<p>Race/Ethnicity: Black
ACT: 27 (English 31 Math 21)
Weighted GPA:3.75
Unweighted GPA: 2.73
Rank: 75/320 (I used to be 169 at one point!)
Curriculum: Very Tough, IB Diploma Candidate
Several leadership roles, very committed to Academic Decathlon</p>
<p>Strengths
- Chicago Public Schools Student (NU accepted 60 last year; looking for more this year)
- Upward trend, from 2.1 UWGPA freshman year, to 2.73 now; 2.4 weighted to 3.75 now.
- 1 AP class (AP English Score 4/5), 13 IB classes, 9 Honors classes
- Great essays
- Letter of reccomendation from a public figure and an NU alum
- Applying ED
- Provided NU with research outside of school
- Minority status</p>
<p>Weaknesses: Guys, that is pretty apparent. I ask ahead of time - don't be buttholes. But be realistic.</p>
<p>Well since you’re black and go to a Chicago school I’d say you have a halfway decent chance. Is your GPA on a 4.0 scale?</p>
<p>Okay im just gonna be honest, you don’t have a halfway decent chance like ^ just said. Chicago school doesn’t matter and they look only at UW gpa. I’m just being realistic like you told me to be. The only hope you really have is if that research you talked about was earth-shattering.</p>
<p>Well, the above posters are being straightforward. Your chances are not 0%, but they’re not very good either. URM status, upward trend, tough curriculum might help. I don’t know that the letter of rec from a “public figure and an NU alum” will be terribly helpful. Much depends upon just how well these two people know you and exactly what they say; sometimes these letters are just a waste of time.</p>
<p>OK, I am going to chance you because no one chanced me ^^ First of all, no-one has a 0% chance at anything, I imagine. I don’t know why I imagine this, I just do.</p>
<p>If you look at the info available on accepted (or was it admitted? idk) scores on NU’s website/in guidebooks/what have you, you are well, well below the typical. I think this makes NU a “super reach” as they say.</p>
<p>The quality of your research, any mitigating factors to your grades (you work 40 hours a week to put food on the table?) might mean you have a shot. If I were an admissions counselor (and I’m not, so take what I say with a grain of salt, ahah), I would definitely look to see if you are an extraodinary person beyond the grades, or have accomplished extraodinary things in the context of whatever difficulties have been thrown in your path, and whether or not an environment like NU would allow you to focus more on your grades and get more than a 2.75. I would have to be almost positive you’d do amazing things at NU if given the chance, though, because I’m sure I’ve seen plenty of other applicants with better grades and scores, and it wouldn’t be fair to reject them and not also reject you, if I didn’t see some really great promise.</p>
<p>Anybody who pretends to have any clue about your chances is full of it. </p>
<p>At the end of the day, you have two big things in your favor: your race and being from Chicago. Unfortunately, that’s about it. </p>
<p>While most people familiar with NU admissions (which is surprisingly few of the people who post on this board) can reconcile SAT scores, GPAs, class rank, and quality of ECs, race and geography are complete wildcards.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, admissions in the past 2 years under Morty has demonstrated an increased emphasis on race and tapping into Chicago public schools. The sample size of this population is simply too small. Additionally, this board is disproportionately white/Asian and upper/middle class. So we are supposed to use a small, evolving population that is largely invisible to this board to evaluate you? No chance.</p>
<p>I think the desire to get people who fit your racial and geographic profile is powerful. What I don’t know is how you compare to fellow NU applicants similar to you. I will stop just short of suggesting NU has a quota, but it sometimes feels that way. Presume that you are competing against fellow minority students from Chicago. It is fair to say that against the rest of the field you have virtually no chance of acceptance. Fortunately for you, I think you are likely playing against only a part of the candidate pool.</p>
<p>My suggestion: apply. See what happens. The quality of education and quality of life at NU are, in my biased opinion and wistful nostalgia, unparalleled. Apply to matches and safeties and roll the dice with NU and any other top schools you are interested in.</p>