Chances with not so ideal GPA

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>First post here, i'm currently in junior year at a highly competitive high school in NY. I guess things never quite clicked for me until this year so prior to starting junior year i have a 83.05 GPA (unweighted) which translates to about a 3.0 i believe. This year however I am taking physics (A+) precalc (A) Astrophysics (A/maybe A+) english IV (A-/A) USH II (B+). I have not taken my SATs but i am not too worried about them and will hopefully end up with a 2300+. I would like to note that teachers i have had would not write a recommendation about lack of intellectual ability but a lack of effort i.e. missing homework, not studying for tests. Obviously i wont be asking those teachers but i guess its something to mention. also my planned courses for senior year (so far) are AP calc BC, AP physics, Ap comp sci, AP chem (maybe), independent study in robotics.</p>

<p>extracurriculars:
President/ founder of our schools robotics club, along with 3 years experience with hobby robotics
Member of our model UN club
member of photography club
(might join math team)
teaching computer science/ electronics at summer camp (director is a caltech grad whom i know personally)
Varsity tennis for 3 years running
I've built several computers over the years (is this worth mentioning?) Like the whole painted custom case deal...</p>

<p>My school is well known for sending a high % of kids to the Ivy league and my guess is this gives my app a little more weight. I would describe myself as a "math whiz", i love physics and want to pursue something in the fields of engineering. At the moment I'm very driven and would love to pick up whatever advice I can get that would help me achieve my goals.</p>

<p>Well for a long time my dream schools were MIT and caltech, but those are slowly fading away with the realization that i dont have the grades to get there because my screwups three years ago hurt me now. I also really like John hopkins, cooper union, carnegie mellon, possibly stanford. Please let me know my realistic odds at getting in. Feel free to throw in any advice or wisdom. Any changes that i can make that will drastically increase my odds?</p>

<p>I forgot to add i'm irish/ japanese, although i look more asian.</p>

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<p>chance me please, i’ll chance back</p>

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<p>bump. anyone?</p>

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<p>GPA is low
ECs are average
sorry bud, I know, life sucks, I’m in the same situation GPA-wise except in my case it’s from transferring from an average public school with an A+ (95) GPA to a tiny uber-selective elite prep school (full scholarship). I was not as prepared as the students who had been there since freshman year and fell behind. It’s not from lack of trying, it’s that I simply was not prepared. My GPA for this year only is a mere couple of points higher than yours. 85 average. I feel like I have no chance in hell either, so don’t feel bad :/</p>

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<p>Um…That’s going to be tough >.< Cooper Union and Carnegie Mellon maybe but the rest are definitely reaches.</p>

<p>I don’t know what the trend in your grades is though; if you started off really rough and then got a lot better then that’ll help you out but if it was the other way around then you can forget it. Btw, I think Stanford ignores your freshman year grades so if its freshman year that was the killer (it is for a lot of people, myself included) then don’t worry too much.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/827313-im-first-my-family-go-through-process-can-you-please-chance-me.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/827313-im-first-my-family-go-through-process-can-you-please-chance-me.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>yeah just as i feared. I’m hoping that good grades this year along with a detailed essay about why my previous years were so bad will make up for most of the mistakes. Best of luck to you.</p>

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<p>in reply to your message on my thread, a rising GPA/grades is ALWAYS a good thing! What I’ve heard is that the GPA number itself doesn’t matter quite as much, but your high school transcript/grades matter a lot more than the number.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>