<p>I had a little... er.... very unfortunate... we'll call them "extra-curriculars," distracting myself from the classroom early on in HS. At the prep school I was attending... that didn't fly too well.</p>
<p>I cleaned up my act (no pun intended), merely hoping to get into the state school... I really worked my ass off this entire year, and I had a lot of fun in the process...
Then I wrote the ACT... With virtually zero prep got in the 99th percentile on the first stab.
I had a 3.4 GPA going into my Junior year. Should I maintain over a 4.0 (ending up with a 3.6 cumulative) for the rest of the junior year, take the ACT and get maybe a 34 or 35 next time, do the SAT/Subject tests and the works and score in a similarly high range as my PSAT indicated I would, would I have any sort of stab at Yale???</p>
<p>Ultimately there is no cutoff for GPA or SAT scores, and if you can show them in your senior year that your down days are behind you (with good grades and an upward trend), plus your fantastic ACT/SAT scores can prove that you actually know your stuff and are working hard to compensate for past mistakes, and if you can maybe get your counselor to explain a misleading past record in her recommendation, I think you have a shot! Maybe you should write your essays on what brought you down in the past, that would be kind of effective I think. Good luck! The whole admissions process is a crap shoot anyway. Plus if it's your dream school then you should apply because anything is better than not trying and then regretting it later, right?</p>
<p>Low grades and behavior problems would put you at a serious disadvantage, but a 4.0 over 4 years wouldn't have given you better than a 1/4 shot anyway. Working your butt off would get you into many good schools, but unless you've got something amazing ( or get recruited ) the chance's aren't good. I would suggest considering some less competitive private schools or good state schools.</p>
<p>SAT's and ACT's really don't play a huge role. Like anything else, if it's too low, it will hurt you, but even if you get 2400/36 you'll still be in the same pile as everyone else with a shot.</p>
<p>sorry grades will be too low and your class rank probably wont be top 10%. most likely too low for yale. unless you have a hook like URM or awesome essays</p>
<p>It isn't Yale's job to cut people slack. with tens of thousands of applicants and less than 2000, highly coveted seats, they can't afford to take a chance on you :( But aim high, it certainly won't hurt. congrats on your turnaround.</p>