<p>Low-income (financial aid is important)
Gender: Male
State: MI
Race: African-American
School: 'Under-served' (popular term here) public (sends no one to top schools)
GPA: 3.8uw (upward trend, straight A's after freshman year, story to it)
ACT: 28 (re-testing, expecting 30+)
Rank: Top 5%
No APs or Honors offered
Essays: Good - Great
Recommendations: Good</p>
<p>ECs -- In school
Community Service (Sophomore, Junior)
Robotics Electronics Team Leader and Mascot (Senior)
National Honors Society (chapter found senior year) (Senior)
Art Club (Founder, cut due to funding) (Sophomore)
Summer Job (Freshman, Sophomore)
Non-Profit Work (Sophomore, Junior, Senior)
Strengthening-Condition (Freshman)
Stage Hand for Theater Productions (Senior)
Youth Program (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior)
Selling Artwork ( Sophomore, Junior, -- Not sure if I should put this, as I can't prove it)</p>
<p>ECs -- after graduation
Robotics Team Mentor and Mascot (being a mascot is awesome)
Non-Profit Work
Part-time Job (looking for another)
Volunteer at local Academy (Helping with an Art Class, possibly starting a chess club)
Selling Artwork(?)</p>
<p>Hooks: I supplemented my formal education by taking advantage of my local library's resources. Racial, socioeconomic, and geographic (and probably intellectual) diversity. (?)</p>
<p>Yale
Brown
UPenn
Amherst
Northwestern
Vanderbilt -- Peabody
UMich -- LSA, Residential College
MSU -- Honors College (with a higher ACT)
Rhodes College
Calvin College</p>
<p>Please chance me at all my schools, with and without my improved score if possible. And feel free to suggest others schools! Thanks!</p>
<p>My whole application is lacking. My scores' lacking; my GPA's lacking (I don't have APs or Honor courses under my belt after all); my ECs are lacking. Of course I'm lacking ECs. You may not have noticed, but I was lacking in opportunities. My school offers one sport: basketball. I started half of the clubs in the school: Art club. The other one was robotics. No, I didn't do any academic competitions, but I didn't even know they existed. I didn't even know about the PSAT until after I graduated. </p>
<p>I'd be surprised if adcoms looked at my background, and then looked at my application, and called me lazy or unambitious. </p>
<p>The only thing I didn't take advantage of my school was student counsel, and I actually ran a position loss (by a few votes).</p>
<p>The rest of my ECs I had to find myself or help create, and I did them out of interest, not tailoring my application.</p>
<p>I'm not low-income with middle-class opportunities. I'm low-income from one of the worst school districts in the country, in one of the most dangerous and economically depressed areas in the country.</p>
<p>I'm still wondering why people won't just do the Safety-Match-Reach thing. But I guess my situation weird. No one but an adcom would be able to really give me an idea if I have a shot or not.</p>
<p>race is an advantage, and I think if you emphasize the problem of going to an "underserved" public school, you'll have great chances.
I'm not an expert in this whole chancing thing, but I have a feeling that you are in some great advantages.</p>
<p>I think that you'll definitely need to raise your score for Yale/Brown/Amherst</p>
<p>I'd say that you have a shot at Penn, UMIch, Vanderbilt
Decent shot at Northwestern (I know someone who got in with a 25 on ACT, she's african american)
You're good at the rest.</p>