On the date you’re registered for the SAT, take subject tests. Take math2 and one or two others based on your strongest subjects and AP classes you took. You don’t need to caxnal your registration, just call tobsay you switch. Then study foe each subject you chose: they’re one hour mutiple choice test.
All universities have accepted the act for years (in fact two years ago it became the most widely taken test in the country).
What’s your EFC?
I don’t think you ran the NPC correctly for Harvard : for students whose family make 75k and under it’s a free ride (everything covered including transportation, no loans, no family contribution). It’s full tuition up to a pretty high number (125k?)
Being from the Mississippi Delta is a hook in and of itself.
To give you some perspective, Mississippi ranks last for educational achievement. It had the lowest percentage of students taking any AP test, even one class and test, and those (for missisisspi) high achievers mostly got 1 or 2.
In other words, even from private schools, it’s hard for top schools to find the students they want from Mississippi. Multiply that by ten for students from the Delta. As such, you’re automatically underrepresented (a criterion that helps you in admissions).
Go to college greenlight, a website for first gen students (=kids whose parents didn’t graduate from a 4 year college). Look for the “fly in” section and apply to as many as you can. They’ll fly you to their campus. Often you’ll have a reading to do beforehand and in campus a special discussion class, they’ll want to see how you handle the material. The rest of the time you’ll visit campus, eat with college students, go to a couple regular classes to see what they’re like…
Go to the following colleges’ websites and fill out the request info form: Colby, Vassar, Davidson, Carleton, Macalester, Grinnell.
Send (PM) your current essay to me, @lindagaff, and other experienced readers.
Finally, ask your jr year TFA teachers to write you letters of recommendation. (You can also ask teachers who’ve had you as a student for two years.) It’s quite possible your teachers don’t know how to write such letters (with lots of anecdotes proving what they say) because so few students go to a selective 4-year college, let alone a highly selective one. (Delta state is almost open admissions.)