vonlost, collegemom3717, sgopal2, and drewharrahill: Thank you for your replies. vonlost, I am trying to know if admissions officers will be impressed by my application. I understand that everyone who applies has a 5% chance of getting in, but I want to see if my application will stand out. collegemom3717, thank you for your information on narrowing down colleges and providing me with more insight on LACs. LACs are definetely great, and I will be sure to check them out, but many of their classes provide more broader knowledge (correct me if I’m wrong), whereas universities might be better fit (at least for me) because their classes are tailored towards my career choice. It almost seems as if they are providing knowledge without giving it too much application (not that their courses are inferior, of course). With universities, I feel like I can apply my learned concepts in a laboratory, or these concepts taught in universities will be better in helping me through my MCATs and medical college. sgopal, my story is definetely similar to immigrants, but let me ask you this: how many people do you know who have a twin brother (your own identical twin brother who is your exact blood) who is mentally challenged? I do not feel as if I can make my brother understand anything or trust that he will do well in life. He might be dependent on my parents forever. He lacks the social skills in school everyday so I am always helping him out, trying to help him make friends and tutoring him for his classes. How many people have accepted something like this and are actually working towards a cure? I’m not saying that this is the key to entering Harvard, but this is something I feel passionate about. I definetely do not feel that I will be rejected by all the ivies, and I want to use the college’s resources to work towards a cure for PSP, hemorrhage problems, and brain cancer. I may never have the opportunity to work in some of these material/financial-wealthy laboratories. This is why I really want to go to a good university like harvard or stanford (maybe even jhu). drewharrahill, i am so happy that you want to go into the neurosciences. It is an excellent, exciting, and rapidly growing field. UChicago is a great school as well. Thank you for the AP and ACT scores info. I will shoot for that. Thanks for the neuroscience info. I will try to improve my ECs as much as possible. Good luck to you!