Freshman year I did not do good at all. My final GPA was 3.3 in all academic classes. I ended up finishing English with a C+ which my first ever C.
I am a Sophomore now and first marking period I got A’s and B’s and once C in honors geometry. The second marking period is ending very soon and I have never done so bad before. I have straight C’s across the board and I have never been so upset. I know I am capable of a lot more, I have just gotten so lazy.
Next year I plan to take all honors classes and AP but what I want to know if i still can go to a decent college?
Penn state is my all time favorite school and I would love to go there. So that is the school I am basically asking about.
Other options i would consider:
Rutgers NB
Umass amherst
U of Pitt
Are my chances at Penn State ruined or any college at this point? If not what do I have to do to get accepted?
Btw I only have two honors classes this year, History and Geometry. And sorry for any typos.
what’s your overall GPA? anyway, you have 2 years to get your grades up and just make sure you do well on standardized tests.
well I still have the second half of sophomore year but my GPA after freshman year was a 3.3
But this one awful marking period is going to bring down my sophomore gpa
I would say you can still go to pitt or maybe penn state branch campus
I really don’t prefer a branch campus I will do undecided and summer too to increase my chance
If you do well during your junior and senior years and have standardized test scores that are above average for those schools, that should help to balance out poor grades as an underclassman. Don’t sell yourself short, and don’t give up! Speaking as someone with a really low GPA in 9th and 10th grade, I promise that if you work hard from here on out you have a good shot at the schools you love 
Good luck!
If you want Penn State Main Campus, you’ll need to apply as early as possible (Sept 1st senior year), ask for DUS and summer session, and bring your grades up to have a 3.4-3.5 GPA. Don’t overdo it on APs since GPA matters more, but take some honors classes to increase curriculum rigor.
There are PLENTY of colleges in PA, NJ, NYS, and OH that would admit you with a 3.3, but the more you increase that GPA, the better.
However, note that there’s no financial aid for OOS public universities (and you’re unlikely to get merit) so your parents would have to be able to fund 35-45k out of pocket. You can only take $5,500 in loans for freshman year (based on what a college graduate can reasonably pay back, the recommended total is $27,000 total for 4 years).
If you want to go OOS, you may want to look into private colleges since there’s no difference between in-state and out-of-state.
If, during a trip, you’re near a college, make sure to go visit. Or, better, if you know your family’s going somewhere, make sure to include one college visit. Could be West Chester U, Elmira, Washington&Jefferson, Penn State Erie, Susquehanna, it doesn’t matter, visit (take a tour and, if you can, sit in on a class, eat in the cafeteria, read the college paper) and think about what you liked and what you didn’t like. This will help you generate your list.
thanks but also on college board it says 23% of students had a 3.25-3.49 for penn state so why does everyone on cc make seem like its extremely hard to get in if you have less than a 3.5
because you also have to take into account of other factors like SAT/ACT scores and ECs
true but lets say you get a 1850 and a 3.4 GPA according to recent websites I’ve been looking at those stats give you a decent chance
In the next 2-2.5 years, you better load up on ECs (inside and outside of school) that you can write about and relate to yourself in your application essays. Try to improve your grades so that you have mostly A’s and only some B’s (because colleges like to see year to year or semester to semester improvement). It’s too early to tell which colleges you’ll get into, but try to give yourself a better chance. Yes, you may match or be slightly about the average stats of those typically accepted, but that doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed or very likely. You might as well improve your chances while you can instead of thinking that it’s okay since your stats match the stats of those accepted in the past–college admissions can be quite unpredictable. I do think that you have a decent chance at Penn State so far though.
If I were you I would buckle down and aim for a 3.5 and solid test scores because you still have a lot of high school ahead of you
Dont get me wrong, I’m not settling for what I have now. I’m gonna aim to get the highest gpa possible I just wanted know how common it is that someone under a 3.5 gets accepted.