<p>I don't know what happened this year... I lost motivation to do well and I don't know why. I do consider myself smart, but I guess I just let my procrastination and laziness get the best of me this year. I'm really disappointed in myself because I fell like 10 years of working my butt off to get great grades have been ruined by this one screw up of a year. :( Even if I got the chance to explain the drop in my grades, I don't really have an excuse, other than saying that I learned from my mistakes.</p>
<p>Freshman and sophomore year I got almost straight A's in top level classes all four marking periods. Then junior year came, and well, I got a D+ (69... so close) and a couple of C's, plus I had more B's than A's. My final grades range from B-'s to A's, probably averaging about B-ish. And, no, they didn't get progressively better, either. I did get honor roll every marking period of high school except one, but that's not very impressive, and I think that one D will be my downfall.</p>
<p>I've taken 3 AP classes so far, but by the end of senior year I will have taken 5. I got a 4 on one of them but I haven't gotten scores back for the other two I have already taken. I don't know if colleges take those scores into consideration or not.</p>
<p>I don't have many extracurricular activities either. All I did was marching band for sophomore and junior year (and signed up for senior year). Also I have been in concert band every year but since it's a class I don't think that counts. Haven't done any volunteer work either but I might do a little over the summer if it will help.</p>
<p>I have taken the SAT twice and my highest score was 2100, but if you combine the highest score on each section between the two tests its 2130. I think that's good, but I don't know if it's good enough. Once I got a perfect 800 on the PSAT math but my highest math score in the real SAT math was 710 and I don't know if colleges look at the PSAT or not. Maybe if I take the SAT one more time I can get a better math score but I don't want to count on it. Haven't taken the subject tests; don't know much about them... maybe I still will if they would help me.</p>
<p>I don't know exactly what I want to major in, but I know that I want something in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) area. I love computer programming and am strongly considering that, but I am also considering some sort of computer-related engineering because of the suggestions of others. Really I just want to learn more about each field before I make up my mind I guess.</p>
<p>So anyway, obviously not ivy league material lol. I live in Pennsylvania and am looking for something in-state. I was thinking Penn State Main Campus and I think I can still get into that, but also I was looking at Carnegie Mellon because it's a good engineering school and relatively close. I probably could have gotten into this school if I kept my grades up junior year, but now I think I won't be able to especially since I don't have extracurricular activities. If you have any other recommendations, I'd be interested to hear your ideas.</p>
<p>If I can get straight A's in difficult classes during my first semester of senior year and work really hard so I'll be able to get awesome teacher recommendations, will this help my chances of getting into a good college or am I pretty much screwed? Please help me, I am so mad I myself for getting into this mess. :/</p>