Will my mediocre GPA kill my chances at T20 schools?

Berkeley and UCLA are both T20 colleges, they are in-state, and they do not consider freshman grades for GPA.

So you are still easily in the running for these.

An academic UW GPA of 3.83 is on the low sides for many of the colleges with the lowest acceptance rates, but it still puts you in the running.

HOWEVER.

There are a 2,000 non-profit 4-year colleges in the USA, of which at least 200 will provide you with a world-class education. Your obsession with 1% of your choices, for the mere fact that they happen to be popular, is not helping you now, and will likely not help you in the future.

College is no more than the next stage of your life. “Admission to a T-20 College” is not a very good life goal or objective. In fact, it is a meagre and mean objective for a teen. You should be thinking of what you want to do and who you want to be in life, and select colleges which will help you with that.

High school and college are both stages in your journey, and you are treating a midway point as though it was your destination.

I promise you, 100%, that your life goals will be achieved whether you end up attending a “T-20” or a “T-50”, or a “T-150”. All that obsessing over “T-20” will do is add additional levels of stress, anxiety, disappointment, disillusionment, and bitterness to you life.

Let me suggest that you replace “OMG, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE I HOPE TO BE ACCEPTED TO A T-20!!” with “I really hope to find a college which fits me academically and socially, where I will succeed and thrive, and which will help me do well in life after graduation”.

You have done well in high school, and should be proud of what you have achieved, so do not cheapen your achievements by treating them as no more than a price you paid in order to be accepted to a certain set of popular colleges.

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