Chance me Wash U, Northwestern, Northeastern, Cornell

Hey guys, if you don’t mind looking over my stats and helping me strengthen my applications I would super duper appreciate it!

I go to a public school in Mid Missouri, no class rank, 3.87 GPA, 31 composite act (ugh), white-female-(greek-american, but not really any impact I guess on the admissions process)

AP Courses: Statistics, English Language and Composition, U.S. History, Human Geography, World History, Psychology, French, Economics

HARVARD SUMMER SCHOOL: (Summer of 2015) GPA 4.0 (college classes for college credit)
Introduction to International Law- 4 credits
Summer Seminar on Human Rights - 4 credits

Challenging courses all four years, heavy focus on journalism classes required to be on staff and foreign language: Chinese and french

Activities: VERY STRONG (i loved high school bc I got to do all of this, lk gonna miss it)

  • Editor in Chief of School Journalism publications and website manager: (2016-present)
    Selected as EIC after one year as A&E section editor
    edited monthly publications of school newspaper (really award winning, nationally recognized paper)
    Managed, coded and designed online publication and news website
    Organized, wrote for and part of design team for annual news magazine

Business Manager of School Journalism Publications: (2016-present)
Organized budget and secured funding for all publications (newspaper, website, news magazine), negotiated, sold, delivered and designed advertisements for local businesses and budgeted staff expenses on cameras, software, lights, travel, etc.

Chief Intern with Immigration Lawyer: (2015-present)
Helped organize and run a free naturalization event for immigrants in Missouri, managed office administration for the Columbia office

President and Founder of United Feminists Association (club at my school): (2014-present)
- Ran weekly meetings, arranged guest speakers and charity events, planned fundraising, created syllabus
Charity:
Created ‘SHARE’ in Africa chapter in partner with UFA, an international initiative to educate and supply girls in Africa with academic materials
Organized tri-annual city wide supply drives for local domestic abuse shelter, True North, Organized parties to drive around neighborhoods and collect supplies, Set up donation centers in local businesses, elementary schools, churches, and rec centers
Annual Event Planning:
Planned annual social change conferences, booked venues, secured funding from local businesses for expenses, designed newsletter, arranged for all participants to receive t shirts, arranged for expert guest speakers to speak to 100+ high school students about annual theme:
- Feminism Education (2015)
- Transgender Rights (2016)
- U.S. Race Relations (scheduled present)
- Participated in and did research for graduate feminism research case study

Columbia City Council Youth Advisory Council - selected member: (2014-present)
Served on a youth advisory board to offer a different perspective on problems and legislation pertaining to city youth
Selected as City Council representative to the National League of Cities conference in Nashville (2015)
Set up city wide supplies drives for city council social equity programs supporting teen parents at alternative high school (Douglas High School)

Chinese Study Abroad and Independent Study: (2015-present)
Completed University of Missouri Confucius Institute summer camp at Shanghai Normal and continued with a second year of independent study of Chinese during senior year of high school

Student of St. Luke’s Orthodox Church Greek School: (2005-present)
Completed 12 years of Greek language and culture classes, performed traditional Greek dances, poems and songs at church and community gatherings

Cellist: (2006-present)
11 years of total playing, including a lot of private orchestras, and 8 years of private lessons

Lacrosse: (2011-present)
Elected Co Captain of the varsity team Senior year and petitioned our school board four times to make lacrosse a school sponsored sport for the district

Senior Member of Model United Nations Team: (2014-present)
Competed in national Model UN competitions after extensive research, received honorable mentions in the 2015, 2016 North American Invitational United Nations conference held in Washington D.C. annually

Co President and Founder of True/False film core: (2015-present)
Created and ran a core in a school wide volunteer organization, to sponsor and raise money for local documentary film festival, and, a fund organized by the festival to raise money for one subject in a shown documentary that is escaping danger because of their appearance in the film

School Chapter President of Amnesty International: (2014-present)
Ran monthly meetings, arranged guest speakers, created syllabus, head of recruitment and social media

SMALLER ACTIVITIES:
Missouri Girls State: (Summer of 2016)
Selected by the Women’s Legion Auxiliary to represent Colombia at Missouri Girls State where more than 800 girls from all over Missouri came together to create a mock state government.

A+ tutoring program in Missouri elementary schools: (Summer of 2015)
Volunteered 100+ hours tutoring 5th graders through the A+ program during summer school

Youth in Action Volunteer Worker: (2013-present)
Completed 120+ volunteer hours with Columbia based youth volunteer group, Youth in Action, at many locations including the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri, Community Garden, Humane Society, etc.

Trail to a Cure Participant: (2013-present)
Ran 5k every year to raise money for HIV research through the fundraising event, Trail to a Cure

French Honors Society
National Honors Society, etc.

glowing recs from immigration lawyer I intern for, journalism advisor, and my counselor (she told me it was glowing)- I can say pretty confidently they all love me

essay- about cultural differences I experienced in china concerning my weight and how I came to realize its important to not judge other cultures, I’m a pretty strong writer and my journalism advisor is helping me make it really good

I’m worried low act and 3.8 gpa are gonna really make me less desirable to colleges, please help!

A few comments/questions:
Do you have recs from teachers? You should have recs from core subject teachers for your primary recs.

Any other schools on your list besides those 4?

I’d guess Northeastern is a high match. The rest are reaches. You should expand your list to include more matches and some safeties. Your list is too reach heavy.

Northeastern should be ok. The rest are reaches.

I think you have a really good shot at all of them… Just make sure you spend time writing passionate essays.

These schools are mostly reaches, the way they’ll be for just about anybody. I would say your extracurriculars are going to be what makes you stand out. They’re incredible.
Just make sure you do have primary teachers to write your recs- most schools require them.