Chance me for McCormick ED?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

Major: Chemical Engineering

White Male at small poor suburban school

Academics:
ACT: 32 C, 33 E, 31 M, 31 S, 31 R
UW GPA: 3.63 Weighted GPA: 4.7

Senior Courses: (this was the most rigorous schedule I could take)
AP Calc AB
AP Chem
Honors Anatomy and Physiology
Italian II
Consumers Education
Art

AP Exams/Courses:
AP Human Geography (4)
AP Lang (3)
AP US History (4)
AP World History (5)
AP Physics 1 (3)

Rank: 5/202

Awards:
AP Scholar With Distinction
Quest Bridge Finalist
Illinois State Scholar
2x All-Conference Track and Field
5x Academic All-Conference
Project SEED Finalist
2x Briglio Award
Freshman and Junior Class Leader
High Honor Roll every semester

EC:
One of the four students in Chicago chosen to do research at Loyola University through Project SEED. I worked 40 hours a week the whole summer doing research on type II diabetes treatments in the field of inorganic chemistry. My professor liked me a lot and wants me to come back this summer to continue doing research.

Track and Field all 4 years (JV captain Frosh/Soph years and Varsity Sprints captain Junior year)

Football all 4 years

Varsity Club

Football Camp for frosh/soph/junior year summers

Android Developer (taught myself coding and debugging)

Wrestling Senior year (JV captain)

Babysitting

National Honor Society

Volunteering at local health fairs and soup kitchens

Work:
Pet Supplies Plus for most of Junior Year

My local pool for the past 2 summers

Essays:

Common App Essay: I made this very personal. I talked about my struggles in life and how I have disciplined myself to be a hard worker. I also talked about my shift from casual jobs to doing research and how this was a shift into adulthood for me because it has changed me into a more outgoing and disciplined person.

Why NU Essay?: I wish this I talked more about NU in this but it’s not bad. Basically, I started off detailing my interest in science and then I went on into why northwestern is my first choice over any other school and how the school’s resources will help me succeed. I also talked about my visits there and I connected them with my love for science.

Letters of Rec:
One from my AP Calc teacher who also was my honors math teacher in previous years. She really likes me and she is very nice

One from my AP Chem teacher. This is her first year in the school and she is an amazing teacher. I always participate in class and I do great on every test. She likes me a lot and we have grown to be close.

One from my Honors Anatomy teacher. He is also my school’s athletic trainer. I have known him for all 4 years and we are really close.

One from the professor that I did research for. He also really likes me and as I said earlier he said I helped out a lot in the lab with the research and he wants me to come back and continue it.

One from my counselor who I also have a good relationship with

Thanks!

2

I seldom respond to “Chance Me” threads because if you are smart enough to get into NU - you are smart enough to realize that ONLY the AdCom can answer your question. However, your ChemE interest piqued MY interest, since I have 2 kids that are NU ChemE grads - and I think you do have a shot despite your poor GPA and AP scores (Poor only for NU and other top schools! :slight_smile: )

So despite having a shot IMHO, make sure you have back up schools lined up and remember that you have accomplished a lot in a short time, and that whether or not you go to NU you WILL get into a great school that will give you an opportunity to further your education and your development as a person. BTW - that advice about back up schools and decision framing is the same I gave my 2 kids before their admission decisions came out… Good Luck!