Chances for NU

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>Some people recommended I look into Northwestern. They said it was a reach, but that I'm the type of student NU generally looks for. So how much of a reach am I?</p>

<p>BACKGROUND:
Male, live in NY, born in South Asia, moved to U.S. when almost three yrs old, English was my third language, household income is around 85,000 so about 55,000 net, I have two older siblings, both of whom went to college. Father is a pharmacist. Mother is a housekeeper.</p>

<p>STATS:
GPA: 103 weighted, 95 unweighted (weighting system: honors = +10, AP = +12)
Class Rank: 6/300
SAT Reasoning Test: M: 710 Cr: 670 W: 670 Total: 2050/2400 and 1380/1600
AP: Last year I took 3 APs, and got two 4s and one 3. This year I am taking 5 AP classes (6 if you count economics as macro and micro as separate since tests are separate) + engineering research class + phys ed + a graduation requirement class.
SAT II: Phys: 800 MathIIC: 800 Literature: 700
Essays: Good, meaning not super because I am not an extremely creative writer and I rarely use SAT words, but good in the sense that I feel I successfully expressed my personality
Letters of Recommendation: One of them was really good, and the other two were average good.</p>

<p>AWARDS/EXTRACURRICULARS/WORK EXPERIENCE:
--AP Scholar
--Varsity Tennis Team: 3yrs (I made counties once)
--Varsity Excellence Award (received twice)
--Two-time scholar athlete
--Distinguished High Honor Roll student
--Mathletes: 4yrs (county champion last year, captain this year)
--Science Olympiads: 2yrs, ever since it was offered (I entered all the physics and chemistry competitions)
--SWEEP (an environmental club): 2yrs
--Key Club: 20 hrs community service
--School Radio: 2yrs (journalist)
--Have been working hard at a convenient store 30hrs/week for 3yrs. I have been sales manager for 1.5 years. This is big for me since it took up a lot of my time on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
--Even though I am an atheist, I have been helping every year, for five years, to help set up the food and dining preparations during the four weekend community feasts in the month of Ramadan. My counselor told me this is community service. So it took at least 3hrs/day<em>2days</em>4weekends<em>4yrs(high school yrs)=96 hours.
--I volunteered to tutor two students, on math and chemistry during junior year, after school every day, 1 hr each session, for 32 weeks. So 1</em>5<em>32 = 160 hours.
--I gave tennis lessons to a couple of persons at my tennis club during sophomore year, once a week, three hours a week, for six months. So 3</em>4*6= 72 hours. Afterwards, she became my girlfriend, which indeed was the ultimate payoff!</p>

<p>RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:
--I have completed original research on two projects, one involving chemistry at a state university, the other involving a bit of physics, environmental science, and biology—mixed—at a prominent national lab. I will be sending my abstracts for both research projects. Neither project was published, but I am entering the second one into ISEF. All this research stuff is perhaps my biggest “hook.”</p>

<p>MISCALLENOUS:
--I have been privately tutored for Arabic twice a week, for about 2 years now.
--I speak four languages fluently: Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, English; I know there are some conflicts about whether Urdu and/or Punjabi are languages or dialects, it’s acknowledged.
--I have taken part in civil protests against the war in Iraq as well as against the Patriot Act for twice a month, for two years.
--I trained at an international tennis academy in Texas for 1 month. (But please note, I do NOT wish to play college tennis)
--I regularly play tennis at a local club
--I love to play chess with my friends; I tried to create an official club, but my school’s board failed to pass it in time to make it official this year.
--My favorite album is War by U2
--As subtly mentioned above, I am taking an engineering research class. This year is the first year ever that my school is offering it, and it is very unique. I doubt many other schools have it, so this may catch a second glimpse.</p>

<p>PERSONAL QUALITIES:
--Mathematically and scientifically inclined
--Extremely politically active (I’m somewhere between liberal and libertarian)
--Very outgoing, I love my closest friends with all my heart, and I like most everyone else (except for the cocky jocks, for they are so annoying).
--Theologically open-minded
--I like to get personal with small groups of people, rather than lead a huge pack, as evident in my tutoring and tennis-lessons providing.</p>

<p>ACADEMIC INTERESTS:
--Economics
--Philosophy
--Mathematics
--Physics</p>

2

<p>the last three categories don't affect your 'chances,' per se. you should, instead, have mentioned them in your essay(s). </p>

<p>everything but your SAT looks good. it's a bit on the low side. try the ACT.</p>

3

<p>I think it's too late to change anything; I'm a senior who's applying RD. I just included the last three sections so that you all get a better idea of what person I am so that you can make more accurate chances opinions. </p>

<p>All in all, would you say that I have more of a 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, or 60%+ chance of acceptance?</p>

<p>If I myself were to guess, I would guess a 30%, but then I thought RPI was a safety for me, so who the heck knows!</p>

4

<p>Yeah, I would think that it's a reach, since you're doing RD. </p>

<p>Also, do you have any other awards? You mention your research, but have you won at regionals/qualifiers for ISEF at least? You said that you're entering it into ISEF, but that just means that you're entering it into regionals, yes? You also mentioned olympiads. Did you garner any awards there? If you did get a lot of science fair and olympiad awards, then it's less of a reach. I'm also curious as to how many leadership positions you have gotten, since I don't see any listed. Anyhow, I'd say low reach to reach. Good luck RD! =]</p>

5

<p>For what it's worth, I think you have a very good chance. Sidjenks is right that your SATs aren't great, but they're within the 25-75 percentile range for Northwestern (650-740 M, 670-760 CR). Your GPA and class rank are also within NWU's ranges. But all I have just talked about are your stats. I think far too many people focus on apparent stats in these chances threads, because most of the top colleges care more about who you are as a person, and what makes you different based on the things you have done outside of the classroom. </p>

<p>With that said, you have very good extra-curriculars. It also looks very good that you had time for all of your ec's while working 30 hrs/week. Your research and ability to speak multiple languages also sets you apart from most applicants. All in all, I believe you will be a highly competitive applicant to NWU (as well as many other top colleges). Good luck!</p>

<p>P.S. Your chance at any college is always greater than zero if and only if you apply, so it's better to apply than to wonder if you would have been able to get in.</p>

6

<p>Yeah, I understand that the SAT is the weakest part of my application. That's why I've been so worried; I honestly thought I did better than what I got on my SAT. I hope my SAT IIs will somewhat compensate for it.</p>

<p>My EC's I guess are fine. I don't have many leadership positions. I was the head journalist for the school radio, captain of mathletes, ranked #2 on my team for tennis (but we didn't have captains or anything), and that's all I can think of right now. I was hoping my EC's would show that I am focused, yet well rounded. </p>

<p>You know, a lot of people overlook my work. I am the only sales manager at that store by the way. And it is a relatively large store, not huge, but like the size of three 7-Elevens. And I have to help a lot with the inventory, and most of our goods are imported, like all the spices, and we have gourmet sweets, and even our own butchery. I also have to look over the entire store sometimes all by myself, well the butcher and myself anyways. And often I have to close up. This takes a lot of responsibility. And 30hrs a week is A LOT, especially when you have a lot of tests to study for. I have one of the most rigorous academic courseloads in my school too. </p>

<p>Add all this to the research, and I'm going crazy. I barely sleep a healthy amount. And then I do a bit of charitable work (like the community feasts). I also regularly participate in protests. And I gave tennis lessons at the local tennis club in addition to A LOT of tutoring (I actually didn't even include the sporadic tutoring I did in my freshman and sophomore year, that alone would also equate quite a few hours. I figured it was so long ago, that why even bother...) And I'm not a crappy tutor, I actually create lesson-plans, and easier strategies, etc.</p>

<p>I really don't know what else I could do. I worked as hard as I possibly could.</p>

7

<p>you can't really do anything else, as you said. make sure your essays are 'you,' and hope for the best. write a good 'why NU' essay too. </p>

<p>and they (NU people) do say that SAT II's can make up for lower SAT I scores, so you might be right on that one.</p>

8

<p>And that's the worst part about it, I have no idea "why NU" in particular. I mean it is a great school overall academically, with rigorous courses and friendly people, but a ton of other schools have that as well. I guess I better start researching.</p>

9

<p>id say 45%.
the SATI is low, yea, but you have lots of other strong things going for you</p>

10

<p>I'm working on a new stellar essay for the common app, I completely scratched my old one, everyone told me it either was too risky or didn't have a central theme. So if anyone is able to read my new essay when completed, please PM me. Thanks.</p>

11

<p>I'm with dietcoke: 45% chance</p>