If I have two D's on my transcript, can it be compensated with a high SAT score? I'm looking towards Cali and NY schools

Answered

Getting Ds in any class never looks good on your transcript unless you got them in 9th grade and have since rectified your track record with mostly As and Bs.

California schools are very tough to get into with gaps or low marks on your transcript because of a number of factors. a.) Ca schools are extremely competitive given the 40 million residents that live in the state. b.) Ca schools are highly sought after by Int'l and out-of-state residents c.) Ca state schools use their own GPA re-calculator and the threshold cutoffs are based on the UC Scale or CalState Scale GPA standards. Certainly, other private CA colleges like Stanford, USC, OXY, Pomona, CMC, CalTech, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, and Pitzer will also negatively scrutinize Ds on your transcript.

While having Ds will make you look less attractive to NY schools like Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Vassar, Colgate, Hamilton, RPI, Union, Barnard, etc, you might fare okay with some of the lesser SUNY schools (State University of NY campus). There are a lot of NY SUNY campuses to choose from.

suny.edu/attend/visit-us/complete-campus-list/

If you have time, I highly recommend using your summer to re-take the AP courses online to have them expunged from your transcript or at least show admissions officers that you made a concerted attempt to correct your poor performance in college-level courses.

Good luck