chances of a junior who's trying to recover from past screwups...

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>I'm currently a junior who's starting to look at colleges and i was wondering what hope there was for someone like me, who basically did not realize school counted until junior year, has at getting into a top 30 or so school. I know that realistically i should be aiming lower, but i've been working my butt off so far this year and i was wondering what the brutal honest answer to my future is. </p>

<p>My test scores and whatnot are pretty decent - i have a 2380 on the SATs and a 800's on both my sat 2's. I haven't taken any ap tests yet but the two i have coming up this year shouldn't be too difficult to get 5's in (ap bio and ap computer science a). I have two teachers who can guranteed give me sicknasty reccomendations, my guidance counselor loves me, and essay writing is probably the thing i excel at academically. My extra curriculars could be worse - i have hundreds of hours of community services at reservations and stuff for the homeless, i've placed at regionals for Future Business Leaders of America twice, i've played trumpet pretty dilligently for the past five years or so in school and am part of the bergen youth orchestra, and i'm playing varsity golf. However, my gpa just flat out sucks. My freshman and sophomore year combined have been like a 3.0 but for my junior year i'm well on my way to a 3.8-ish. My rank is pretty horrible right now but i think i'll be well within the top 15% (though probably not top 10%). So even though realistically i'll have to apply to the likes of Rutgers and whatnot, what are the chances of me getting into somewhere higher up like say Georgetown or Berkeley or even by an offchance a lower ivy league like Brown or Cornell. I know my chances are pretty freakin slim and i'm not begging for hope but i'd just like the honest truth about how i should approach this...</p>

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<p>Don't bow out of the race just yet. Often, the type of colleges you're hoping to look at are reconciled to a bad GPA by the existence of an upward trend in grades...from a 3.0 to a 3.8 is a pretty huge upward trend and I think it clearly speaks of a growth in personal maturity. With great essays and great ECs, I don't see why you <em>shouldn't</em> be a competitive applicant to all of the colleges you listed (however, as a warning, even lower league Ivies (:) lol) tend to place emphasis on grades, but I think the upward trend will be your saving grace. Don't count yourself out yet.</p>

<p>Best of luck to you!</p>

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<p>just wondering, are you from California and if you are, which section of FBLA are you from?</p>

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<p>considering he said he was looking at Rutgers, ima assume ur from jersey
As am I....</p>

<p>anyway, dude you should probably count out Ivy leagues because many people who have perfect GPA don't get accepted into those.</p>

<p>As for decent colleges, you should be fine. A 3.2-3.4 (what ur avg after junior year would be around) is pretty decent, expecailly considering all the toher idiots out there</p>