ucla? uc irvine?

Question

im starting my junior year this fall, and unfortunately now is the when i start to worry about college. the past 2 years in high school was a bore to me, i didn't really try. freshman year, i ended up with a 3.4 average gpa, , sophmore year i ended up with a 3.5 unweighted. i took ap calculus AB and earned a 5 for the ap test, all other major classes were honors. yet my cummulative gpa was a bummed out 3.44. i took ap u.s history at a community college this summer for credit and got a B, im really worried that i wont get into UCLA or UC Irvine, i mean ucla is already a long shot off, im planning on working my *** off junior year and hopefully my improvement will be a major plus. in the fall im planning to take AP biology and AP calculus BC, as well as SAT II for bio, chinese, if i have the time i'll prep for math 2C (i regret no taking it fresh year). Im working on extracurricular stuff, im on my school's wrestling team and im also enrolled in the advanced orchestra...
so any advice?

i think i might still stand a chance with irvine, im currently prepping SAT's and im doing pretty well. if i happened to score a 2100+, can that get me into either of the 2 universities?

Answer 1

A dramatic improvement in your junior grades and impressive test scores may up your chance of admission fairly significantly. Try taking the ACT plus Writing Assessment as well and see if you do better than the SAT.

Your extracurriculars look fine; try to become captain of your wrestling team or volunteer to work with fellow team members to improve their technique (this counts as volunteer work) and try to get section chair in the orchestra or volunteer to work with fellow players to improve their technique.

You can opt to talk about your lack of motivation in the first two years of high school and perhaps a particular event that triggered you to kick in gear. UCs love students who've made mistakes and learned their lessons. You should be fine.

Answer 2

I think your instincts are right about UCLA (long shot) and Irving (better chance). However, if you keep improving, you will certainly be able to get into some good university.