Just a note before you read any further: I have a rocky past with academics at both ends of the spectrum and I’m entirely aware of it; please don’t be disrespectful about it 
Just putting this here because it feels like most people here are ivy hopefuls with 4.0s and whatnot…
I have a science transfer degree from a VCCS school with a 3.7 gpa which looks good in itself, but because of past blunders I have 2 consecutive withdrawals in intro calculus (yikes) and a lot of classes that were “repeated” or unnecessary because of following another school’s GAA (I took 2 semesters of both bio, art history despite having AP credit with scores of 5s from high school for them for W&M GAA and lost premed plans). My transcript doesn’t look too terrible on the surface but-- at least to me-- the repeated/unnecessary courses and imprudent, impulsive withdrawals due to a lack of direction and motivation are huge blights. I can write a killer essay illuminating those flaws (my semester gpa/class load gradually fall off and tell their own story), get great recommendations & I have decent somewhat-relevant ECs, but I’m not sure it will be enough. My high school record is even worse; I’m basically your textbook example of the “lazy genius” archetype with over a dozen AP exam scores of 4-5 and a ~2.5 GPA and polarized performance depending on my mental state anywhere from a 4.0 in a workload of 8, majority AP classes to C’s and D’s across the board some years (not quite as bad in college).
Basically I have a rocky record but enough to evince a degree of high potential when there’s direction & motivation and the ability to explain my shortcomings without looking for exoneration for them. Having a specific career path rather than a vague idea is something that came late for me and undoubtedly has a lot to do with said shortcomings. This post is probably entirely too superfluous as I tend to ramble into the realm of reduncancy when it comes to things I’m worried about such as this, so I’ll cut it off here even though I could keep going for ages.