<p>Hi STEM2012,
You might be a smart student judging from your description. You might even have a chance at some of the schools you had mentioned. However, here is the big downside: It seems like you are really finding excuses to justify a good number of your own shortcomings. So my advice is that when you write the college essays, be very very careful. The tone of your essays must be VERY VERY different from what you used to make this post. Otherwise, the reader might get the impression, even wrongly, that your nature is to complain about everything around, and normally most people don’t want to deal with such personalities. Anyway, keep working hard, and good luck with the appliaction process.</p>