I am currently a sophomore. Northwestern is my dream school, I have a brother who went there for undergrad and my mom used to work there too. I am also an asian female planning to major in STEM.
Here are my academic stats:
Freshman Year - World History Honors, German 1 Honors, Alg 2 Trig Honors, Symphonic Band, Chemistry Honors, English 1 Honors
Sophomore Year - AP Computer Science A, Wind Symphony Honors (second highest band), AP Chemistry, AP Physics 1, English 2 Honors, Precalc Honors, and German 2 Honors
PSAT 8/9 Scores: 720 math (max score), 660 reading&writing (these are from last year, I will be taking the PSAT 10 next month)
GPA (on a 5.0 scale): 5.84 weighted (B in history last year & did not take honors band last year), 4.95 unweighted
Next year I am taking:
AP Language and Composition
AP Calculus BC
AP Microeconomics
AP US Government
AP Biology
AP Physics C (this is a maybe - I may not be able to take it because of scheduling issues)
German 3 Honors
Wind ensemble honors (highest band)
Extracurriculars
JV Poms (although poms may be cut next year due to budget cuts)
Novice Level figure skater for Moves in the Field (3rd highest level of 8)
Juniors in Engineering Technical Society - Team placed second at sectionals, heading to state next month
Marching band/pep band - section leader for alto saxophones (may also get cut due to budget cuts)
Figure skating coach at a figure skating school
Former member of a competitive dance team at my studio (quit this year because I joined poms at my school)
Achievements:
Qualified for an international dance competition (couldn’t attend because of time conflict)
Gold award in National German Exam (97th percentile)
Young Scholar (a program at my school for anyone who has a 5.0 weighted GPA or above)
Too early to meaningfully predict anything. I would focus on doing some ECs which are more individualized, though. Less being part of this or that group, or competing in this or that competition. Things that show deep interests, preferably some intellectual component. Things which are more interesting. Hope this helps. Can clarify anything or elaborate if you like.
–If Northwestern is your top school and your family has no need to compare financial offers from different colleges then consider applying ED to maximize your chances.
–Notwithstanding the above comment, I’d strongly recommend that you give up the idea of having one dream school and when the time comes work to create a solid college list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (find out your parents’ budget and run the net price calculator for each school) and that you would be excited to attend. The people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in. Cast a wide net and recognize that (assuming no major hook) Northwestern is a reach for pretty much everyone.
–It is impossible to chance or try to predict admissions for top tier colleges without standardized test scores. And even with standardized test scores, the fact is that there are many more well qualified students than there are spots available.
–I suggest you keep your focus on being the best “you” you can be in every sense…academically, ECs, socially, etc.
“I’d strongly recommend that you give up the idea of having one dream school and when the time comes work to create a solid college list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable”
This is my reaction also. Clearly you are doing very well in high school. However, competition at the most selective universities is very tough, and admissions is hard to predict. Also, there are a lot of very good universities. If you look closely at several good schools in your area of the country, you are likely to find that a lot of them are really very appealing although sometimes in slightly different ways. Any university in the top 200 is going to have great professors and some other students who are as strong as you are.
Many years ago for graduate school I was turned down from my dream school. I attended my second choice. I loved it! In retrospect I am very glad that my dream school turned me down. You should apply to Northwestern (assuming that you can afford it and that your test scores are a match), but definitely look closely at other schools also and make sure that you find a couple of safeties where you would be happy to attend.
Same advice you got on your nearly identical thread last September: it’s too soon to even begin to guess, esp w/ no actual testing.
Your grades next year are super important, so unless you are a super-strong science student I suggest you reconsider doing both physics and bio in the same year.
I disagree with the poster who said to find “Things which are more interesting”. If they are interesting to you they are interesting enough.
Finally:
This. Right this minute CC is full of heartbroken posts by people who not only didn’t get into their ‘reach’ schools, they didn’t get into their ‘match’ schools, and are staring at “just” their safeties. These very very accomplished students are crushed. It is easy to be in love with the idea of a famous name. It is hard, when you are a star in your school, to realize just how many other stars there are. I love this from MIT (old post, but MIT still encourages students to “apply sideways”:
Build your list from the bottom up to the top down. Research research research colleges until you find a couple that are effectively sure things that have something about them that would work for you.
Also: there’s a decent bet that you will be changing a lot over the next year and half. Don’t tie yourself to a simple childhood fantasy of a cool sweatshirt.