<p>Chance my cousin please.</p>
<p>3.89 GPA
32 ACT
EC: Dance team (3 yrs varsity, 1 yr JV)
Honors/awards: NHS
Community service: helped organize several charity walks for a fitness organization</p>
<p>White female, math major</p>
<p>GPA and ACT look like average for admitted students. The ECs you listed look good – any others?</p>
<p>Math major for a female should be a plus.</p>
<p>Average to average plus chance. It’s a numbers game.</p>
<p>No other ECs at all. How do you think this will fare in admissions?</p>
<p>Is dance team a full-year activity? How many hours a week?
How many charity walks?</p>
<p>The way you present it, it looks like there are fewer ECs than most students have. The schools all say that ECs are important, but there’s really no data to say how important how they fit in with Essays and Recommendations. (speaking of which will she get good recommendations?)</p>
<p>Overall, NU has a 20% accept rate, and they claim to have rejected … I think it was 3000 applications that were 1500+ SAT, so any weakness is concerning. I really have no idea how much of a concern though.</p>
<p>Dance is in the fall & winter (with practices in summer too). It’s probably about 8 hours per week. The thing with the charity walks is, she barely helped at all. She actually plans on lying about them, but making it seem like she was very involved. So I don’t really know how many she’ll claim she did. Her recs will probably be decent. She’s (self-proclaimed) not good at English or writing eloquently, so I don’t think the essays will be outstanding.</p>
<p>Hard to say – an activity that is 8 hours a week most of the year shows commitment. A couple of other side activities would be nice, but she’s done what she’s done. Of course, she’ll claim as much on the walks as she can. If she has any awards for dancing, it would help.</p>
<p>Overall, it looks a bit light. A carefully crafted application might be able to overcome this, but my guess is that the ad committees will see through this. </p>
<p>So, what we have is a student with Excellent Grades; ACTs that are fine, but do not stand out; recommendations that will probably be fine, but may not stand out; and an essay that’s unknown.</p>
<p>If I were to make a WAG, I’d say unless the application absolutely sparkles, NU is a bit of a long shot. This is based on a gut feel rather than any real information. What makes it harder, frankly is that it’s a third-party description (i.e., not your cousin describing herself) – if she were to post and the excitement were to show up, I might make a different WAG. In any event, it’s a guess. </p>
<p>With competitive base stats (grades + ACT/SAT), I wouldn’t ever discourage someone from applying. In any event, there are many many fine schools who would welcome a student with this much academic potential.</p>
<p>That’s kind of how I feel. Not to be selfish, but I really hope NU doesn’t take an applicant of this nature over someone like me. It saddens me that she’s going to lie, and it also makes me think of the numerous other applicants who will probably also lie, with the intent of having their applications perceived more highly by college adcoms. Also, she’s taken the ACT seven times (not that colleges would be aware of this).</p>
<p>I hope for the sake of family harmony, your Cousin doesn’t read this thread.</p>
<p>^I second that.</p>
<p>^physicz, why are you snitching about your cousin in the guise of a chance thread. you seem more interested that she not get in than you get in.</p>
<p>if you like you can start a new thread to discuss possible padding of resumes and applications. your cousin won’t be the first or the last to do so. colleges know about this and will not take everything at face value.</p>
<p>in the end, no one said life is fair!</p>