<p>I originally dreamed about going to an Ivy League/Prestigious University, specifically Brown, Stanford, and UChicago. However, as I became more realistic, I realized that my grades and EC's are not impressive. My new number one is University of Michigan, even with being an instate applicant, it's a stretch for me. I have a 3.6 GPA (unweighted), however I have been taking IB courses. My ACT is a 29, but i'm retaking it in June after a self-directed, extremely rigorous, prep boot camp. I'm shooting for a 34. I do a lot of EC's but they're not anything special. I'm looking to add more, but I'm already a junior so it won't look as good since they're so recent. Also, my family is very low income, just above national poverty level and growing up was very difficult for me. I won't go into detail, but my family is very dysfunctional, on top of that, my parents didn't really know how to guide my ambition. My mom never graduated college, and my grandfather (my dad's parents were quite wealthy) had to bribe Albion University to let my father in. I go to an underfunded, inner city school with poor administration. However, we're ranked topped 2 in our state due to our test scores. We have a great reputation, but the entire school was forced to take the IB, none of the teachers know what they're doing. Only one of students has actually obtained the IB diploma (last year was our first year graduating students from IB) I don't know to what extent I can explain my family situation to a university. Would it even be something that I should mention? Would it be taken into consideration when looking at the rest of my app? Or would it seem more like a sob-story/excuse? Here are my stats:</p>
<p>Courses: (11th grade)
O hour band (had to take it before school since there's no room with my IB schedule)
IB SL math
IB SL biology
IB TOK
IB HL English
IB ab-initio Chinese
IB HL History
IB HL psychology </p>
<p>EC's</p>
<p>Class President
Founder of IB Improvement Club (works with students to explain requirements of IB Diploma due to my schools lack of understanding of the program)
Secretary of Mayor's Youth Council
Youth Grant Committee
Tutor and Activity leader for underprivileged youth
volunteer at Clark Retirement Facilities
Environmental Club
Swim Team Captain
VMW theatre and Chior </p>
<p>I'm working on adding these to the list:
publishing a novel
founding Literary Youth Association
Completion of Coursera Classes </p>