First of all, thank you so much for the advice and insight!
My school’s pretty big, with 1600 students, and about 300-400 in my grade. (I live in the greater Toronto-Hamilton area.) The students range from “college confidential/a2c level” students to kids who struggle (due to a variety of reasons) to attend school all week.
Because of that, I have no idea what the medians look like, but there is grade inflation in some courses while there is grade deflation in others. I try not to compare myself to others since I see firsthand what that does to people, but I do consider myself to be in the 93-95th percentile of students in my grade.
I’ve run all the NPCs, and the prices are affordable enough. I’m low-income now mainly because my father became disabled and unable to work earlier in my childhood, but he had a high income job before. I’ve been blessed with parents who invested into my education. The reason why my financials wouldn’t be a large issue if I got into a top USA university is because of my family abroad. Sparing the details, they are willing to help finance my education if I attend an Ivy/T20. I’m very lucky to be this privileged (although it comes with the expected toxicity!)
I appreciate the insight into my ECs- they’ve caused me a lot of worry that they’re not impressive, but I truly do love everything I’m doing right now!