<p>Please take the time to read...</p>
<p>If I retake the SAT before I graduate, could my score be a crucial factor in admissions if I want to transfer after 2 years (as a junior)? Or would my low GPA--low enough to warrant my not applying at all this past fall--still destroy my chances of gaining admission to top schools? Should I even waste my time retaking the SAT, then?</p>
<p>This is assuming I develop a very good academic resume in college, and that the affirmative implies that colleges can look past a low GPA in high school if one has a high GPA in college but still consider the SAT important (in that everything works in my favor). Would this be as futile as a freshman applicant's applying to top schools with a high SAT score but a low GPA?</p>
<p>What I mean is--I had no prospects as a freshman applicant, so I only applied to schools I knew I could get into (didn't want to waste the time or money). Could I use my first two years of college as a means of becoming a competitive applicant for top schools? Would they regard ECs done toward the end of my senior year (say I won a $10,000 college scholarship contest) as more important or would they just blend them in with the rest of my abysmal high school career?</p>
<p>I'm just trying to look forward, but I know 4 years can't go unnoticed. Any advice is welcome</p>
<p>Low GPA = 3.4 (downward trend)
Top schools = NYU, Columbia (I'm naming typical schools in NYC because I don't have any schools in mind. I hadn't done college research as I only applied to CUNY)</p>