What is my chance of getting into a good college if I do great my junior year?

I did not do too great during my freshman and sophomore years of high school. My freshman unweighted GPA was not too bad around 3.72. However I only had one extracurricular during this year. During my sophomore year, my GPA dropped because of laziness. My sophomore unweighted GPA is about 3.4. I also had no extracurriculars during this year. I took a practice SAT before and got about 1400 without studying. I got 30 on the pACT without studying. I believe that if I study really hard I can get the max score on these tests. My question is if I get close to the max score on the SAT and ACT and get close to a 4.0 unweighted GPA during my junior year, what are my chances of getting into a good college. What are the best colleges that I can get into if this happens?

Home state? Geographic locations? Public or Private Universities?
HS course rigor?
Intended major?
What can you and your family afford to pay each year?
Looking for need-based and/or merit aid?

My home state is New York and I’m looking to get into private universities. I took 4 honors classes in 9th grade and 5 in tenth grade. I’m taking 5 honors classes in 11th grade as well. I am not sure about how much my family can afford to pay. I’m looking to get the National Merit Scholarship next year.

You are definitely on the right track but until you are at least midway through your Junior year, have a PSAT score that makes you NMF eligible, I would focus on finances and have the talk with your parents. Knowing how much they can spend vs. how much you will need does narrow down college choices for many applicants.

Always compile your college list from the bottom up, so identify 1-2 safety schools which are affordable and that you are willing to attend no matter the outcome of your acceptances.

Best of luck and hopefully more posters can chime in with recommendations.

I definitely agree. If you keep it but and get around a 3.8 junior year (unweighted) then your gpa would be around 3.5. This is not very high for better-known colleges, but since you are looking at private schools then maybe not as much of a difficult task.

Your ACT seems to be very good and probably give you a nice discount in college. You SAT is on par with you ACT. So take either one and that should suffice. It makes up for the GPA. But for general admittance from what I know right now, your acceptance should be good (as in a solid chance for admittance). This is because of the hard classes you were taking. Best of luck to you!