<p>A combination of factors are used in college admissions. The GPA tells how you did only in the context of your school and your school’s students. The ACT and SAT tell schools how you do in the context of a national group of college bound students. There are many, many schools and universities where you are a viable admit. The system GPA + standardized tests may have flaws, but it is does help to equalize the wide variability of individual school grading patterns. Look at the schools you are interested in to see how you fit in the context of their group of students. Use your personal attributes as you state to paint a picture of you for those colleges and you will be fine. Use your essays to explain why you are who you are separate from your GPA and ACT scores. If you are still concerned you could possibly take the SAT which is structured differently from the ACT. There are anecdotal examples on these forums of kids who have “success” with one over the other, although in the experience of my kids, the SAT and ACT scores were not significantly different.</p>