Chances to get into Ivies, UNC, Pitt despite underwhelming awards?

If your username is a reflection of your real name, I would urge you to change it. For instructions on how to do so, see How Do I Change My Username?.

Does this mean you have no cost constraints (i.e. your family is willing and able to pay $80k/year for 4 years) or does it mean you have no budget (i.e. you need the university to cover your full need)?

As others have mentioned, you definitely don’t want to hide the fact that you’ve been working 28 hours a week while taking all these AP classes (and earning 5s of the exams) and keeping your GPA where it is. For any of your activities, try and be as specific as possible. Raised $x amount of money for genocide relief or coached/mentored y number of students in Speech and Debate, or successfully advocated for z programming through Student Council, etc… The fact that you’ve been doing those activities for three years shows longevity and commitment in your interests as well. I think you will be a strong candidate if you convey what you’ve been doing throughout your years.

Would you be happy to attend Penn State or Pitt if those were your only choices? Are those affordable for you? Except for UNC, all the other schools on your list are much smaller than those, so I want to make sure you’re happy with your likely/extremely likely schools. You will be very competitive for your reach schools, but because there are way more highly qualified candidates than there are spots, there will be top applicants who walk away without an offer of admission. It seems as though your college list has schools that are sub-10% acceptance and then likely acceptances with little in-between. Do you want other schools to help fill in that gap?

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