I think an upward trend in GPA plus perfect SAT and ACT scores will get you past the first assessment and at least into the look-at-the-essay pile.
Just checking— are the SAT and ACT scores actual scores or scores on practice tests?
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Tread carefully here. Reducing the hardship of other people in the developing world to something that helps an applicant understand their own privilege is a bad, overused, and tone-deaf trope. Please, please rethink this.
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For the sake of the full list, I would still urge the OP to bank recs from a STEM teacher and a humanities teacher, preferably from late in their high school experience.
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This is not my final prompt. Someone else posted some easy prompt ideas, but I’m scared because I don’t have a super unique experience/situation/trauma to write about
Breathe. They want to know you. They don’t expect you to have had a traumatic experience at such a young age. You have time to work through some authentic ideas. Just don’t use the challenges of poverty in the developing world as a lesson on your own privilege. It’s been done before, and it will not help your case.
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Ok. Assuming I write an amazing essay, do you think I’m still competitive for NYU despite my gpa
It’s all about the trend. If you can explain it and your recommenders can attest to your growth and development, shoot your shot.
Have you already gotten that 1600 SAT and 36 ACT, or is this a “Chance me IF I can get a perfect score on a standardized test to balance out my lower GPA” thread?
You’ve already related that your essay and letters are just an idea, at this point. Your upward trend began in first semester of junior year (meaning last semester). Are those scores your hoped for scores, or have you already gotten those scores, for real, on a real test done at a testing center?
It’s perfectly fine to be honest with us, to ask, “Would I have a chance at NYU with a low GPA IF I can get a perfect standardized test score, get wonderful letters, and write an amazing essay?”
The answer to that is to try your best, get another straight A semester, do your absolute best to prep for a standardized test, and consider how best to present yourself in an essay. Take a practice ACT and based upon that and your PSAT experience, decide which test you should prep for. No question that a very high standardized test score will help. All of these things would help you no matter where you were to wind up applying.
Avoid the essay topic of “I went to an exotic poor place, and it opened my eyes to the reality of poverty in the world, and now I want to save the world”. It never comes off well, and college admissions officers have been really turned off by this for over 35 years, by now, ever since the Central American mission trip so Buffy would have something to write her college essay about first came into vogue.
Under the circumstances, with your grades having only picked up at the beginning of junior year, you might be better advised not to ED anywhere highly selective, but instead to plan on all RD applications, because three very strong semesters look a lot better than two.
Even with perfect test scores, such a low GPA implies that there have been significant issues that might impede future academic performance. Two great semesters, when weighed against the previous four, would at best yield deferral, I think, on an ED application, and more likely rejection. Your idea of ED2 might actually be a good one, not because you’re waiting for another EC achievement to come out, but because IF you can get straight A’s spring of junior year and fall of senior year, it would allow those grades, including the fall of senior year, to be considered, cementing a strong upward trend.
So, do your best, don’t ED1 anywhere (since it’s likely to yield a rejection), and make sure to identify safeties that you’re happy to go to. NYU is unlikely, but if you can get straight A’s from now on, and get a very high test score, and continue your EC achievement, I do think that your best shot at NYU would be an ED2 application.
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I disagree because this student needs to show as many good semesters as possible, grade-wise. By applying ED2 they give their counselor an opportunity to include 1st quarter or 1st term grades, and a 12th teacher’s recommendation indicating how they’re doing in a rigorous, advanced class.
Do not write about your struggles freshman year - provide a worksheet where that’s included and let your GC explain.
Do NOT write about what you did in Jamaica except as part of a larger essay involving your CURRENT AND ONGOING participation in a volunteering project with recent Jamaican immigrants or a similar charity in your town’s low-income area. Otherwise it comes off as “poverty tourism” and it’s not a good look. Good essays come from being observant and thoughtful. A great admission essay dealt with a student riding at dawn with her dad across iced-over/cut down corn fields for a calculus exam. It conveyed intellectual curiosity, the joys&hardships of living in a rural area, ambition, fear, etc. Walk around your neighborhood and pay attention, look for little details, feelings, ideas they evoke, and write them down. All sorts of little notes that can come together later. Read The 79 squares, an old YA novel by Malcolm Bosse, to see what I mean and get started. 
What would be good safeties and low matches for you?
Start there - you need 4-5 universities you WILL grt into for sure, can see yourself attending if push comes to shove, and that your parents can afford. Can you visit Rowan, Drew, Seton Hall (3 academically solid but very different universities) as well as a couple from Rider, Monmouth, Fairleigh Dickinson, Stockton, Montclair?
Other safeties/low matches that you should be able to visit: West Chester U, Elizabethtown, Susquehanna, Manhattan college, perhaps Bryant.
As for your question -Is NYU ED2 a possibility? If you keep getting straight As it’s not entirely out of reach but for sure your GPA will give them pause. But ED2 is probably your best bet there.
In terms of academics, have you taken
-4 years of English and History/social science?
- math through calculus?
- level 4 in a foreign language?
- bio, chem, physics, plus 1 more science at AP level?
- art, music, etc?
- courses reflecting your academic interests?
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Shoot your shots, but definitely have realistic safeties. A member of my family had similar stats (35 act 1540 sat) and ended up rejected at most of his schools, including ED (rejected, not WL), got one acceptance and two waitlists. It was tough. He was diagnosed adhd senior year.
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No I am proud to say that I did study really hard and get a 1600 on the SAT. It was my second time taking it, my first was low 1300’s. TBH, it’s a shame that even a 1600 can’t balance my grades out but it’s a learning experience. I’m just sad because I have a lot of competitive friends and I’m worried I’m gonna get left in the dust
I have taken 4 years of math, English, and science, but only 3 years of history because my school doesn’t let us take Honors or AP history freshman year. Wind ensemble and entrepreneurship are the only ‘free’ classes I’ve ever taken so it’s not like I was underperforming in super easy classes
Also I heard their Liberal Studies Core is easier to get into do you think that is out of reach?
Congrats on hitting it out of the park!!
If you really have that 1600 on record, then I do think that your plan of no ED1, but pick an ED2 IF you can keep up the momentum and get straight A’s this semester, and first semester of senior year, puts you in a good position to show a massive upward trend. It’s the most you can do.
Come up with a different essay. Your ECs look pretty darn good. Let the guidance counselor explain your poor grades in 9th and 10th, not you. You use your application to tell the positives of your story, and your future goals.
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I know it’s hard to do, but please find a college that is a good fit for you and don’t compare yourself to what your friends are focusing on.
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It’s worth applying for, but make sure you read what it is carefully and check with your parents that they’re willing to be full pay for that. And yes, if you apply ED2 you’d have a shot.
But make sure you know what the program entails -there’s almost no flexibility.
Curriculum rigor sounds good, likely to get the “most rigorous” checked.
If history/social science isn’t offered freshman year it’ll be specified on school profile, you’re fine.
For math, will you reach precalculus? Calculus?
Make sure you reach level 4 (3, in a pinch - less competitive but often not disqualifying) in a foreign language. Or do a summer program at Concordia Language Villages. But all in all you’d be competitive.
You can apply to colleges out West. When your friends say they’ve never heard of them tell them it’s due to distance. Add 1 or 2 your friends will find prestifious and ifyou don’t get in well 
But with these exceptions, all in all, don’t create your list with others in mind, because YOU will be spening FOUR YEARS at that college, so you want it to be thr best possible fit.
Pitt likes high test scores BTW if you want a larger, city school.
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