Just applied Sunday, super nervous. Put things into perspective for me?
[ *] ACT: 34
[ *] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
[ *] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/90
[ *] AP (place score in parenthesis): None available
[ *] Senior Year Course Load: Independent Study AP Government, Spanish 4 (H), Physics (H), Writing 1 (Dual-Enrollment), Writing 2 (Dual-Enrollment), Band, Business Ethics (Dual-Enrollment), Calc 2 (Dual-Enrollment), Intro to MicroEcon (Dual-Enrollment)
[ *] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended, State Champion PF Debate, various school awards[/list]
[ b]Subjective:**
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[ *] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Debate (President, State Champ, National Qualifier, district record holder), Band (President, Section Leader, Honors Band), Newspaper (Editor in Chief), Prep Bowl (Captain), Track (3 year letterman), NHS (President), Boys State (Elected Chief Justice)
[ *] Volunteer/Community service: Teach kids at mosque every Sunday, organized charity event to raise money for water filters in developing countries, + various NHS stuff
[ *] Essays: Personal, Quirky, I’d say 7 or 8/10
[ *] Teacher Recommendation: Very good from what I know
[ *] Counselor Rec: Awesome
[ *] Additional Rec:
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[ b]Other**
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[ *] State (if domestic applicant): OH
[ *] Country (if international applicant): USA
[ *] School Type: Public
[ *] Ethnicity: Middle-Eastern
[ *] Gender: M
[ *]Income Bracket: 90-100k
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I see you have lots of people viewing your thread but no one bothered to reply. I hate when I don’t get any replies. So here you go:
You have a solid chance. Your scores and academic rigor are right in line with what they look for. Your downfall might be your essay. You only rate it 7/10. It has to be 10/10 - or least you should feel supremely confident in it, not 70% confident. Also, have you been to the school? Are you demonstrating interest by telling them why you want to go there and actually naming places on campus you have been to or professors you have met? Have you told them why the major you are interested in is the perfect match for Northwestern? If you are just submitting an ED app blindly without ever having visited, you are literally playing the lottery - you might get in, you might not. Your chances are slightly better applying ED, but no better than 30% in my opinion. They are essentially an Ivy League so even the best of the best get rejected.
I also think you have a solid chance. A possible weakness may be lack of subject scores, coupled together with no AP scores being reported – this is possibly admissions officers guessing on your preparedness for handling intense academics.
Your state and national level debate accomplishments should be a huge positive to you – By the way, congratulations! I know Ohio is very competitive (I myself judged congress in State competition at Princeton High School).
I did visit campus over the summer, and both my essays got raving reviews from teachers and peers alike. Problem is, not many kids from my school apply to top tier schools so I’m lowballing the ratings as I’m not sure how much weight to put on the opinions of those who read it.
I completed my Common application along with my standardized test sores , do my FAFSA and CSS Profile have to be sent in in order for the application to be considered complete?