Hello, CC. I am going to be a senior this school year, and I currently have a 3.5 cumulative GPA. My junior year GPA was around a 3.3 (with AP and honors classes). Sophomore year GPA was slightly higher (with AP and honors classes), and freshman year GPA was the highest (mainly on-level classes). I scored a 2100 on the SAT, but I am not in the top 33% of my class. My failures are not due to excusable things like unfair teachers/extracurricular interference/having multiple jobs/family problems/depression/anxiety/ADHD/dyslexia/theft of homework. Rather, they can attributed to chronic procrastination and video game playing. I realize that I may seem unsuitable for college entirely. However, I am positive that I could do much better if I improve upon my work ethic.
Hypothetically, if I were to make all A’s my first semester of senior year (also AP classes), how would that affect my college admissions chances? Do colleges even consider a student’s 1st semester senior grades? I read somewhere that most private universities do, but most public universities do not. Is this true? I’m aiming for colleges with top CS programs (UIUC, Georgia Tech, UT Austin, etc.) and I want to know whether I’m screwed or not. Thanks.
It would help. It may or may not be enough to compensate for the otherwise downward trend, and junior year grades are super important, but it will certainly help. How much? Only time will tell.
All A’s next fall would be helpful. I will say, however, that lots of people say they intend to get all As next year but few really follow through. As-is, I wouldn’t totally discount your chances at those schools you named but they are pretty unlikely. All A’s next fall would move some of them from the “not very likely” to the “possible” category. Still, you should have some safety schools picked out in case those don’t work out.
I did want to specifically comment on your statement:" I realize that I may seem unsuitable for college entirely.". That’s not true at all. Your SAT scores are very good and your grades aren’t all that bad. True, they might not be good enough to get you into top schools but they are good enough to get you into at least 3,000 of the 3,500 undergraduate institutions in the US. The fact that you don’t study non-stop every day and enjoy video games and that you might procrastinate on home work is nothing special and is very common.