But I digress. My point is that if a school knows that you don’t need financial aid, even though it’s need blind, and you have the academic qualifications to get in, you’re possibly more likely to be accepted than a middle class kid who is not an underrepresented minority, with the same qualifications as you, who they think is likely to need a lot of financial aid. After all, someone’s tuition has to cover someone else’s financial aid.
Even though you have all the basics covered, is there anything at which you are really, really, stand out from the crowd good? Anything? Colleges are looking for kids who have discovered their “passion”, be it in music, sports, science, arts, whatever. It’s total BS to expect that a 17 year old has found his life work; in fact, I would say that the 17 year old who has specialized so much in one area that they’ve already put in half of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours (such as a person well on their way to becoming a professional musician), is NOT the kind of person who is going to be able to take advantage of a well-rounded college education. They’re too busy working on their already-discovered passion. But if you want to get into the top schools, they want to see that you’re already focused on high achievement in a single area. So if there is something that you’re really good at, you want to hone it and compete in it and show achievement in it, so you can say, "Look at me, I’m a straight A student, I have perfect SATs, I am a leader in extracurriculars, I do charity work, and in my spare time, I’m a (pick one) concert pianist, olympic athlete, founded a national charity that’s been written up in the New York Times - something of that sort. Now, clearly, it’s a little late for that level of focused achievement, but you may still be able to portray your strongest interest as your “passion”, even if you aren’t going to the Olympics or performing as the guest soloist with your city’s symphony. And if you can still do something with it before you apply, like leading your chosen activity on a citywide level, or something in which you can achieve at a very high level this year, you should try to do it.