<p>basically, I have a 2400 in one sitting. but i slacked off for much of freshman and sophomore year for a variety of reasons (boredom, disinterest, motivation), which was worsened by the fact that I fell really sick and bombed two sets of finals as well. Unweighted GPA after that episode 3.2ish.</p>
<p>Fast forward to junior year and senior semester one- took 11 APs, felt motivated to actually do well for once- pulled a 5 in all of the ones i've taken and predicted for 5s this year as well. GPA for upperclassman years alone is 3.8ish.</p>
<p>Is my case strong enough to tell selective universities (lower Ivies, top 20, etc.) that my recent improved performance merits admission?</p>
<p>Maybe if you emphasize the sickness and not the slacking.
But there will be competition with high test scores and a gazillion APs as well as a 4.0 GPA, so I wouldn’t count on it.</p>
<p>With a 2400 and, what overall, like 3.5 GPA, you could maybe get into a top 20 school. Even still you’ve got a great shot at a number of top 40 schools.</p>
<p>Do you have any long term extracurricular pursuits to counterbalance the lower grades from freshman and sophomore years?</p>
<p>Can you write a compelling story as to what brought about your transformation? I don’t think you should embellish your illnesses. Bad karma.</p>
<p>Certainly you’ll have many excellent options, even if not in the top 20. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Well, despite my problems in 9th and 10th, I still actively tutored people for free. I even had to start a new service club in my school because I couldn’t handle the number of people coming to me by junior year.</p>
<p>honestly, the transformation was mostly because we weren’t allowed to choose subjects with much flexibility till junior year, and some of the mandatory subjects just completely bored me. in Junior year, I took the APs that I actually wanted to learn about, as opposed to the classes that we all had to take by force. I know it sounds like a lack of dedication and stuff. but I found it difficult to focus on classes that I have no interest in learning about.</p>