Before I begin, I apologize for the terrible writing and my seemingly-arrogant attitude. I reread this and it seemed really prideful, I apologize for that. I was just trying to be straight to the point; I guess missed out on a lot of sympathetic phrases! It was not my intention 
Also, I wrote this extremely fast because I have to get on with my school. Hopefully, everyone can look past this.
Hi everyone. I really don’t know much of anything when it comes to American college admissions; I live in a small city in Canada and, for the most part, live in an extremely remote cottage. With that said, this forum has given me such incredible insight. If you could please evaluate my story and compare it to other applicants with stronger ECs applying to t50 schools (top10 as well, please), that would be extremely appreciated! My story is probably better, but my ECs are much worse. I’d love to know how that is evaluated by college admissions.
The Story:
So I started homeschooling with my mom in 2014 for my grade 9. It was an extreme failure. I did like 30 minutes of school a day, I was only taking a few pass or fail courses, and it took me two years to finish such an easy workload. After that, I continued for whatever reason. Same school, more pass or fail classes, and more failure. After that school year, I wasn’t even halfway through. I was going to drop out at that point. It wasn’t working, and I didn’t want to go to the “great depression” high schools that my old friends talked about so often. I would have had to see all my friends and explain to every person why I fell 2 years behind.
I needed to decide what I wanted to do: live off my decently-wealthy family and continue on my path to becoming unemployed and unenducated, or work for another three years and embarrass myself to everyone I knew. I decided that, because I wanted to become apart of this technological revolution and make myself proud, I would try again at school. I found an actual online school where I could do it myself, without any help apart from payments and the odd email to a teacher.
Online schooling might have a negative connotation here. After all, there are few opportunities for a student to demonstrate their leadership and personality. This isn’t to say there is no advantage an online applicant will have when compared to a normal applicant, however. I have done this entire process (8 APs, near 5.0 GPA, 35 ACT, Summer courses to catch up, etc.) without much of any help. I was alone in this process. In online school, you aren’t really taught a subject-- you are shown it. There is little to no accountability, meaning that keeping up with any course load is extremely difficult, especially will so many APs and summer classes. Most students fall behind on their average school load (according to my teachers). You are all but forced to do work in extremely distracting environments; rather than working in a class, I’ve worked by a pool, at my lake during summer with my friends, at multiple resorts during travels, during holidays, and even during a road trip. Anywany, the point is that I learned and showed a lot of characteristics while doing online school and recovering from those terrible first three years; my story might not be as impressive as all these awards and contests, but I’d like to know where I stand.
I have great stats, great recommendations, and writing is my best subject (probably surprising, considering this was so poorly written), so my essay shouldn’t be too bad (can’t possibly know how it will compare). The only problem is the story vs ECs. I didn’t really do anything for ECs, apart from some other courses, some business pursuits, investing, etc.
TL;DR
Though I would love it if you would read these three, terribly written paragraphs, I’ll still include a quick summary here.
-3 years of absolutely terrible high school, no progress, no
-Took a risk and did another three years, even though it was easy for me to quit (family financial support) and would be embarrassing to do 6 years of high school and summer school.
-Pushed myself and really excelled in every academic challenge I was faced with.
-Did everything by myself with very little help
-No accountability means staying on track is extremely difficult
-Working in really distracting environments
-All of this has taught me some extremely valuable life skills: self-motivation, determination, discipline, intuition, etc.
I really don’t know any other (if I am one, lol) top50 school applicants, so I don’t know how to compare. I do, however, think that a lot of these applicants are in an environment where top 50 schools are expected of them. I think a lot of these kids had really high expectations and were put into an environment where they had plenty of chances to meet these expectations. I, on the other hand, had the expectation of unemployment and a dropout, but here I am. No disrespect intended for these other applicants. I respect them an incredible amount for the time they put in. They are likely a better applicant than me-- I just don’t know where I fall on this scale.
Maybe there is a school out there looking for someone like me? Let me know!
Thank you, so much, for your time!
And thanks for letting me repost this on my other account, Skieurope.
Again, if anyone knows of any schools that you think would be a good fit, please lmk!