Chance me please! UChicago, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Duke

I’m probably not going to articulate this very well, but I think, based on the info you have provided, ND will be a tough one for you. (I have two daughters currently attending, so am pretty familiar with their admissions.) Yes, your ACT is at the top of their mid-range, but everything else looks somewhat ordinary. Yes, you have taken a ton of AP’s, but your GPA is well below those that I have seen gain admission. Those can be overcome, however. If you have some kind of hook, that will help. What is most important at ND, though, is fit. ND is a unique place, and when looking to build a class, Admissions looks to see that applicants understand and embrace the mission of the University and can articulate how they will contribute to the community they will be a part of. They look to your supplemental essays to gauge this. Part could also depend on where you are applying from. If you go to a school well known to ND, that might help, particularly if they are familiar with your school’s relative competitiveness. This could alleviate the concern about your low GPA. The flip side to this is if there are several applicants from your school that have relatively better GPAs with similar rigor, you won’t be as competitive in comparison. As someone already said, though, without the full picture it is very hard to chance you, particularly for schools where subjectivity is so important.

Sorry this is so long, but the only other one I can speak to from personal experience is U of C. For them, the essays are everything. If you knocked those out of the park, you stand a chance. If you look at the CDS for the schools you listed, ND, Duke, and NW all list GPA as being either important or very important and at least 90% of students were in the top decile of their high school class. U of C does not publish their CDS, but the only data I could see said that number was 75%, so, as I said, perhaps your essays could overcome your class rank/GPA.

I don’t mean to discourage you, and I am not saying you won’t be admitted to one or all of these schools. I am just saying, particularly with regards to ND, it will be tough. Good luck!