Colleges and Universities usually look at continuous improvement along with critical thinking skills. Your emphasis when interviewing should be on your improvement over time and which courses you have chosen to meet your goal in higher ed. Worst case scenario you may have to become a conditional accept, where you will be expected to maintain a required GPA minimum over the first two semesters. Extra curricular activities are added to this mix, along with community service. I suggest you visit or write and establish a relationship with an academic admissions counselor who can offer guidance to you for the last year leading up to your application process.

If you live in NC, possibly. If you don’t, you have no chance. Sorry. Because they have such high requirements for acceptance of in-state students that many valedictorians and top notch students from other states end up being wait-listed, or rejected. Try really hard for the next year or so. Colleges will often look at the trend in your grades, so if you did poorly your freshman year and have been drastically improving since then, they will place higher emphasis on your more recent grades.

Taking AP classes will definitely help. The higher level of a student you are, the more likely you are to get in.