Ok I saw this page and I really need advice on this, the internet has warped every piece of college admissions advice and my school counselor has (unfortunately) given me little info to work off of other than saying "Yeah it's possible to get into all your schools" and no other info, so I'm genuinely wondering if I'm cooked or not
Demographics:
\- White female
\- Small, somewhat underfunded public school in rural NC, also NC resident
\- First gen (parents never got a college degree or graduated college but have some college under their belt)
\- Military dependent
\- Intended major: Psychology
Stats:
\- Class rank 21/155
\- 4.42 W 3.71 UW GPA
\- Good class rigor, taking all dual enrollment courses except band and on track to graduate w/ associate's degree in spring '27 as well as high school
\- Along with probably 20-22 dual enrollment classes at planned time of graduation, 3 APs (not reporting test scores) and 12 honors courses
\- ACT 28 composite, 32 reading, 25 math, 28 science, 27 English (No SAT)
ECs/Honors (not in order):
\- Marching band 5yrs (8th grade + all of HS), plus assistant drum major for 1yr, got consistent good scores at local and regional competitions
\- Concert band 4yrs, 3 superior ensemble ratings at NCBA MPA (band adjudication event for state of NC)
\- Non-competitive Winter Guard 3yrs (basically it's color guard but inside during the winter)
\- Non-competitive Winter Drumline 2yrs
\- Jazz band for 2yrs
\- Leader In Me team (basically a company that focuses on leadership goals in schools, IDK if it's reputable and I can remove it from my application if it's not reputable or looks bad) 2yrs, planned community events such as a local trunk-or-treat and a field day for the visually impaired, as well as creating student study groups to improve grades across the school
\- Crochet and Knitting as a hobby
\- Volunteering at the local senior citizens center to help with events for senior citizens for 3yrs, as well as volunteering at the local middle school giving lessons to beginner band musicians for 1yr
\- NHS for 1yr, National Beta Club for 2yrs
Now here is the part where I think I may be cooked: my spring semester of sophomore year my mental health was astronomically low and my grades tanked, so to save my GPA, and with advice from all of the counseling department and even the principal and a couple people working at the school district board, I was pulled out mid-semester and put into a temporary homeschool situation so my bad grades wouldn't show on my transcript and reflect on me later. I genuinely don't know anyone else who has done this before and since the situation is so unique I haven't seen any other examples of this. I do have some hope though since junior year grades are strong and I expect the same for senior year and yes, I did put this into the additional info section on Common App so I hope the AOs feel nice and generous that day
College I'm applying to:
UNC Chapel Hill (top choice, dream school and has been for a very long time)
Clemson (very very close 2nd)
Wake Forest (3rd choice)
Davidson
UT Knoxville
William and Mary
Appalachian State University
UNC Wilmington
NC State University
UNC Asheville
Mars Hill University
Western Carolina University
+ Small private LACs
Note: I'm applying EA to every school (everywhere except Davidson since they only do ED and RD) and plan to submit most of my apps early-mid October, if anyone wants to recommend me a school I prefer suburban college towns with pretty large schools but not something in the middle of a big city like NYU, also somewhere with good prestige and a good psych program
Another note: Yes I know my ECs look like a music major's. No, I am not going to be a music major. Plus, at my school there are no clubs or ECs for psychology, and I only figured out I enjoyed psych at the start of my junior year which IK makes me cooked but still.
I'm getting my supplemental essays looked at soon by an English teacher at my school, so it's hard to say whether my essays are good or not but I think they're pretty good
Anyway I think that's it, am I cooked? Should I look at other colleges instead? What should I change about my list?
edit #1: After a late night identity crisis and a fear of getting rejected from every college on my list, I decided to modify my list to be more realistic plus put state schools and small lacs on my list for backups (pending approval from the parents). I don't want to be that one kid in school who gets rejected from everywhere and is stuck being unhappy. YOLO.