In an ideal world, I’d be admitted to a top 30 school such as Notre Dame, Boston College, Duke, or similar schools. I feel as if over the course of my high school career, I’ve done as much as I possibly can to get there, but I’m worried it isn’t quite enough. I scored a 33 on the ACT, and currently hold leadership positions in 2 school-sponsored athletic teams, and am involved in other teams and organizations in my school, such as NHS, being involved in religious groups, and being a school ambassador. I even recently started started a club at my school, which I will soon be involved in. I feel as if I have some decent connections around the school, which I hope will be enough to get some good letters of recommendation. I enrolled in 3 AP classes for my Junior year, as well as 2 more advanced classes. I’ve focused on maintaining the most difficult classes my school has to offer, and intend on taking 3 more AP classes next year. My main concern with applying to colleges with such great reputations is that my GPA won’t be quite high enough to be considered. In this strenuous workload I’ve taken, my grades slipped a little bit in some areas; not enough to completely ruin any hopes I have, but my 3.89 (weighted) certainly won’t look great next to the 4.5+ some applicants boast. Is the rest of my profile enough to bring me back to the level of most of my competition? Do I still have a chance to be admitted to a highly ranked institution?