<p>"I won’t qualify for any need-based aid, but I would certainly love merit-based…</p>
<p>I realize that my list is all reaches. But to be honest, those are the only places I would be happy going to."</p>
<p>How frustrating to feel one is somehow too good for most schools yet hope for merit money, which is hard to come by even at slightly “lesser” schools and often doesn’t cover more than a fraction of the cost of attending.</p>
<p>No advice or help really needed; only the very best (known) will do. The OP probably will get in to a few schools on the original list unless the essay suggests unpalatable arrogance (or carelessness) or the recs damn with faint praise or somehow betray that this apparently very achievement-oriented applicant attends a high school that “rarely sends anyone to Ivy’s / any good schools” and thus may not be as academically powerful as the numbers suggest. </p>
<p>I know feelings can be raw when an applicant has just gotten deferred or denied, and I sympathize. But I don’t sympathize with applicants whose sense of entitlement keeps them from seeing the forest.</p>