<p>Freshman and sophomore years were probably the worst years academically for me. I did averagely and my GPA is a 2.48 or something like that. I'm not very proud of my decisions in the past academically. I mainly focused on my social life during that time period and I regret it deeply. I'm starting my junior year this fall and I'm planning to take 6 AP's during my junior and senior year. Assuming that I receive all A's or mostly A's in those AP classes + my other classes, receive a 1900+ SAT score, and manage to raise my GPA at a 3.0, would I still have a shot at getting into UCSB or USC? UCSB and USC are the only 2 colleges that I absolutely adore and would DIE to get into. Seriously, I'm going to be extremely devastated if I find out that I don't even have a CHANCE into getting accepted at one of these schools.</p>
<p>You are making a lot of assumptions about how much different your last two years of high school are going to be from your first two years on top of assuming you are going to get a good score on the SAT. People actually have really turned things around late in high school after a bad start. I had a 1.6 GPA at the end of my junior year in high school but suddenly came to the realization that I needed to change the direction I was headed in or I was going to be a draftee in the U.S. Army as of June 1969. Instead, I truly changed and managed very high grades my senior year, got into college where I did well enough to get into medical school and am a practicing physician now. </p>
<p>So, it can be done but it will not be easy and you have to be determined to overcome a lot of obstacles. You will have to work very hard and there will be inevitable setbacks along the way but you can not let yourself give up in the face of adversity. Like I was, you are way behind your college bound peers in skills, knowledge and general academic background at this point and catching up to them and then surpassing them will require nothing less than a 100% commitment to your school work during the rest of your high school career.</p>
<p>If you are determined, will not give up in the face of adversity and make academics your only priority I think that it is very possible that you will make it to UCSB. It is all up to you right now.</p>