Chance Me Please! I WILL CRY!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>my eyes out if I don't go to NU lol....</p>

<p>I'm applying ED next year.</p>

<p>Anyways, I'm a junior in a very selective, but large, high school in Chicago. I know for sure that NU has heard about my school and its prestige.</p>

<p>Class size: 1,000 [4,000 total]
Rank: 22 ATM Should go up to somewhere in the top 10-20 by the end of the year</p>

<p>ACT: N/A until April but I got a 31 on my practice. I know I need to improve it. By how much would be a good estimate?</p>

<p>Grades show an up trend. Got a total of 6 Bs freshman year all Honors, none sophmore year all Honors one AP, and 2-4 Bs junior year with almost all AP.</p>

<p>Always ALL Honors.
Sophomore year - 1 AP
Junior year - 4 AP
Senior year - Planning 4 AP</p>

<p>Junior year grades-
First Semester -
AP Biology - B
Honors Biology Lab - B [these two are technically one class]
AP Language - A
Honors Physics - A
Honors Trig/Algebra 2 - A
AP Psychology - A
AP Human Geography - A
Honors Precalculus [this summer] - A</p>

<p>Second Semester -
N/A ATM but I can tell you I will again, most likely get two Bs. Maybe one if I work my ass off.</p>

<p>Awards-
Cook County Medal of Honor 2009
Cook County Medal of Honor 2010
Cook County Medal of Honor 2011
Kiwanis Volunteer Work 2010
Kiwanis Volunteer Work 2011
Will get more but probably.</p>

<p>Volunteering-
At a hospital 2 times a week for 4 years. 700 hours and counting. I LOVE IT!
It will get to around 1,000 by application time</p>

<p>Extra Curriculars (most of them since freshman year)-
Key Club (leadership next year)
Student Council (leadership next year)
Best Buddies (leadership next year)
Math Team
Amnesty International
ONE
Environmental Club
Polish Club
Attended Polish School on Saturdays since kindergarten. I am getting my Polish diploma this year.
Girl Scouts
A few Choirs
Dance</p>

<p>Going to be in a JV/Varsity sport this spring for sure. If I don't get on through tryouts I will join Track/another sport that everyone gets on.</p>

<p>Fall of senior year I will be on JV/Varsity Tennis. I got on the Varsity team this year but worked so I couldn't.</p>

<p>The reason I'm not too involved in sports is because of clubs that take up a lot of time.</p>

<p>Work experience-
KMart
Hospital Busboy this summer!</p>

<p>This summer, I will be participating in a college program this summer. I applied to two, one for free and another where you have to pay.</p>

<p>I show NU a lot of interest if that counts. I will visit them soon.</p>

2

<p>Whooops…
UW GPA: Won’t go below 3.7 and not higher than 3.78 by the end of this year.
W GPA: Won’t go below 4.76 or higher than 4.81</p>

3

<p>BUMP.): Please.<3</p>

4

<p>Sounds like you go to Lane. Your school should have detailed Naviance data on the GPA and ACT stats of previous students who were accepted and rejected.</p>

<p>You’re in the ballpark in terms of class rank, but lots of B’s could hurt. You may also be at a slight disadvantage because NW probably isn’t going to take 20 or 30 students from one single school in its own backyard. Thus, your chances may well be affected by how many of your top-ranked classmates apply to NW. You should thus work to get all A’s this semester AND ace the ACT: a 33 would help your odds, a 34 or higher would be even better.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars can make a big difference, but you are spread too wide – there are not enough hours in a week to be seriously involved in all of them. Cut back on the total number and go for major leadership roles in the ones that remain.</p>

5

<p>Do you think I should give up because I’m tired of trying lol? No way I’ll get a 33 and this semester is kicking my ass as far as grades go. </p>

<p>The thing is I show them lots of interest and they’ve asked me for my exact name a lot of times. I don’t know if that’ll help or hurt me.</p>

6

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<p>Your stats are solid; your biggest problem is how to stand out from the rest of the top kids at your school. Certainly, if you can develop a personal relationship with folks at NW that’s an excellent way for you to make yourself stand out. Showing enthusiasm and having an upbeat personality is an important way to contribute to a creating a positive college environment.</p>

7

<p>The thing is, I would be so much more involved if I didn’t do homework everyday until 2-6AM. I’ll try to do something this summer/after AP exams. Is there anything you suggest? I am applying for a summer program.(:</p>

8

<p>Since you took Physics and got an A, a good tip for the ACT science portion is to not read all the extra information. It just restates a lot of junk you can easily glean from the graphs. Just find the question and get your information off the pictures. Since science comes at the end of the test, you’re pretty brain-fried and don’t really have the processing power to cope with all that reading. It helps a lot. (I’m a humanities person and got a 36 on science.)</p>

<p>And you HAVE to cut back on extra-curriculars. Your grades will improve because of it, and the previous posts are correct. Northwestern will be much more impressed to see you excel in 2 or 3 things than be mediocre at 10. Everybody who applies to NU is smart. You have to be more than smart- you even have to be more than excited. You have to be interesting.</p>

9

<p>It looks like you’re in a school where it’s tough to get As, but definitely try to hammer those out. In the meantime concentrate on getting great AP scores as well as SAT IIs - those are important. Standardized testing will show your competence in those particular subjects if your grades don’t.</p>

<p>You have a ridiculous list of ECs so I’d cut back and concentrate on making one or two excellent, like the post above this said.</p>

10

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<p>You need to be less involved in secondary activities and get more sleep. And guess what? If you’re better rested, you’ll finish your homework earlier, too! This is a marathon, not a sprint, you can’t just postpone your sleep until after colleges accept you.</p>

11

<p>I’m not involved really… I mean I never go to Student Council or Key Club meetings and cancelled everything out this year. The leaders/teachers of those two clubs know me well and keep me in the loop, but since I was moved to a new class because of a teacher I have so much work to make up that I have no time for.</p>

<p>For example -
Get home at 4.
4-5 Physics
5-6 Psychology
6-8 Math [Usually one hour but extra work]
8-10 One Bio packet
10-12 Second Bio packet
12-2 AP Human Geo assignment
2-4 English reading/Study for Vocab Test
4-6 Sleep?
6-8 Drive to school</p>

<p>This is how my schedule is almost daily. I’m not trying to get good grades, I’m trying to complete my work. AND it sucks knowing someone in a different school?slightly easier classes will get 10x sleep and get in.</p>

12

<p>Thank you.(: That is my best section along with Math. (:</p>

13

<p>With the number of B’s you are indicating you have and based on the rest of your resume, I think your chances are, unfortunately, not very good. Quite honestly, if you are spending this much time on your assignments in high school, you will not be able to handle the course workload at Northwestern anyway. I would suggest that you do a realistic assessment of your strengths and weaknesses and refocus your college search. Dreaming big is good but you have to be realistic even with your reach schools. </p>

<p>You sound like an incredibly hard working, smart and motivated person. There are a ton of schools out there that would be a much better fit for you and where you could thrive and actually get some sleep in doing so.</p>

14

<p>I completely agree with you except not handling the coarseload. Really? Because I doubt in college I will be required to complete packets of Biology or assignments basically copying out of the book. I more than excel at these subjects, but the busy work they give is not where my learning comes from. Again, I was moved to a different teacher and fell sick for five days and am still making up work. But to say I can’t handle it is completely false and actually quite insulting because I got almost all my Bs freshman yeat (was also having kidney problems but that’s besides the point). I then got 13/14 As sophomore year and currently first semester 6/8 As. Yes I got two Bs but its a double period and regarded as only one. I know my chances aren’t good, but not handling the work is a ridiculous statement because learning/studying is not my downfall and as a future science major, I doubt there will be busy work, and more studying which I love and enjoy. Also, most schools including Northside have their As on a ten point scale. If lane had a ten point, not five point scale, id have straight As.</p>

15

<p>Once I get caught up in my new class I will sleep again lol! (: its important for me to ace AP Bio this time since its regarded as two classes, but since I’m new and most of the class is packets, I need to put in a lot of time.(:</p>

16

<p>What if I do indeed get a 33+ on my ACT? Will I have some what of a chance then?</p>

17

<p>Sorry if I insulted you, that was definitely not my intention but I can see how it came off that way. The point I was trying to make, without being insulting, is that regardless of how hard your school is even if it is the best HS in the nation, NW will be intellectually tougher, more competitive and more time consuming by far (and yes there will be alot of busy work in addition to studying, especially as a science major). So, even if you had straight A’s, if you are already having to spend 12 hours per night studying to get them, 8 not counting bio, how are you going to find the time to do the extra studying that NW will inevitably require?</p>

18

<p>If you’re spending literally 12 hours on homework per day, you either honestly will not be prepared for an NU workload, or your high school is ridiculous. I go to a residential high school, and it is one of the most prestigious in my state. I participate in ECs and take multiple APs just like you do, and do not spend anywhere near that much time on homework while still maintaining A’s. I don’t mean to insult you, but your slower rate of speed either means you are WAY too sleep deprived to function (likely), or you’re just not fast enough to keep up with a college workload. Definitely apply to NU, but realize that jeopardizing your health to maintain a sub-par GPA will not impress them one bit.</p>

19

<p>I don’t know if I mentioned I just transferred to a new class. I doubtttt your school is just as hard lol. Because most of my friends go to public schools in lesser know small towns. Some days are easy like Monday where I slept twelve twour hours and some are hard when you’re supposed to basically write a well written essay or complete several math problems in each class. Its just how AP works. But I guess you know that?..</p>

20

<p>I don’t spend 12 hours everyday.
Most days its about 2-3 hours, but if you guys know AP classes will load a bunch of homework on you one night, but not the other. Sometimes these classes match up and it equals disaster. You guys make it seem as if its not normal to pull allnighters in high school due to homework. The valedictorian, who also is in my Bio class, does. I think he got into Yale and a few other ivies. Lots of people do. Maybe my high school is the only one? Its really not lol.</p>

<p>Then again, i know a boy who goes to a public school a town away. In his own words he has “30 minutes of homework but he procrastinates”… okay… I’m PRETTY SURE Northwestern is aware of “harder/easier” schools, My school alone requires more credits than the average school. </p>

<p>And how do I plan to pull of doing busy work? The average student in high school has at least 1-2 classes where there is no/little [30 min top] of “busy work”. I chose not to do that and instead have 7 full out hard classes. That wasn’t the wisest thing to do but I handled it pretty well first semester. </p>

<p>In college, you have 4 classes and about 1-2 classes everyday. That leaves a BOUNTYFUL amount of time for studying. How do I know it will be easier. My Psychology teacher makes tests/quizzes 85% of the class. Guess what? My best subject because all I have to concentrate on is opening up the book and taking in the material.</p>

<p>Now under new circumstances that I have to adapt to [make up work such as a whole book, several APHG assignments, and lots of Bio packets], I’m having a hard time and yes yesterday was overloaded with work and did actually got to sleep around 1 am. Monday, I actually went to sleep at 5pm and woke up at 8am, unfortunately late for school.-_- </p>

<p>I don’t know if you’ve noticed but high school doesn’t mean much in regards to university since many professionals I know barely graduated high school…</p>