u/Jazzlike_Run_1520

Today as of an hour ago, I received my first acceptance letter to a small private college in western NC (my home state), and I'm really excited! They offered rolling admissions and didn't require me to submit rec letters or test scores (though I might submit my ACT if I choose to go there for extra scholarship money) so I decided to submit it early since I felt very confident in my application.

However, what comes after acceptance? I haven't recieved an aid package yet and probably won't until FAFSA opens and is completed and sent through to the admissions office, so I won't know what or how much I'm getting. I'm doing a campus tour this weekend to check out if I really like it or not, but what comes after it?

Okay. Long story short I was going down a deep dive internet rabbit hole recently that said that the company Leader In Me is a very pricy and expensive scam for school districts and that it only looks good on paper but it's actually a joke on college apps. I'm far too in (2 years) and I have completed service projects through my school's chapter (or whatever it's called) that seem really impactful in my eyes, but will tying it to the Leader In Me program hurt my chances? I haven't submitted any of my apps yet except for one and it didn't require any reports of ECs and it's a safety so it's not my biggest concern, but I want to save myself the hassle before it's too late. If push comes to shove I can probably just put a generic club name (ex. "XYZ High School Leadership Club") so it doesn't look like I just twiddled my thumbs for 4 years. I couldn't find anything else online about this other than teachers complaining that it takes up time and nobody really takes it seriously but for some reason my school district did and made a club for it that I was foolish enough to join.

TLDR: Is Leader In Me a scam and would it hurt my chances on college apps if I added it as an EC?

Okay. Long story short I was going down a deep dive internet rabbit hole recently that said that the company Leader In Me is a very pricy and expensive scam for school districts and that it only looks good on paper but it's actually a joke on college apps. I'm far too in (2 years) and I have completed service projects through my school's chapter (or whatever it's called) that seem really impactful in my eyes, but will tying it to the Leader In Me program hurt my chances? I haven't submitted any of my apps yet except for one and it didn't require any reports of ECs and it's a safety so it's not my biggest concern, but I want to save myself the hassle before it's too late. If push comes to shove I can probably just put a generic club name (ex. "XYZ High School Leadership Club") so it doesn't look like I just twiddled my thumbs for 4 years. I couldn't find anything else online about this other than teachers complaining that it takes up time and nobody really takes it seriously but for some reason my school district did and made a club for it that I was foolish enough to join.

TLDR: Is Leader In Me a scam and would it hurt my chances on college apps if I added it as an EC?

Ok I saw this page and I really need advice on this, the internet has warped every piece of college admissions advice and my school counselor has (unfortunately) given me little info to work off of other than saying "Yeah it's possible to get into all your schools" and no other info, so I'm genuinely wondering if I'm cooked or not

Demographics:
- White female
- Small school in rural NC, also NC resident
- First gen (parents never got a college degree but have some college under their belt)
- Military dependent
- Intended major: Psychology

Stats:
- Class rank 21/155
- 4.42 W 3.71 UW GPA
- Good class rigor, taking all dual enrollment courses except band and on track to graduate w/ associate's degree in spring '27 as well as high school
- Along with probably 20-22 dual enrollment classes at planned time of graduation, 3 APs (not reporting test scores) and 12 honors courses
- ACT 28 composite, 32 reading, 25 math, 28 science, 27 English (No SAT)

ECs/Honors (not in order):
- Marching band 5yrs (8th grade + all of HS), plus assistant drum major for 1yr, got consistent good scores at local and regional competitions
- Concert band 4yrs, 3 superior ensemble ratings at NCBA MPA (band adjudication event for state of NC)
- Non-competitive Winter Guard 3yrs (basically it's color guard but inside during the winter)
- Non-competitive Winter Drumline 2yrs
- Jazz band for 2yrs
- Leader In Me team (basically a company that focuses on leadership goals in schools, IDK if it's reputable and I can remove it from my application if it's not reputable or looks bad) 2yrs, planned community events such as a local trunk-or-treat and a field day for the visually impaired, as well as creating student study groups to improve grades across the school
- Crochet and Knitting as a hobby
- Volunteering at the local senior citizens center to help with events for senior citizens for 3yrs, as well as volunteering at the local middle school giving lessons to beginner band musicians for 1yr
- NHS for 1yr, National Beta Club for 2yrs

Now here is the part where I think I may be cooked: my spring semester of sophomore year my mental health was astronomically low and my grades tanked, so to save my GPA, and with advice from all of the counseling department and even the principal and a couple people working at the school district board, I was pulled out mid-semester and put into a temporary homeschool situation so my bad grades wouldn't show on my transcript and reflect on me later. I genuinely don't know anyone else who has done this before and since the situation is so unique I haven't seen any other examples of this. I do have some hope though since junior year grades are strong and I expect the same for senior year and yes, I did put this into the additional info section on Common App so I hope the AOs feel nice and generous that day

College I'm applying to:
UNC Chapel Hill (top choice, dream school and has been for a very long time)
Clemson (very very close 2nd)
Wake Forest (3rd choice)
Davidson
UT Knoxville
UGA
UVA
Virginia Tech
Elon University
UNC Asheville
Western Carolina University

Note: I'm applying EA to every school (everywhere except Davidson since they only do ED and RD) and plan to submit most of my apps early-mid October, if anyone wants to recommend me a school I prefer suburban college towns with pretty large schools but not something in the middle of a big city like NYU, also somewhere with good prestige and a good psych program

Another note: Yes I know my ECs look like a music major's. No, I am not going to be a music major. Plus, at my school there are no clubs or ECs for psychology, and I only figured out I enjoyed psych at the start of my junior year which IK makes me cooked but still.

I'm getting my supplemental essays looked at soon by an English teacher at my school, so it's hard to say whether my essays are good or not but I think they're pretty good

Anyway I think that's it, am I cooked? Should I look at other colleges instead? What should I change about my list?