Chance me

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

White male senior applying for mechanical engineering
1470 SAT (one sitting, 740M 730R)
Taking Math I and II in November, was signed up for October but got really sick and couldn’t make it
3.99 UW 4.16 W GPA
45 out of 330
6 APs, 8 Honors
My school is a public school in PA, ranked as one of the top in America

ECs:

FBLA President, 2x state qualifier, 1x state champion & national qualifier. Currently running the biggest FBLA fundraiser in my school history, involves me presenting (alone) at local businesses and receiving total donations in the thousands.
Finance Club President: we manage and invest a $30000 fund
Yearbook academic editor
German Activity Club Vice President; also taken 5 years of German
NHS
Robotics chassis/animation engineer (school team was a national champion last year)
Student Council
Club Council (one rep from each club meets with principal monthly, plans club events)
Leadership Course (had to apply for an extracurricular course taught on top of our existing course loads, monthly after school, by the head principal. Relatively high honor within my school)
Academic team/quizbowl Varsity

Total ECs: 10

I know my academic stats are a far reach for some of my schools, but I think my LORs and essays are good and my finance club investing and FBLA fundraising set me apart from a lot of applicants. For the record, here’s my full list

UPenn ED
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
Northwestern
Michigan (Ann Arbor)
Pitt
Penn State (Schreyer’s + main campus)

2

To be honest, unlikely for RD. The difference between ED and RD is enormous. Look at the difference of acceptance rates:
“Admissions are characterized as “most selective” by U.S. News & World Report.[109] There were 37,255 applications for the undergraduate class of 2021 (entering 2017). For early decision, 971 out of 3,736 applicants were admitted, for an acceptance rate of 26%. In regular decision, 2,400 out of 33,519 applicants were admitted, for an acceptance rate of 7.16%. In total, 3,371 out of 37,255 applicants were admitted for an overall acceptance rate of 9.0%” (Wikipedia)
To be accepted in RD, you have to be very different and bring something amazing to campus. I think you would have a solid shot in ED however.
Good luck with your app process.

3

Thanks for the response. NW is one of my bigger reaches so this comes as no surprise. I appreciate your honesty