Chances of getting into my Dream School? Please Help

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi guys. I’m applying to Northwestern ED, but i don’t have 2 subject tests. I only have 1 subject test (800-US History). ALSO i am not doing an interview. I was wondering how much these would hurt me. Here are the rest of my stats. Will I be okay with not another SAT II subject test and an interview for NU ED?

asian male, goes to a gold us news high school (i think it’s ranked somewhere in the 200s or 300s in the nation and top 10ish state public schools) in Texas. Also if it matters, i’m in the ~200k income bracket

Planning to apply as an economics major

ACT: 34 (34E, 34M, 32R, 34S, 33W)

SAT II:
US History- 800, will take math ii in nov. (very worried about this)

GPA: 3.9 UW (B in art and math in 8th and 9th grade, no Bs since 1st semester 9th grade, VERY upward trend)

Rank: 32/~770- in the top 5%. our school is super, super competitive. literally 2 ppl are tied for valedictorian bc they have gotten the highest gpa bracket in the highest level classes possible

APs:

human geography, psychology, english language, whap, macroeconomics, microeconomics, us history, statistics- 5

biology, physics i - 4

classes this year: ap government, ap physics ii, ap calc bc, ap english lit, ap compgov, ap latin

my courses have been the hardest the school offers (as many APs as possible)

my ECs: (worried bc i dont have enough all 10 to fill up on commonapp)

  • founder/president of my school's amnesty international club. our first year was last year (11th grade). we teamed up with a few local restaurants to fight childhood malnutrition by getting them to donate a portion of their profits. advertised locally. raised a few thousand. also, we hosted a book drive with the city library and elementary schools to build a library in africa. hosted charity carnival and concert soon and are going to donate those funds to the education fund for amnesty international. we also group volunteer at our local food pantry
  • president of national latin honor society: planned meetings, managed funds, raised awareness for the classics at the community level and led latin at events and competitions.
  • history/reading tutor at an economically disadvantaged elementary school
  • marketing intern/assistant at a hospice
  • model UN officer
  • science museum volunteer, hosted spring break discovery camps
  • nhs member

awards (i know they aren’t very special)

  • water scarcity and population education film finalist (world of 7 billion foundation)
  • national merit commended
  • national ap scholar (yr 11)
  • national latin exam level 3 summa cum laude (11th)
  • tx state theory test gold grades 9-11
  • us geography olympiad national qualifier (11th)
  • us history bee national qualifier (11th)
  • a couple of golds in regional junior classical league events

essays: decent rn but ill make them better hopefully. i feel like they are entertaining and a unique approach to a kinda common topic, but aren’t well developed yet

Recs: good, maybe very good (i can’t read them bc ferpa)

How will I do for NU ED?

2

pls help lol

3

lol bump

4

help guys ?!

5

Hey Im applying NU ED too! go check out my profile for me too! I think your academics are amazing and even though you don’t have anything that super pops I can clearly see you’re a great student and you’re really interested in social science? I think you fit into what NU is looking for :slight_smile:

6

cool thanks haha

7

any more thoughts

8

what is your weighted GPA? Also what major are you going for?

9

@seanjungies my weighted GPA is a ~5.55/5

econ major in WCAS

10

b

11

I think you have a strong chance, especially applying ED. Northwestern recommends, not requires, that you have two SAT IIs, so I think your one 800 should be fine. I know people who go to Northwestern that imo are not as qualified as you. Best of luck!

12

You’re a competitive applicant. NU’s ED acceptance rate is about 35%. You don’t have a hook, but your stats are a bit above average, which helps. So i think you could call NU a low reach or high match in the ED round.

What other schools are you considering in case NU doesn’t pan out?

13

@prezbucky

thanks for replying! im getting worried bc a record 3.7k ppl applied for ed this year (700 more from last year) so the admit rate will probably go down to ~27-28%. do you know anything about northwestern’s ED applicant pool? how competitive relatively are the applicants?

also im shooting for some pretty good schools like berkeley, ucla, usc, claremont mckenna, nyu stern, and vanderbilt because i have a great safety with auto admission at UT austin (which id still love to go to). not trying for any ivies or anything though- northwestern is the best school im applying to. do you have any thoughts on or suggestions for my list?

also, my sister’s friend’s mom is a northwestern admissions regent and said that i could get in touch with her to talk about northwestern- would this do anything?

14

I don’t know if they publish the stats for ED class applicants vs. RD. The CDS has a place where schools can post ACT/SAT/GPA and Top 10% stats, but those are not broken down by admissions round.

ED stats might be a bit lower given that the ED round is typically when athletes apply, but that isn’t a boon to you because probably just about all of those athletes are getting in. Probably the students with whom you are competing have stats roughly equal to those seen in the RD round.

As for the rest of your list, it is light on true matches, but if you wouldn’t mind attending UT-Austin – which is an outstanding ace in the hole – it’s a great list.

CMC, Vandy - Reach/low reach
Berkeley & UCLA OOS - Low reach
USC, Stern - Low reach/high match

If i had to bet, i think you’d probably get into some of those. As with any app, make sure you can afford them before applying – run the NPC. NYU is not known for being generous with financial aid, and the UCs will offer very little (if anything) to OOS admits.

15

@prezbucky thank you so much! i am now even a bit more worried as it seems my list is shooting maybe a bit too high with all the reaches. what would be a few true matches for me/ schools you generally recommend me looking more into? also- what exactly does a low reach/high match entail? im really hoping on getting into cal or usc as those are my other top 2 schools id wanna go to

16

I think the chance categories are:

High reach: 0-5% chance of getting in
Reach: 5-15%
Low reach: 15-25%
High match: 25-40%
Match: 40-60%
Low match: 60-90%
Safety: 90+%

So “low reach/high match” chances would be about 20-30%. That’s my rough guess, but take it with a grain of salt because the only people who really know and have any control over your chances are the adcoms who read/discuss the apps and make the decisions. I base my estimates on things like:

  • The school's acceptance rate of the round in which you are applying
  • Your test scores and GPA compared to the mean figures (or 25th/75th percentile) among past admits.
  • Whether you are hooked
  • For public schools, whether you are in-state or OOS
  • If applicable, admit rates of specific colleges within a university, if you are set on a specific major or program.
  • Differences in male and female admit rates, if pronounced
17

Matches for you will probably include schools with at least a 25% admit rate – the higher, the safer – where your stats are at or near the 75th percentile. (or near the mean at a school with an admit rate of 40-60%…). Ideas:

Some private match-range schools:
Bates
Macalester
Lafayette
U of Richmond
Holy Cross
Denison
Dickinson
F&M
Trinity (CT)
Sewanee
St. Olaf
Skidmore
Rhodes
Furman
Lawrence
Beloit
Earlham
Gettysburg
Boston College
Wake Forest
Lehigh
Case Western Reserve
Brandeis
Boston University
University of Rochester
Tulane
SMU
GWU
U of Miami
Villanova
Syracuse

Some OOS public match-range schools:
UW-Madison
UIUC
U of Minnesota
Purdue
Indiana
PSU
Maryland
UCD/SB/SD
Cal Poly
U of Washington
U of Florida
VA Tech
GA Tech…

Lower matches and safeties will be schools that are less selective – at least a 50ish% admit rate where your stats are near the top.

Look at those (and others of similar selectivity) as a starting point and figure out which fit your preferences best. Pick a few of these truer matches if you like.

18

NU ED. 41% chance. much better than the average applicant.

19

b

20

I think you have a pretty good chance! Chance me back? http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1939905-chance-me.html#latest