<p>I would consider every school on the OP’s original list to be a reach or a major reach except for Penn State which I consider a match and Villanova as a safety. The vast majority of applicants to Michigan with a 3.55 GPA are not admitted.</p>
<p>The OP has three mitigating factors - the upward trend in GPA, the family circumstance during the freshman year and strong test scores.</p>
<p>I think the OP should be more careful when advocating his or her attributes. Most schools today consider the undergraduate GPA to the most reliable predictor of success in college and comments like “Well how about intelligence? GPA to me is more of a ‘how responsible you are’ rather than an ‘intelligence measure’” are frankly a turn off. </p>
<p>Better off to admit that the low GPA was not acceptable and was influenced by a family situation that distracted OP from his/her studies. During Junior and Senior he/she matured, focusued on studies and had an academic performance that will provide a good indicator of success in college. Test scores (I would not submit ACT unless SAT is superscored) will speak for themselves.</p>