I am a girl going to senior year in high school this fall. I really screwed up my junior year and sad to see my gpa really low…2.6. I am planning on trying really hard in senior year but is it too late to try? I really want to get into either USC or UCLA but my gpa isn’t high at all. I have at least a 2070 SAT score;want to major in engineering or in the medical field. What can I do to make myself look better? I do a sport called kendo, attended a camp for job shadowing at a hospital, volunteered at a library for 1.5 years, and am going to work there this summer. Is senior year not enough to cover up for my junior year???
For UCLA, they only use 10-11th grades in their GPA calculation: http://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Senior grades are not considered in their admissions. They are used to maintain your provisional admission.
USC considers 9-11th grades along with 1st semester senior grades, so you have a chance to redeem yourself somewhat, but 11th grade is considered the most important grade in college admissions.
If you have extenuating circumstances that caused your lower GPA, these can be addressed in an additional comments section or essay.
Calculate your UC GPA and also your cummulative GPA. Based on what you have posted, both schools are highly competitive and are your chances are highly unlikely even with a good SAT score. I would focus on schools where your Stats are above average for the best chance at an acceptance.
Here is the Freshman profile for UCLA from last year:
http://www.admissions.ucla.edu/prospect/adm_fr/Frosh_Prof14.htm
Here is the Freshman profile for USC:
https://about.usc.edu/files/2014/10/USCFreshmanProfile.2014.pdf