Have I ruined my college chances because of junior year?

<p>I'm freaking out because I feel like I'm ruining my chances of getting into a good (by good, I mean UCs (excluding Berkeley and UCLA) and places like NYU, BU, and schools similar to those) college because I only have 1 AP class and 1 honors class my junior year (this year). This is because when I scheduled my classes last year, I wanted to reduce my workload from sophomore year a bit so I'd have time and energy for more extracurriculars and to study for the SAT but now I seriously regret it because they say junior year is the most important...my gpa is like a 4.1 though and I do have an upward trend in grades but have I still completely blown it? I also had signed up for AP Psych for junior year but I wasn't placed in the class because it wouldn't accommodating with the rest of my schedule. I retook the SAT in May because I was unhappy with my original score and I want at least a 2250 by the last time I take it which will be fall of this year. I'm planning to take 4 AP's senior year so would this balance out my mistake I made this year? Please give me some advice, I'm really freaking out and I'm so angry at myself because of this and I feel like an idiot and that I've blown my chances.</p>

<p>Many of the applicants to these schools are taking 7+ AP courses by the time they graduate, but that’s not to say you’ve “blown it.” If I were you, I would write on the application why you took fewer AP classes and how you’ve tried to fix that (with the 4 APs your senior year, which is progress!). Try to boost your SAT as best you can. The AP is likely the low part of your application, along with your GPA (due to the lack of the AP classes) but if you can justify it, you’ve got a chance. Don’t beat yourself up. Everybody makes mistakes. </p>

<p>while junior year is very important, it’s even more important to continually challenge yourself, so while it’s not great your course load isn’t currently very challenging, colleges will be happy to see that you took it up a notch senior year to challenge yourself</p>