<p>Inequality sucks, but frankly, you’ve beaten it.</p>
<p>Assuming you’re the valedictorian in your class, you’re almost guaranteed to get into one of the best schools in the country with a 34 ACT. You stand a chance even at the Ivies, and if you apply to a wide range of schools, you have incredibly good odds of getting into a top school that even most private school kids don’t stand a chance at.</p>
<p>If money is the problem, you’re in luck, because the top schools almost always have the best financial aid as well. Apply to like ten schools, including a few Ivies and at least one safety, and you’re probably set for college. If you do your research on what colleges give the best financial aid and your family’s income matches the description of the town you gave, you can probably go to college for next to nothing. You have it made, man. You put in the effort and now it’s time for you to reap the rewards. You ask how you’re supposed to compete, but trust me, you’re extremely competitive at any school in the country. Stop focusing on that SAT; your ACT is way better and the whole “colleges prefer the SAT” idea is about twenty years out of date. A 34 ACT is good enough to get you into any college in the country if you have the grades to match (which it sounds like you do, though you don’t say).</p>