Is this a deal breaker?

So In my freshmen year, I had pretty bad grades, and then sophomore year came along and I even worse grades. I’m in my second semester now and I have all A’s and I am sure I can keep them that way. I dealt with a lot of personal and health problems throughout those two years and I was even absent for a complete month. Freshmen year: 3.25, Sophomore year SM1: 3.19. If I find a way to end high school with a 3.76 UW, do I have a chance at the any of the Ivies? I have a lot of Extra Curriculars. I am even trying to start my own non-profit right now and it is in relation to two of my passions. I plan to take 10 more AP’s, and 6 more honors, along with other classes. I heard that an upwards rise helps a little.

  • I really want to apply to UPenn CAS and I am for sure going to ED there, but since I don't have the best stats do any of you guys think I have a chance. I am just really really anxious. Also, do you know any other colleges that you think I could get into based on these stats so far?

As much as I’m sure quite a large amount of people won’t say it, I think it is. Of course, if you maintain your goal gpa and have some outstanding extra curriculars, you can definitely give yourself a better chance, maybe something such as a high placing in a national competition (I would think big). If it were only freshman year, I would say you probably have a better chance, but you have to deal with your situation now. Maybe write an outstanding essay on the reasoning behind your decline. Don’t let my words discourage you though, good luck!

It is hard to say whether it is already too late for you to go to an Ivy League school for undergrad. However, it is certainly not too late for you to go to a very good school for undergrad.

I see in another thread that you are interested in “Psychiatry and Neurology”. I will take this to mean that you may be interested in medical school. For medical school you need among other things a very high GPA for undergrad. There are many (hundreds) of universities in the US which have a very good premed program. If you can get A’s from now on, then you should be fine in the long run.

Your primary focus needs to be to identify and fix whatever problems are causing poor grades, and start doing well in high school and getting a lot of A’s. Once you get to university you are going to need better than a 3.19 if you want to get accepted to any medical school, and premed in university is going to be a lot more difficult than high school.

@Afraid2024 I think you need to calm down and reconsider your thinking. Going by your posts, it looks like you are thinking two things:

  1. After averaging a B+ (at best) for three semesters, you absolutely have to take the hardest schedule over the next four semesters and get an A in every single class every semester to get where you want to go.
  2. If you do that, it may mean you can get into Penn, and you'll be terribly, terribly disappointed if it doesn't.

To be blunt, this is not the right way to think. If you feel you’re being a failure if you end up with four A’s and 2 B’s next semester (after what you’ve done so far), you are wrong. If you feel you are not going to be successful in life if you don’t get into Penn, you are also wrong.

I definitely wouldn’t say you can’t possibly get straight A’s with a very rigorous schedule for the next two years. I also wouldn’t say it’s impossible to get into Penn. I would say that very few people do either of those things after starting out with a 3.2, but that’s fine. Continuing to improve and getting into a good college that is right for what you want to do are perfectly good standards for success, and you definitely can do both if you try.