<p>So I messed up my freshman and sophomore year because I moved here from England and had a really hard time adjusting, do I have a chance at Northwestern, WUSTL, U Mich or Vanderbilt? I know I don't have a very valid excuse for the grades, but could I have a shot with a good upward trend and a good act score? Any advice appreciated, thanks!</p>
<p>White Female
Green card holder
Illinois top 50 high school
1st gen. College student</p>
<p>GPA: 3.6 uw, weighted is 5.125 on a 5 point scale - significant upward trend, straight a's junior year
ACT: 34 1st sitting
Rank: 10%</p>
<p>Classes:
All honors other than AP
Junior AP:
AP US History
AP language
Senior:
AP Biology
AP Psych
AP Calc ab
AP French
AP government</p>
<p>EC:
French Honors Society 3yrs- Vice President
French Club - 4yrs
Gymnastics 2yrs - had to quit due to injury
Figure Skating Team 2yrs - same injury
Senior Mentor to freshmen
Senior ambassador to transfer students
Eco Club - 4yrs
Flute Playing - 10yrs</p>
<p>Work:
Babysitting 5yrs
Nannying 2yrs</p>
<p>Volunteer:
Animal shelter 3yrs - 300 hrs
Hospital 2yrs - 250 hrs</p>
<p>The ACT score suggests you have the basic academic skills to succeed in college. However, I doubt your counselor will state you took the most rigorous courseload. So, there could be some questions about your ability to work hard and handle a rigorous courseload at a top uni. What are you planning on studying? If it is medicine, I think you should have taken AP Chemistry or AP Bio in Junior year or signed up for both in senior year. Then apply for RD.</p>
<p>My counsellor wouldnt let me take an ap science junior year because I had to take physics honors and there was no more space in my schedule. I have taken all of the science electives my school has to offer! She thought that I needed bio h, chem h, and physics h to be a competitive applicant so sadly, I only had space for bio ap :(</p>
<p>Bump! Anyone else?</p>
<p>Then, you have nothing to worry about, don’t despair. I think every school is different and adcoms understand this. So, apply to top schools and point out that this is what your counselor advised you to do, in your applications. As long as nobody else from your school was doing things differently, you will be fine. For what it is worth, my son was not discouraged at his school and he ended up taking AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Computer Science II, Honors Physics and Honors Pre Cal, in addition to AP Lang and AP US History this junior year. It was horrible, no time to do anything else but study.</p>
<p>Pick a score that is your favorite and if you can afford financially, apply ED. For example if you like Northwestern better than Vanderbilt than do ED at Northwestern. Both schools tend to be more favorable toward ED candidates.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice 
Perazziman, your son’s work load sounds horrible, I am sure all of his hard work will pay off in the end though. I think I might ED at northwestern to give my application a boost if that seems to help others.</p>