<p>It’s probably going to take a bit of time to get a lot of responses so bumping after 30 minutes is a bit much.</p>
<p>To summarize the big points:
Your ACT/SAT scores are overall excellent.
EC’s seem quite good – both volunteer and work related.
It sounds like you have the makings of a nice essay to explain life situations and obviously have had to work hard to get to this point.</p>
<p>GPA is iffy and I’m assuming that’s on a standard 4.0 scale – I’m not sure if that’s weighted/unweighted. This is a pretty big hole to explain. I’m assuming you are a senior so I don’t think there is a lot you can do to raise the number significantly at this stage, but a top notch essay and your test scores should help more than a bit particularly if your Teacher LOR can sell your situation, work ethic, and attitude (to do whatever it takes).</p>
<p>Financial is going to be really important if not even more critical</p>
<p>I don’t know any schools that give merit aid based exclusively on ACT/SAT (excluding to some extent Nat Merit Scholars), but many that will fill Need Based aid for excellent scores. Unfortunately this is harder to search for and often is an individual school decision.</p>
<p>Boston University is expensive and would be a substantial reach both from your GPA and finances, but I’ve seen bigger reaches. </p>
<p>Instate schools I think would be a more realistic goal. I’m not sure about UC system Need based aid, but a couple of the other parents here or over on the Financial Aid forum should be able to fill in some details. USC (or UC-B, UCLA) are a reach with your GPA, but if they are experienced with your HS you may get a boost if they know it as a tough grading school. </p>
<p>CSU’s I think are much more reachable for admission, but I think you have at least a reasonable chance at admission to one of the the UC campuses if you continue to work as hard at gaining admission as it seems you worked just to get through HS. I think with you scores somebody is going to see the potential there. Personally if I were deciding admissions you would get a substantial boost above a lot of the students I see who float through HS with soft ‘see what I did’ EC’s.</p>