the end of junior year)
Freshmen: 3.25 -1 AP
Sophomore:3.33 -3 AP's
Junior(first semester): 3.66 -2 AP's
increasing trend, but it still sucks </p>

<p>SAT: 2330
800 M, 800 W, 730 CR</p>

<p>PSAT: 221 not sure if i'll get merit because my gpa is awful :/</p>

<p>ACT: 30
I just took this for the first time without any preparation. I'll probably retake it but not study too much.</p>

<p>SAT subjects
Math II: 800 Chem: 680 (probs will not send this)</p>

<p>AP Test Scores
Calc AB: 3 (took freshmen year, however received a subscore of 5 when I took the bc test sophomore year...increasing trend?)
Chem: 4
Calc BC: 5, AB subscore of 5
Euro: 3 (rough, I know)</p>

<p>Extra Curriculars: Meh
2 years on FIRST Robotics
President of Quizbowl
qualified for top 1000 for MMPC math competition for 3 years
2 years JV field hockey, 1 Varsity
attended a science and engineering camp at smith college (not prestigious or anything)</p>

<p>My friend is attending this university in the fall, and showed me pictures from her visit. The campus is gorgeous and just seems like a good fit for me. Good school, but not Harvard-crazy. And from what I've read the social atmosphere would fit me haha. Not sure what i'm planning on majoring yet.</p>

<p>But the tuition is super high since it's a private! Are there any substantial academic scholarships I qualify for? At least 10k</p>

<p>thanks so much!</p>

<p>What state are you from, if you don’t mind me asking? Only reason is that your PSAT is high enough that you could very well be a National Merit Semifinalist, depending on your state and its cutoff. If you can get your GPA up by that point, you will most likely get to Finalist standing, which will guarantee you at least $16k from Miami plus $1k-$2k from National Merit Corp, depending on financial need. Other than that, I think you’ll have a good shot at the $16k even if you don’t get the National Merit, especially if you can get your GPA up by next semester. Apply EA, that’ll give you the best chance at the most money!</p>

<p>Michigan! my score is well above the usual cutoff but i’m still nervous about my gpa haha</p>

<p>I was in a similar situation, and based on my (and likely your as well) SAT score, I was invited for an interview for a Singer Scholarship, which covers four years of tuition. Most of the merit scholarship determination is based on SATs (trying to bump up our USNews rankings, after all), and the school does grant on average several thousand dollars of merit aid to about half the freshman class. With your SAT score, you’d be competitive for at least a half-tuition scholarship, if not more.<br>
It’s also important to consider the context of your GPA. the positive trend is a very good thing, although there are ways to explain a bad year on the common app (and especially during a scholarship interview if you’re good at talking!). Are you in the top % of your high school class? I would assume, unless you go to an insanely good high school, that you’re in the top 10%, which is really where you need to be for admittance and potential scholarships. You’ve been taking APs since freshman year (math APs no less!), so it’s not like you were doing poorly in easy classes.
Senior year is coming. Accept the transcript you have, and work on polishing off your essays : )</p>