<p>It might help you if you were to apply to more geographically diverse schools. Every east coast prep school kid seems to look at the NE LACs. If you were willing to consider LACs in the midwest, for example, you would face less competition from kids ‘like you’ at schools that are comparable to Hamilton, Bates and Colby - and be eligible for merit aid. Look at Grinnell and Macalester, for example. Both have excellent financial aid and merit aid, academics that are at least as good at the schools you’ve applied to (and in some cases better) and many fewer applicants from the NE.</p>