Chances for Northeastern?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
1

Hey everyone,
I am going to be a senior this upcoming year. I was wondering if you guys could kinda chance me on my likelihood of getting accepted to NEU. My ACT is a 33 and my school doesn’t weight GPAs, and so now currently after junior year my overall GPA is a 92. I also left out electives from my class lists, as I did well in them and they were simply for grade boosting purposes, and don’t really count for much in the grand scheme of things. I go to a large public high school in upstate New York, and I’m also Indian if that counts for anything. I’m looking to apply for the combined major of business administration (marketing concentration) and economics, with a minor in behavioral neuroscience.

9th grade:
Biology Honors
English Honors
Geometry Honors
Spanish II Honors
Global History Honors

10th grade:
AP World History (4 on exam)
Chemistry Honors
Algebra 2/Trigonometry Honors
Spanish III Honors
English Honors
NASA Space Research: a super involved class where we essentially worked for NASA, we had to engineer a solution to clear the ISS of Bacillus subtilis, a bacteria. We met with NASA employees, created an abstract, built our solution, presented to workers, and the seniors went and tested our creation in the “vomit comet,” a zero-gravity plane ride simulating the conditions on the ISS. It was an extremely involved course and will look great on the resume, as my name is now printed on an official scientific paper.

11th grade:
This year had some rough patches, family-wise, and it reflected in my grades a bit. However, overall I’m still hanging in there with a 92 overall.
AP Statistics (3 on exam, not proud of that)
AP American History (4 on exam)
AP Language & Composition (5 on exam)
Physics Honors (Physics was a class I struggled in, but I’m getting a letter of recommendation from my physics teacher so hopefully that helps a little bit, because I worked my butt off in that class but somehow it just didn’t seem to click.)
Pre-Calculus Honors
Spanish IV Honors

12th grade:
This is what I will be taking this upcoming year.
AP Biology
AP Spanish
AP Literature & Composition
AP Calculus-BC
SUPA (Dual credit through Syracuse University, essentially an intro college course) Economics

Work Experience:
Jun 16 - Sep 16: Tennis Coach
Sep 15 - Jun 16: Kumon Tutor
Sep 14 - Jun 15: NASA HUNCH
Sep 14 - Present: Swim Instructor

Volunteer Service:
Jul 15 - Jul 15: Shadowed Pediatrician
Jun 15 - Sep 15: Kumon Tutor
Dec 14 - Present: Golisano Hospital Magazine Editor (Me and a friend put together a magazine for kids going through cancer treatments in our local children’s hospital filled with activities, articles, movie reviews, et cetera to help them pass the time)
Aug 14 - Present: Rochester Museum and Science Center Volunteer
Jul 14 - Aug 14: Physical Therapy Volunteer at Strong Hospital
Jan 14 - Dec 14: Volunteer Swimming Instructor

Extracurricular Activities:
Jan 16 - Present: National Honor Society
Dec 14 - Present: Spanish National Honor Society
Sep 15 - Present: Math Team
Sep 14 - Present: Model United Nations
Nov 12 - Mar 14: CYO Basketball
Sep 13 - Jun 14: Asset Leaders
Sep 13 - Present: Peer Tutoring
Sep 13 - Jun 14: Peer Ambassadors
Mar 15 - Present: Varsity Tennis Team
Sep 05 - Sep 10: Piano
Sep 10 - Present: Guitar

Leadership:
Vice President of Model United Nations Club
Secretary for Spanish National Honor Society
Captain of the Math Team

So, there you have it. What are my chances looking like? Northeastern is one of my top choices, and I’d love to know what you guys think about my odds. Thank you so much in advance!

2

ACT Score

Very, very good score, but it’s exactly average for NU students. You might want to try and bring that up. I bet you can get to a 34; that’s all it takes to be above average. It’s really worth studying hard for and retaking. I get the impression that NU adcoms have a very holistic approach to your application – that is, they holistically look at every digit of your standardized test scores.

GPA

Good. But you should still have your guidance counselor explain that your junior year is not an accurate reflection of your academic abilities. Sorry to hear about that, by the way.

Extra-curriculars and Courseload

Both are challenging and good. I do have a few things to note, though:

• Depth trumps breadth. If you don’t really care about your activity, then why should an adcom (admissions committee) care? If you stopped doing piano six years ago, why should you include it on your application?
• I thought that you were listing days and months at first, not years and months lol
• Flesh out your hospital volunteer work in one, single Common App field. It’s good to look committed to a cause you believe in.
• Always max out the Common App character count. And condense these many activities into combined ones. Surely, you could combine Peer Tutoring and Peer Counseling into one? Any student can fill up the CApp with shallow activities they don’t care about. Make sure it looks like you’re doing a lot, not just a little in a lot of areas.

Verdict

It seems weird that your situation is so similar to the other Chance Me poster with no replies on this NU board. That’s the coincidence here. I’m not intentionally giving the same advice twice when I say that you should work hard to pick your grades up, and your ACT up, and apply regular decision. That will maximize your chances, I think.

With that in mind, NU is a target.

Best of luck!

3

coterie, thank you for the super detailed response! I have been considering retaking the ACT. Also, I do plan on talking to my counselor soon for my letter of recommendation so I’ll be sure to mention that. Your advice about condensing my activities is super helpful, I’ve already started filling out the common app and so I’ll look back and see if I can make some adjustments. One question though, why regular decision rather than an early action? Just curious. Thank you again!

4

@rmochx
I hope my hours of redundant college infosessions can be of use to someone else.

Early action is great if your scores are ready to be sent to your favorite universities. But it seems like you aren’t 100% proud of your scores. What I’m trying to say is that using an extra few months to boost your GPA and scores is more advantageous to you than applying as you are now. Prove it to NU and everyone else that you are an elite, driven student. Prove that your GPA hiccup was just a fluke.

For your own sake, please strengthen your application and don’t rush sending your application in. You still have more work to do before your full potential is truly represented in your app.

Again, good luck.

5

@coterie
Okay, yeah that makes perfect sense. Thank you so much again for all your advice!