Bad start to high school but nothing I can do to change that now. My class rank is probably the most damaging thing on my profile right now, and after looking at Chapel Hill’s “78% of the incoming class was in the top 10%” it made me die a little inside. I’m not looking so hot for State as well because their 25th percentile is top 20% (although I’ve heard they don’t look at class rank or weighted GPA as much because it’s weighted so differently across high schools --> I was hoping someone can elaborate on this claim).
- SAT: 1370 --> 670 EBR&W, 700 Math
- ACT: lets not talk about that lol
- Unweighted GPA: 3.65 (RIP)
- Weighted GPA: 4.3 (RIP)
My class rank - It’s like top 33% (I know it’s bad, I’m really worried because I have no hooks, my essay isn’t gonna be one of those classical pieces of literature you see on the Stanford “Essays that worked” or whatever, and my ECs are like what, average at best?)
- APs before senior year: Psychology (3) <-- should I send?, European History in which I got my first and only C :(, US History (2) not sending,
-APs i'm taking as a senior: Calc AB, Calc BC, Biology
- Extracurriculars (i'll just list them, don't feel like going in depth, although they're definitely important to me):
-Marching band (9), Concert band (9,10,11,12)
-Volunteer at a local medical center (11,12)
-Member(11) and now treasurer(12) of SkillsUSA
-JV Track and Field (11, 12)
-Foreign language program/school(9,10)
- My teacher recs will most likely be somewhat generic, if that matters any.
- Intended Major: Bio at UNC, Human bio at State, and Bio or BioChem at ECU
- School Type: public, kinda big, REALLY COMPETITITVE (# of students in my class will most likely end up being in the mid-high 400s, and always changing because kids graduate early or just quit)
- Ethnicity: Asian
- Gender: Male
- Income Bracket: like 70,000-85000 not sure exactly
If you could give any thoughts I would be sooo thankful 
Oh and I forgot to mention this, but I would like to add NYU to that list. If anyone with expertise on that can help out as well, thank you
Beware of ‘what you have heard’: what NC State actually say they see as ‘most important’ are: course rigor, GPA, standardized tests and class rank. Weighted GPA might not matter as much- that is variable, and many universities work from UW. Good news: recs aren’t considered and essays are considered, but not rated as ‘important’ or ‘very important’ (in other words, don’t make a mess of it, but you won’t be penalized for not writing a superstar essay). More good news: your stats, even with GPA put you in a pretty strong position for NC State.
You can look all of this up for yourself on collegedata (.com), for every uni. If you do, you will see that things aren’t quite so rosy for you over at CH, where GPA and rank are only ‘important’ v ‘very important’ but essays and rec are ‘very important’. Your SATs are in the middle 50% (good), but your GPA is in the bottom 2% (really not good, obvs).
You meet the minimum application stats for ECU Honors, but I am not up enough on where the actual break points are at this stage to know how competitive you are. The one thing I would caution you on is that the Honors college does actually expect work from you- ECU standards are going up, and they are looking to their Honors students to lead the way.
Really good chance for NCSU. My D got in 2013 with lower SAT and similar GPA weighted and unweighted. Depends on which school at NCSU; engineering is most competitive but I see you put Bio. I remember the NCSU info session: they don’t look AT ALL at ECs and LORs. NCSU does like to see some APs, so that will help. Your only issue is class rank, but your GPA should help mitigate against that. Hope you are applying Early Action this month!
I don’t know about ECU Honors. UNC is very very competitive now. My other D has a friend in the top ten (not %) at HS who did not get in.
Family income is just a bit too high for aid at NC publics. Sorry but NYU is one of the worst for giving fin aid, though you’d stand a good chance of admission there as well. Less selective but still very good private unis and LACs (like in the 100 or so) might give aid, though not full rides.