Hello!
I applied to Columbia ED and was deferred. This worried me to some extent because although my new SAT score was terrible (1380) I thought I had an ok chance given I’m double legacy (aunt, cousin), and music (I majored in music). I was deffered Uchicago EA and admitted to Bard college EA (though not enough financial aid- 18,000 out of pocket, which is to much for our family).
My GPA is 3.92/4.23 W,
my SAT (retook) = 1420, AP: 5 APUSH, 5 APLANG, 4 AP lit (took soph year), 3 AP stats (not good at math ;/.)
Extracurriculars:
Pianist, winner of numerous local, state, international competitions, performed internationally; appeared on radio and TV. played since age 4.
I surf 
This is rather important to me, though obviously getting admitted to any of the schools I am applying to will outweigh my love of it (as long as I can take a gap year and get it out of my system :D).
Volunteer at a cancer research lab at USC
Lead a club that interviews survivors of the Second World War.
part of a folk dance group, perform internationally (occasionally).
Essays: great; compare relate my homeschooling experience to surfing, talk about how playing piano has shaped me to be who I am. Both are 9/10.
Recs: one is really good, Counselor’s is fairly generic (though she does talk about certain extremely difficult life circumstance I faced in hs), so 9/10, 7/10.
hooks: legacy at some of the schools I am applying to (though not direct), so Harvard, Upenn, Columbia, U Chicago. low income, in a location that is extremely low income geographically, homeschooled??? (is that even a hook tho)
Schools (Music major for all):
Columbia: deferred, ED,(indirect), legacy
U chicago: deffered, indirect),EA, legacy
Stanford: RD
Boston college: RD
Harvard: legacy (indirect), RD
U penn: legacy, RD
NYU: RD
Brown: RD (yes, I know Columbia and Brown are different, but I like them both in different ways).
Yale: RD.
Bowdoin: RD.
Wash U: RD, letter of rec from alumni.
UCLA, Berkeley, UCSD, UCSB.
USC: RD; letters of rec from alumni/ know half of the piano proffs at Thorton (though I stupidly missed the deadline for submitting a supplement, so who knows what good that’s going to do me lol).
As you may notice, very few safeties- if I don’t get in anywhere, I will simply do Community college for 2 years and transfer to a UC after that. Cheap, and getting into top UC is way easier that way.
Yes, I know my test scores suck, but then I never was good at tests- I suppose the homeschool environment has lead me to value slow careful thinking and trying to craft the perfect essay over trying to write one in 45 minutes, though colleges will probably hold that against me.