Do I have a prayer to get into any of these colleges despite my school's disadvantages?

You have an excellent chance. There are certainly some great video production “scholarships” out there on the internet that you should target in the interim to showcase your screenwriting. Is it Lexus or Toyota? Do a search, you will find some.

Make this summer HUGE. Either find a program to attend, or produce a video using your friends and either tripods & camcorders with post-production on an iMac, or look into the public access (or “goodness of their hearts”) facilities at local cable channels and/or local TV channels. Spend a few weeks with a friend/relative if you can’t find it locally and need to go out of town. You would be surprised how much more someone will help out a 17 year-old to succeed and follow a dream.

Or use animation tools on the internet to produce something locally. DO SOMETHING notable that you can showcase. Start mobilizing now so that it is set up and you have commitments in place and won’t run out of time in the summer. Get things lined up.

Second, pay $300 for one of the on-line prep programs that promise to increase your score by 4 points and try to up it 5 or 6. The test shouldn’t matter to your admission chances, and if you get above a 33 or 34 it probably won’t.

Then, look at Yale. And Chapman, as well.

Good Luck!