<p>I'm currently a junior in high school and interested in majoring in engineering (most likely electrical) or math.</p>
<p>I'm a fairly strong student. Nothing amazing like a lot of the people on here, but I'm in the top 1% of my class (hope to be valedictorian!). I scored a 2260 on my SAT sophomore year and I'm planning to take the ACT soon. I am building up my community service hours by working at our local soup kitchen, and I'm going to be president of NHS next year. I am a strong writer, so my essays will hopefully be good, and my teachers/counselor will write me good LoR's. Hopefully I can also get a job soon, but I have had no luck so far.</p>
<p>My situation is a bit unusual, and I'm wondering how it might affect admissions for me.</p>
<p>First of all, I'm a white female attending a rather underachieving mid size (1100) public school. "Underachieving" as in less than 10% of our graduates graduate from college, no one has gone to an Ivy in the years that I've attended my school, and we had less than 10 total passed AP exams last year - mostly by the same people. </p>
<p>My school doesn't have a lot of resources for us when it comes to preparing for university - I'm a junior and college has hardly been mentioned, we are actually discouraged by teachers and counselors from taking AP classes, etc. </p>
<p>Next is my financial/living situation. I have been raised my entire life by my grandmother, who is currently in her mid 80s. We live alone on a fixed income from my late grandfather's retirement. My grandmother is very private about her finances, but I know that we make less than $40,000 a year. We are in very good shape financially as we have 0 debt, but we also have no savings for my college. My grandmother has no intention to help me pay for university and will not cosign a loan.</p>
<p>However, my grandmother has never legally adopted me. My mother still has legal custody over me. She lives in a different state than I do. She is homeless and unemployed, and does not have any income (doesn't file taxes). She is also extremely ill (in the hospital at the time I write this) and very well might pass away before I graduate.</p>
<p>I'm not aiming for Ivies. My reaches are schools like Vanderbilt, Duke, Northwestern, etc. I will also apply to UT Austin (as I'm guaranteed admission) and other schools in Texas. I'm very worried that these circumstances will hurt me when it comes to the universities I can attend!</p>
<p>ps. Sorry for the novel :P</p>