Chance me? Low GPA, Decent SAT scores, Please respond.

<p>Hi so this is my first post on here so I apologize to everyone if I do anything wrong.
I'm a senior in a Fairfax County Public High School (In Northern Virginia)
I'm applying to some pretty competitive schools and I'm really worried I won't get into any of them :(
Here are my stats
Female, Asian
Weighted GPA: 4.035 (Unweighted: Not sure, somewhere around a 3.64-3.67 something) (Freshman-3.771, Soph-4.114, Junior-4.3 2 HS classes from 8th grade average GPA: 3.75)
SAT score: 1 sitting (highest) 2210, superscore: 2290
Subject SATS: 760 Math 2, 630 (yeah REALLY low I know) World History
EC's: Captain and cofounder of my school's policy debate team, Robotics team for three years, hospital volunteer, Mock Court/Trials, NHS, English Honor Society
APs- World (4), US History (5), Macro (4), Micro (4), Chem (3- Really bad I know), Lang (4)
Senior Year APS: Calc AB, Lit, Gov, Bio
Here's the thing: My cum GPA would be a lot higher (somewhere around a 4.2) if not for my freshman year - basically my grades from Freshman year are weighing me down and I'm afraid this going to prevent me from getting into the colleges I want to go to. This year so far I'm doing pretty well, and I predict by the time second quarter ends my GPA for this semester will be around a 4.3-4.4. If I average this in with the rest of my GPA, I'll have a 4.1 something, but I still don't know if this will cut it.
Anyway here are the schools I'm applying to:
College of William and Mary
UVA
Washington U in St.Louis
Cornell
Virginia Tech
George Mason
NYU
UMich
VCU</p>

<p>WashU, UMich, UVA, NYU, Cornell, and even William and Mary are reaches, so I'm very worried. Can a good essay help save my low GPA?
Gosh this post is long, and very indicative of how stressed I am about this. Please help! </p>

<p>I was in a <em>very</em> similar situation as you when I applied to schools, and YES essays can really make a difference. Don’t give up! I’ve probably already posted too many personal details on the internet, so feel free to PM me if you want to hear the whole shebang. Good luck in your college applications!</p>