Chance Me RD

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

General Information:

Junior
Korean Male
Upper Middle Class Family(~120k)
From Oregon
Intended Major-Biochemistry or Biology

Academics:

4.00 Unweighted GPA
My school doesn’t use weighted GPA
4.55 UC Weighted GPA
Tied for #1 class rank out of ~375

1580 SAT (800 Math, 780 Reading+Writing)

800 SAT Subject-Math 2
800 SAT Subject-Biology
Expecting 780+ SAT Subject-Physics

Advanced Courses:

10th Grade:
AP Calculus BC-4
AP US History-5

11th Grade:
AP Spanish Language
AP English Language
AP Biology
AP Computer Science Principles
AP World History
IB Physics 1
Linear Algebra (University of Oregon)

12th grade (expected):
AP US Government
AP English Literature
AP Chemistry
AP Computer Science A
IB Physics 2
College Spanish (University of Oregon)
Proofs (University of Oregon)
Numerical Analysis (University of Oregon)

Extracurriculars:
4 years School’s Advanced Orchestra (7 years violin)
2 years Robotics
2 years JV Basketball
9 years Piano
3 years Guitar
3 years Student Government
Tutoring

Other:
A few state math awards
National AP Scholar
National Merit Scholar
Summer Internship for a biology professor at the University of Oregon
Trilingual (don’t know if this helps)
200+ hours volunteering at hospital
I play piano at my church
2 week long Mission Trips to Mexico, Honduras, Dominican Republic to help kids in poverty

2

Your record is very strong. However, Northwestern RD tends to be very tricky, especially if you are not increasing diversity of the class in some fashion. As an Asian Male interested in pre-med, you probably don’t (though it is possible that Oregon will be an underrepresnted state at NU). They will also worry if you are just using NU as a backup and are likely to go to one of the other top schools.

3

NU as a backup with a 7% acceptance rate? Haha I wish. Anyways, thanks for the reply!

4

Agree with osuprof’s points. Strong academics, but VERY typical applicant. Also, being Asian will most definitely hurt you as there are numerous Asian applicants with matching academic credentials. If I’m being honest my take is that the odds are not in your favor.

5

You’re a strong, competive applicant.
That said, it will be a crap shoot going RD, and will depend on both (a) who else is applying (and being admitted) and (b) the “voice” that comes theough in your app, in terms of essays, recs, etc.
Good luck!