Usually GPA is the first cut off for college entrance. If you make the proper GPA and have a couple of D’s along the way, most colleges that look at individual grades will notice that they are in your Freshman and Sophomore years and will not give them any weight as long as your Junior and Senior year grades are good.

Another component that most schools look at is your SAT and/or ACT scores. If your scores are good, many students find that writing a letter explaining the improvement in their grades their junior and senior years to be helpful for college entrance.

You are also correct about being able to go to a community school, get your AA and then transfer to CSU. As long as you have earned your AA, CSU will give your college grades the greatest weight and not really care about your High School grades.

Good Luck and you are still easily on track to get into CSU.

elcid812 is right! You have plenty of time to get on track, and community college is a good way to get a better gpa. D’s of course don’t look great, but if you can manage a higher gpa and maybe re-take some of those courses you can do it! If you don’t believe it, I’m a perfect example. I wasn’t a slacker, but I never did too great in science or math in high school and I retook EVERY single science and math class twice (because I had D’s) and in my senior year almost failed a math class. My biggest problem was taking math classes that were too advanced for me. I think I got a 930 on my SAT’s. Not to encourage you to do a half-hearted job, put there is definitely hope for you, especially since you are recognizing it now and are willing to try hard to change. I know that requirements for CSU’s are probably more strict now [I graduated highschool in ’97], so all the reason to be more competitive. Good luck to you!

Community college. After 2 years, they won’t look at your high school grades anymore. It’s been my experience that community college transfers are usually some of the smartest people in the class. You can even apply for transfer scholarships if you do well.