Hi, AnthonyZ. I’m impressed by your thoughts and desire to navigate the college process. I agree with a few posters above that colleges are familiar with schools. I believe certain colleges have “affinities” for particular high schools, and vice versa. For example, our local HS has strong history with Claremont McKenna, Pomona and the other Claremonts. Given that the acceptance rates are around 9-15% for each school, you’d think our school would have one kid every few years, when in fact a few get into each almost every year. Likewise, nobody from our HS seems to get into Vanderbilt. All little red x’s on scattergrams! If your GC is saying that you’re not a “Yale school,” for whatever reason, perhaps they can tell you if any of your chosen schools have affinity with your high school. Also, from personal experience, having direct contact and building a relationship with each of your top choices Admissions rep (if they have a designated person) definitely helps. I saw it in both my kids processes, and the schools where they had deeper connection with the staff member, they were admitted. Could be coincidence or luck, by my intuition says this admission connection made a difference. Sounds like you’ve done this with Lehigh, which is a great school. Again, others have made suggestions for you on this front. Best of luck!
p.s. We couldn’t afford a private college advisor either, and I worried that my D’s application would not be as polished. She got into one of her top choice schools, so I guess her app was fine! (rejected from another top choice, so she’s batting 500). Colleges might be able to tell when an app is too polished – and i just learned that an acceptance was pulled by a college when they learned the college advisor had completed sections of the common app for the student. yikes.