<p>Currently, I'm a junior in high school. Now, I'm going to be straight up and admit that my first two years of high school I didn't give a ****. I didn't pay attention, study, or do homework. Now, my junior year, I'm genuinely scared that I have truly withered away half my life and I'll never recover. My average GPA in high school is a lowly 3.0. I also haven't been involved with many extracurriculars and community service is non-existent in my resume. In other words, I am not Ivy League material. At any rate, I'm trying to get a prospect of my chances of getting into an Ivy League by now as possibly a transfer student (I'm aware that not all said colleges provide such an offer). </p>
<p>So, the question I have for the intellects that post at this forum is: do Ivy League colleges recognize a person that wants to turn their life around? If I do exceptionally well on my SAT's and ACT's, do I have a shot? If I become involved in extracurricular's now, will they acknowledge this? As for transfer students, do colleges prefer to look at what the student has done in college, or how he/she performed in high school? Would an exceptional essay on my application help improve my chances?</p>
<p>For that matter, is there anything I can do to help improve my chances? Already, I'm working on bringing my GPA up to at least a 3.5, adding community service hours to my resume, and getting involved in my school. Is this all minutiae in the broad picture or a good cause? Anyone with any advice to improve my chances at this point, please inform me.</p>
<p>Answers to any of these questions would be much appreciated.</p>