How to make up for a bad sophomore and junior year?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi,
I’m currently in my second semester of junior year (11th grade), with a 3.55 overall unweighted gpa and a 3.94 weighted gpa. I got 2 B’s in my sophomore year, and four last semester. I’m currently taking 2 Honors and 3 AP courses, and I took one AP class last year. I haven’t taken the SAT yet, but I know from the PSAT and multiple practice tests that I’m at least capable of getting a 2100 if I work hard.

My extracurriculars are all music-related; I’m a cellist (currently 3rd-chair, though I don’t think that really matters?) in my highschool’s symphony, and I’ve been involved in the city school music program since 3rd grade. I also participated in the city youth symphony for 2.5 years (I was the principal once, but that was in eighth grade…), and the local university symphony for a few semesters. I’ve also been in an active quartet for about 2 years, and I’m the president of our school’s ‘Young Musician’s Outreach’ club. Other than that, I’m involved with the California Scholarship Federation (which is basically like NHS, but only for our state).

Because of my mediocre grades, I’m unsure as to whether the extracurriculars I’ve done will even be helpful on my college apps? I want to go to a UC in-state, but ever since my grades dropped, I’ve lost confidence as to whether I will actually get accepted to a good one. My parents keep pressuring me to aim for “at least” Berkely, UCLA, or UC San Diego, but I really have no idea if I’d be eligible for those schools?

I know that a 3.5 gpa technically isn’t that bad in the eyes of some people, but the academic environment at my school is extremely competitive (to the point where even our teachers acknowledge that it’s unhealthy), and getting straight A’s is the “norm” for most students.

The main problem with my grades is probably that I’ve done badly in classes that I definitely could have gotten A’s in, and I can’t even make excuses for myself because I know that if I’d worked slightly harder, I wouldn’t have done that badly. Basically, my grades are the result of multiple instances of slacking off and distractions that I knew - even at the time - I would regret later. It might be too late to pick myself up, but I’m willing to take even the slightest opportunity to somehow make up for what I did.

I just want to know if I can do anything at all to make up for my grades. I know good SAT’s, extracurriculars, and A’s in the rest of my junior and senior years will definitely help, but I want to know if with all those, I could get into a good UC without my grades from last year and my first semester of 11th grade weighing me down too much.

Sorry for this really long post, and thank you for any help ~

2

It depends on your major, but they could be reach colleges.

3

For the UCs (and most other schools too, probably), it’s hard to make up for bad sophomore AND junior years. Those are the most important years! They are the only years the UCs use to calculate GPA.

If you look at Naviance, you’ll see that it is very difficult to get into UCLA, UCB or UCSD with a weighted GPA below 4.0. It’s actually pretty amazing, that 4.0 or 4.1 line is like a line of death - almost no admissions below that, almost regardless of test scores.

From what I can see from Naviance stats, for the high UCs you can make up for low standardized test scores with high grades, but not vice-versa.

For any kind of science major, I’d say you have a low chance at LA/B/SD, even assuming a 2100 SAT. For a soft major my guess is, with a 2100 SAT, you’d have a chance roughly at the admit rate for LA/B, around 17%.

4

Sorry for bumping this somewhat old thread, but my SAT scores came in a while ago, and I got a 2270! If you use my masterscore, I have a 2300.
Thank you for your help so far, but would anyone mind chancing me with this updated info?