<p>I go to a humongous high school (almost 5000 enrolled) in the Chicago suburb. It's pretty notorious for diffcult classes, especially the AP science and English areas. </p>
<p>Okay, I understand how this whole "chance me" deal lacks reliability most of the time and it's annoying for other people. But hey, I'd rather get some opinions rather than deciding everything on my own since I don't have many other people to ask.</p>
<p>I'm kind of obsessed with Northwestern. There's no where else I'd like to go.
Should I apply ED or RD? Which gives me a better chance?</p>
<p>So here it goes:
GPA: 4.15ish weighted, my school doesn't do unweighted. Grade trend is so so.
Classes: 9 APs by senior year. I didn't take any "blow-off" classes except maybe Psych.
Rank: top 9% out of 1170 kids
ACT: 34 (35 English, 34 Sci, 34 Math, 32 Reading, 7 essay... I got a 10 on my prev. test though.)
SAT II: I'm taking Chem and Math 2 this coming October. I need one more but no idea which.
EC: Pres. and co-founder of Amnesty International chapter... we hosted a schoolwide Food Fight event for Haiti.
Youth and Government member (3 years), committee chairperson (i'm pretty proud of this.)
French Honor Society (2 years)
Tae kwon do, (8 years) 2nd degree blackbelt
Played in the school orchestra for 2 years, had to quit due to scheduling</p>
<p>Volunteer: 200+ of instructing tae kwon do to 4~5 year olds
40 hours of hospital work, delivering flowers and balloons to patients</p>
<p>AP Scores: 4 chem, 4 Eng Lang, 5 Euro, 5 Psych.</p>
<p>I'd love your input. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Apply early.
ED your app could either way, not because you’re not good enough for NU, but because they can’t possibly accept all qualified candidates.
So if your curriculum was truly challenging and your grades are strong (you can/should calculate your unweighted GPA on your own, just don’t count non-academic courses), and given your solid ACT, I think you’ve got a real shot.
Good luck.</p>
<p>see, I tend to think of ED as a chance for less competitive applicants to get accepted when otherwise they’d be rejected RD and I think you do too. But others say there are much more high-caliber applicants in the ED pool. </p>
<p>So confused!</p>
<p>The ED pool is for those who are dedicated to NU - if they get in, they’ll go. I think in the end, ED gives you some leeway with stats and the like, as you make your interest clear and they know they can boost their “accepted and attended” rate. However, the 33% general acceptance rate of ED I’m betting comes from the actual average stats being higher. Most students banking on ED will at least have manageable scores, unlike in the regular RD pool, where people who might think they have no shot whatsoever apply “just to say they did.” So you have a higher percentage of higher caliber students just because of how ED works, not necessarily because it’s more competitive. If that makes any sense, haha.</p>
<p>Your stats look pretty good. If we knew your unweighted score it’d obviously be easier, but your EC and your ACT look good, especially for ED. If you definitely want to go to NU, try ED - it never hurts.</p>
<p>If you really are set on NU go for it you have a good chance. If you don’t you’ll probably have a harder time RD. Your call</p>
<p>thanks, guys. so, i think the general consensus is to apply for ED. my fingers are crossed.</p>
<p>Good luck! Have rd apps ready to go too though.</p>