I really need to raise my GPA

Answering this question is a little tricky. First of all, admissions officers will be at least somewhat understanding. Many students faced very real struggles academically and otherwise during the pandemic, and this is why the Common App has a COVID-specific response in addition to it's normal "additional information section" where you can expand on the ways in which the pandemic has hindered your academic success. I also just want to note that it's likely all going to turn out all right. Whether or not you can raise your GPA significantly and get into highly selective programs like the UCs, you will still surely be able to have a great college experience that will prepare you well for a variety of careers. The more you can raise your GPA before next fall, the better. That said, even if you can't improve it at all, there are still plenty of schools you can get into with a 3.02.

The degree to which you can raise your GPA depends on a variety of factors including how many classes you've taken up to this point, how many classes you're taking right now, and how many you can take next year. You may be in an especially difficult position at the UCs because they mostly only consider sophomore and junior year grades. At other schools, I'd recommend applying regular decision instead of early action so that you have more time to improve your GPA during your senior year before you submit your applications. Chancing you just from your GPA is basically impossible (your chances of acceptance at any school also heavily depend on your standardized test scores, extracurriculars, essays, course rigor, and demographics). For the UCs specifically, whether or not you live in California is also very important. 3.02 is quite low for any of the UC schools (according to our data, the UC schools with the lowest 25th percentile accepted student unweighted GPAs are UCSC at 3.28 and Mercer at 3.29). If you're specifically interested California state schools, I'd also recommend looking into the Cal State programs.

If you want to see your chances of acceptance at the UCs and/or other schools, you should check out our chancing engine! (Just fill out your profile and then head over to the 'find schools' tab.)