Help for college!!!!!!!!!?

Question

I had bad grades as sophmore and freshmen(2.9), and as a junior, first semester, i got a 3.4 unweighted, and a 3.7 weighted. Considering i get a 4.0 unweighted (4.25 or so weighted), what extra curricular activities can i take to try to make up for my bad GPA, and what other things can i do to ensure that i go to a good college. I also wanted to know if there are any good colleges that would accept me in CA, ideally U.C's. I looked online, and their GPA average estimates are insane, but hopefully i can make up for my screwing around the last two years. PLZ, can anyone help me??? Thanks

Answer 1

The better UCs (UCLA, Berkeley) typically do not accept unweighted grade point averages lower than 3.8 - however, there are always exceptions for exceptional students. I know that private schools are more willing to accept people who may have had bad grades, but you would need to explain (very well) why you received the scores you did for those years. I'm sure you could make it into UC Riverside or Merced, since I think the government recently made it mandatory for them to accept students living in California (regardless of grades).

Answer 2

Extracurricular activities will never make up for grades - only other academic measures, like test scores, can do that. The extracurriculars are used to differentiate among those who meet the academic standards. You may have trouble with the UCs, given your early grades (although the UCs don't look at freshman grades at all, so if your freshman grades were worse than those you got as a sophomore, it may help you), but you should be okay with many of the CSUs.

Answer 3

Maybe you should consider a community college because they have an open door policy so grades do not matter as much. You can also tutor, sports, or volunteer. Good luck.