<p>Your situation is one where you might want to consider a Gap Year. Not only will it give you an extra year of (hopefully excellent) grades to factor into your GPA, but it will give you an extra year to demonstrate the maturity that you clearly didn’t have in freshman and sophomore year, and the opportunity to explore some potential professional directions. Doing so allows you to assure the adcoms that you are now on track, focused and have something unique/interesting to contribute to the student body. Take a look at The Gap Year Advantage by Karl Haigler and Rae Nelson. Note that most of the top schools are very supportive of students taking a gap year - some like Harvard even encourage it. [Harvard</a> College Admissions § Applying: Taking Time Off](<a href=“http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/time_off/index.html]Harvard”>http://www.admissions.college.harvard.edu/apply/time_off/index.html)</p>