Thank you so much for your post, and for suggesting that I read the dual degree dilemma essay—it really helped me with my doubts. As much as I would love to apply to Harvard, in the last year, 194 students from my school (graduating class ~900) applied to Harvard and only 18 were accepted. The thing that I’m worried about is that even though I have nice stats, coming from such a competitive HS might make my chances much harder. Still, maybe worth a shot… but I have the feeling that there are too many reach schools on my list and not enough schools that are easier to get into.
As for music, I have no frame of reference for how good I am, other than getting into All State, so I don’t really know if I’m qualified to apply to Eastman/NEC or not, just going off what my flute teacher tells me…