Do I have a chance? Junior for NU, UMich, WashU
Hello everyone! I’m a junior and I feel like I have no extracurriculars that are good enough for my dream schools. I will most likely apply ED to Northwestern, and I’m also interested in WashU and UMich. Please give me your honest opinions.
Major: Chemical Engineering
Background: Asian, female, NJ, middle class. Most people from my school go to Rutgers, but a few do get into Ivies and other top schools. I don’t believe anyone has gotten into Northwestern, WashU, or UMich in recent years though.
SAT: 1520 (780 math,740 reading)
GPA: 4.0 (don’t remember if weighted or unweighted)
Class rank: 1 or 2 I believe out of 340~ students
AP Classes: AP World History (5), AP US History (5), AP Macroeconomics (4), AP Chemistry, AP Calc AB + BC, AP Lang, AP Environmental Science
Dual Enrollment: Precalculus sophomore year (A+), US History this year (my school makes us take two years of US History but I self-studied the other half of the material last year so that I wouldn’t have to worry about the exam this year)
Extracurriculars (That I have so far)
Clubs: Key Club, Ecology Club, Science Olympiad, and Spanish Honor Society. I have no leadership positions in any of these clubs BUT I am currently starting a Society For Women Engineers Next club.
I like learning languages. I know two fluently, two decently, and some Japanese - I passed the JLPT N5 last year and I would’ve taken the N4 this year but that obviously didn’t work out.
Took private violin lessons for seven years but recently quit that.
Awards: AP Scholar
I saw a video by a girl who got into Columbia where she said she mentioned things she did in elementary school on the additional info section, so I could add:
Skipped first grade
Wrote, directed, and acted in a play in fourth grade
Had a jewelry business from third to fourth grade
Extracurriculars (That I plan on doing)
Virtual leadership conference this weekend
Seal of Biliteracy in Spanish
Vanderbilt PTY Program - I was accepted into this and will be taking some class in January or February
Environmental writing competition (~50% of people become finalists)
Columbia University Science Honors Program (I tried out for this last year and didn’t get in, I’ll be trying again this year)
Geography and Chemistry Olympiads (I don’t expect I’ll make it to internationals, but I do want to at least get to nationals for one or both of these)
I’m considering several options for next summer - NJ Governor’s School (STEM program which my school nominated me for due to my class rank), an environmental research expedition abroad, or an online summer program by a top college. All of these involve a highly selective admissions process and I’m afraid I won’t get into any of them.
I want to start a recycling initiative at my school through Ecology Club but we a) haven’t had any meetings this year and b) we’re not returning to school anytime soon
I’d also like to try and get a leadership position in Key Club (already tried the past two years so maybe third time’s the charm?) and/or Science Olympiad.
Overall, I feel as if I have fallen into the trap of being an “average excellent” student. I haven’t won any state-level awards, much less started a nonprofit or conducted research at a university. I have researched internships I could possibly do, but most that I’ve found have nothing to do with my major/interests and I neither have the interest in being a marketing intern nor think that a random business internship would look well on my application. I applied to volunteer to translate environmental news into other languages this year, but the organization never emailed me back. Considering my extracurricular history and the ones I plan on doing (many of which may not even happen), do I still have a chance at getting into any of these schools? Feedback/tips for improving my application would be greatly appreciated!
