Like everyone else, I don’t want to be harsh, but you should know that the overarching quality you are projecting here is “impenetrable.” This is not a quality that colleges specifically seek.
Bottom line: stop focusing on colleges for which you are not yet qualified. This includes Purdue and all the others you have mentioned.
IF you get dramatically better grades this year than in the past, AND if you have taken the classes these schools expect, then you’ll have plenty of time next summer to consider whether to apply to such schools. Dwelling on it now is counterproductive.
For now, you have two constructive choices:
- Once you’ve solidified your course schedule, forget about college strategizing completely until you have junior year on the books. Focus on school. Re-evaluate once you have a junior-year transcript and also standardized test scores.
Or, - Focus mostly on school, but also put some thought into choosing prospective colleges that are appropriate for your current stats. This won’t be a waste of time, because even if you set the world on fire with this year’s grades, you’ll still need safeties.
That’s it. Nobody here wants to talk about whether a fantasy version of you could get into Purdue. The more unrealistic you prove yourself to be, the more convinced we become that this fantasy version of you will never exist. I do wish you the best, though, and hope you’ll go prove me wrong.
One more attempt at getting your thinking aligned with reality: Here are the high school curriculum requirements for admission to U of Cincinnati. (UC is much easier to get into than Purdue, but also has a top-notch Classics department, so it’s a good target to look at.) If you’re not on track to complete this slate of core classes, then your GPA, improved or not, will not matter.
High School Curriculum
The University of Cincinnati requires that high school students applying for their first year of college at the Uptown (Main) campus have completed the following Ohio college preparatory curriculum or their state’s college preparatory curriculum:
Minimum requirements:
4 units of English
4 units of math*
3 units of science
3 units of social studies
5 units of electives**
*Mathematics units must include 1 unit of algebra II or the equivalent of algebra II.
^^^^ If you don’t take these classes (and in many cases at least 2-3 years of foreign language as well), you will not get into the colleges you want, or even the ones you don’t consider “good enough” for you. Multiple commenters have told you this, and we are not blowing smoke, so please take the advice to heart and plan accordingly.