Chances at Northwestern ED? Low GPA, high ACT

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

Hi CC!

Like the majority of posters on this forum, I’m a (very stressed) rising high school senior trying to get an idea of where I stand in the college app process. I’m applying to Northwestern WCAS ED1 and Vanderbilt ED2. Other schools: William and Mary, BU, BC, CMU, Wesleyan, Emory, WashU, USC, Michigan, Tufts

Objective:
School Type: public
Location: New York
Race/Gender: Asian female
Income: Upper middle (350K+)
Prospective Major: CS and Psychology or Cognitive Science (I want to explore the intersection of education and technology. ex. How can we harness technology to give underprivileged students access to individualized learning? And I don’t want to go to an education-focused school (like SESP or Peabody).)

Unweighted GPA: 3.78 out of 4
Weighted GPA: 4.33 out of 5
Class rank: probably top 10-15%
I’ve taken the hardest classes (honors and AP) throughout high school. Next year, I’ll be taking BC calculus, AP physics, AP Java, AP lang, AP psych
I have a strong upward trend from 3.6ish freshman year to 3.9high junior year.

ACT: 36 C (36M 36S 36E 35R)
SAT II Math 2: 800
(retaking chem)
AP Biology: 4
AP Stats: 5
AP USH: 5
AP Chinese: 5

ECs:
Varsity sport - 4 years, captain senior year

  • state and regional awards for academic and athletic excellence
  • team MVP 2 seasons

Debate - 4 years

  • advanced to elimination rounds at national-level tournaments
  • national qualifier in a competitive district
  • NSDA degree of distinction
  • coached middle school students

Research assistant - 2 months, summer after sophomore year

  • researched novel treatment for ischemic stroke with well-known professor

Organized community-wide event

  • over 300 participants (organizations and individuals)
  • led digitization of the event (in previous years they did everything by hand)

Teaching assistant at local organization

Summer intern at non-profit that focuses on immigrant empowerment through education and employment

  • built a curriculum and taught computer/technology class
  • helped them improve their website and social media presence
  • office work (filing, shredding, etc.)

Intern at engineering firm (paid)

  • set up international shipping channel to facilitate sales to a new market
  • updated website (graphics, content)

Awards: (nothing special, pretty much all are test-based)

  • AP scholar with honor
  • National Honor Society
  • Honor roll all terms
  • Predicted National Merit semi-finalist (1500 on PSAT)
  • National Latin Exam gold medal x2
  • gold president’s volunteer award x3
  • Debate and sports awards

Recs will probably be average, like 7 or 8/10. My counselor has over 50 students she has to write recs for, but I think she knows me decently well.
I’m working on my essay, but I think it’ll be pretty decent if I can figure out how to stop procrastinating the writing process.

Wow, that was super long! Any advice is appreciated, and link your “chance me” threads below; I’ll chance you back.

2

Hi there! Nice test scores you have there! Besides having good test scores, it’s easy to see you are ambitious in general, considering the list of things you have done/been honored for etc. However, it’s not very clear to me what it is that you are extremely passionate about. What subject(s) do you love? What subject(s) do you learn about in your free time? What did you do to show that? For you this could be: internships, national exams/honors, taking the initiative to do research, organize events etc. Knowing that you’re ambitious and having looked at your post, I’m sure you have something you absolutely love, so let that love, passion and ambition shine through!

Your niceness and well-roundedness do shine through, so that’s great! Therefore, I’d recommend to try to create a ‘spike’. Basically, colleges look for someone who is nice, likeable, well-rounded, contributes to the community and is very good at something and absolutely loves that particular subject. After all, in what are you going to be very successful if you’re just ‘good’ at everything?

You could create this spike by creating a recurring subject/topic. I tried (try, actually… #LetsGoClassOf2022) to do this by writing my personal statement and a supplemental essay about it, and having honors/ECs in the subject, while also listing other honors/ECs, but not mentioning them (as) much. Basically, these are to show my well-roundedness and that I could be successful in other areas too, as well as truly being interested in them.

This is just an insight and I hope it helped in any way possible. Good luck with your application!

3

@Tomas1355 Thanks for the insight! I totally agree with you in that colleges are looking for passionate people so they can build a well-rounded class. For my application, I was hoping that my spike of education X technology would come in my ECs and essays.

4

First of all, 3.78 is not a low GPA. You have an upward trend and a rigorous classload with good standardized test scores. ECs seem good/focused so you are a viable candidate.

Most of your schools are going to be reaches just because their acceptance rate will be in the low teens/single digits, for example Northwestern and Vandy.

WashU is a low reach. I can see you being accepted and their PNP (Physchology Neuroscience-Philosophy) major seems to be a good fit. The thing with WashU is that you need to show them the love and if it’s not your first choice you might not get accepted. CMU is a low reach as well because of the acceptance rate.

Low match-Emory, W&M, Michigan, USC. Hard to call them complete matches but I can see you get accepted by all of them.

Match/near safeties-BU. I can see you getting into the Killichand Honors college with money.

Take BC out of the mix. Their focus is more on business/social sciences and that may not fit into your interests.

I would be careful of Tufts as well because of Tufts syndrome. Your numbers are good which means Tufts may think you’re not interested in them. And also they love their association with Jumbo, which could turn off some people. They are pretty well known in your potential major so by all means apply if you are interested. It’s a fairly compact campus that seems easy to navigate-my son applied RD but got accepted by WashU ED so that was his final choice.

5

@Hamurtle Thanks for your response! And when you say “[Tufts loves] their association with Jumbo”, are you referring to their elephant mascot? I’m curious: why would that be a turn-off?

6

@johnjayluvr correct about Jumbo the Elephant. When my son visited and took the tour, it seemed like the guide spent more time talking about Jumbo than the school itself. He was fine with it but his mom was turned off by all the elephant references. The tour was mainly Asian families and it looked like they didn’t care too much about Jumbo.

You might want to check out the Tufts threads on CC if you are interested in what the school is like.

7

CMU is honestly out of reach for SCS.

8

or I should say high reach

9

@kjake2000 Agreed. At CMU I’d probably apply to Tepper or the social sciences school.

10

Honestly you could probably aim a little higher like Ivy leagues. If I had your stats a extra curriculars, I would be aiming for schools in the top 5.

11

@perspectivestude are you just saying that to chase away competition for ED at northwestern?

12

@iamverystressed2000 lol

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@johnjayluvr - Just curious. Where did you apply and where did you get in?

14

I know I’m still new to cc, but to me, this young lady is a hs all star. If she’s not a “lock” for her ED choice, that just shows us parents how crazy elite college admissions are these days.

Best wishes op, and let us know where you land!