<p>I wouldn’t give up on Yale. I would apply Yale SCEA, but try to get that SAT up first. Your GPA is pretty strong.</p>
<p>Since you don’t want to apply to UCs, I’d go with something like this:</p>
<p>Safeties:
Colorado Boulder</p>
<p>And then:
UMICH
NorthWestern
Duke
Rice
USC
Emory
Washington@ St. Louis</p>
<p>Reaches:
Yale SCEA
MIT/Harvard/Princeton/Stanford </p>
<p>What is your ethnicity/income bracket?</p>
<p>Now for the rest: </p>
<p>Winning a competition, or being an Eagle Scout, or being a football captain are NOT hooks. They are Extra-Curriculars. Like I said earlier, a hook is basically something that you did not work to accomplish. (URM, geographic location, first generation, etc.)</p>