I’m a freshman with horrible grades (I have straight D’s ATM but they will go up) due to horrible mental health issues. I feel like I’ve ruined all my chances of going to a good college. My top schools are NYU and USC
Focus on your mental health before you worry about what college you might attend (and no student should be targeting any particular college/colleges until junior year).
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Yeah make sure your mental health is prioritized for you, and you will probably see your grades get better as that happens. For me I also had no clue about any colleges until if I am being honest the day before some college apps were due, now this may not be the smartest decision to do but make sure you can visit as many college campuses that you can. For reference I am a senior in high school now and recently got into both NYU and USC as well as UCLA. Throughout high school I also did not have straight A’s but if you take challenging classes colleges will like that, and would rather see a slightly lower grade in an AP class that a slightly better grade in a non AP class.
Agree with @happy1 and also focus on studies and life in general.
Also, you may want to consider changing your handle on CC if it’s your real name.
First of all - deep breathes.
Second - take care of yourself. Focus on making sure that you are healthy, not on which college you may or may not attend in another three years.
Third - there are 2,000 non-profit 4 year colleges in the united states, and at least 300 of the are better than “good”. The point of college is not to have a diploma with a well known name on it to wave around. The point is to further your education, and to further develop your self as a person. For anybody, a “good” college is one that will help them do that.
Your mental health is far more important than attending a “prestigious” college. Who you are will always be more important that the school that you attend, and it is very difficult to be who you can be without taking care of your health, including your mental health.
So your priorities should be:
A. Your mental health and the health of the rest of your body
B. Your emotional health.
C. Your high school academics.
D. Your life outside of school - the stuff you do because you want to do it, not because you have to do it for school (AKA “extracurriculars”)
That’s it.
At the end of sophomore year, you can add:
E. Thinking about what you want to do after high school.
In Junior year:
E. If you have figured out that college is your best choice for your life, this is when your figure out what you need and want from a college. Once you have that, you find colleges which will provide you with what you need and want. Then you find which ones have requirements that match your grades and activities, and which ones are affordable. But that is in another two years, not now.
Just try your best and show upward trends. I got bad grades fresh/soph but I showed upward trends and still got into a good school for computer science.