Personally, while The New School may be the easiest to get into on your list, I would say it is one of the finest on your list when really considering what you would like to study and achieve during college. I applied and was admitted to Eugene Lang (3.2 & 29 ACT, Student Government Secretary, Head Design Editor for Yearbook, extensive list of volunteer work and extracurriculars). The New School, being the home of some of the best programs of their kind in the world (Fashion Design at Parsons and Vocal Performance at Mannes), also has some of the best resources for high profile internships and career ops. What attracted me to TNS was how progressive and modern it was - and obviously, the location. If you are truly considering TNS, I would say retake the SAT and get as high as you can - not for a higher admittance chance, but for scholarship opportunities. Your GPA is well in the ballpark range for a generous scholarship, but if you don’t have any extracurriculars, it won’t mean much to a school like Eugene Lang. I was awarded about $25,000 a year in gift aid, but in June, after I had already committed to TNS, they sent out a pamphlet saying the cost of each program, and mine (Dual Degree w/Parsons) was well over $75,000, which blew me away because I had been falsely directed to think it would only cost around $60k. Do whatever you can for your reach schools, but remember that everything your doing just to get into those schools is just increasing your scholarship money for TNS.