Do I have a shot at Northwestern? Please chance me

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

Hi, I am applying to Northwestern for ED as a journalism major at the Medill School. I am on the low spectrum of applicants, but there’s always hope! NU is my first choice school, I toured the campus, and I plan on partaking in an admissions interview.

School type: Competitive public
UW GPA: 3.5
W GPA: 5.05
Class Rank: 17 out of 677, top 2.5% of my class

I have been taking AICE and Dual Enrollment classes since freshman year and received my AICE diploma in August of this year and I am expecting my A.A. in Public Relations this spring. AICE is an advanced curriculum program administered by Cambridge University. In my four years of high school, I have taken 12 AICE classes and one 1 AP online, my school does not offer AP.

AICE Scores (A-E passing, U is ungradable/fail)
Cambridge University states, “In order to convert to the US standards, the Florida Department of Education commissioned a study which indicated that a Cambridge grade of E correlated most closely to an AP grade of 3.” Therefore, I would infer that the threshold is as follows A-B is an AP grade of 5, C is an AP grade of 4 and D-E is an AP grade of 3.
AICE General Paper AS level: C
AICE Thinking Skills A level: U
AICE English Lang AS level: C
AICE Euro AS level: C
AICE Environmental AS level: C
AICE Spanish Lang AS level: B
AICE Global Perspectives AS level: C
AICE US AS level: C
AICE English Lang A level (self study): D
Senior schedule
AICE US History A level
AICE Spanish Literature AS level
AICE English Lit AS level
AICE Economics AS level
AP Art History FLVS

SAT: 1120, retook in August getting scores soon.
SAT Essay: 17
ACT: TBA, ACT canceled due to hurricane

EC’s and jobs
Key Club, three officers position held --Historian, VP, and President
National Honor Society
National Spanish Honor Society, one officer position held --Secretary
Philanthropy Club
Female Empowerment Club
Interact Club
Model United Nations
Crew Member at restaurant

I have three strong essays and four strong letters of rec from my English teacher, US history teacher (2 years), AICE program coordinator and my camp counselor/advisor from Stanford University – participated in a prestigious summer journalism program for one week.

I am female and Hispanic.

What do you think?

2

I think your GPA and ECs are underwhelming and your SAT is extremely poor for NU.

Can’t say whether URM status might change the admissions calculus.
Good luck

3

Are you sure that’s where you will prosper? You will be a tiny, tiny fish in a big ocean.

4

Thank you for the response. Unfortunately, I am underprivileged in the sense that my community and high school does not provide substantial amount of opportunity to its students, hence my lack of extracurriculars-- my school hasn’t let me start a publication for the past four years! And for my UW GPA, it’s fairly low because of extenuating family circumstances that I did not want to mention to keep my post as anonymous as possible, but I am highlighting the circumstance in one of my essays. My ACT is predicted to be much higher as I constantly keep improving on my practice. My threshold for the ACT is 26-30, the math and science are my weak points. Hopefully, the college admission gods are at my favor haha, it’d be a dream to go to NU.

5

After touring the campus and going to Chicago extensively I feel as if that I will be given an immense amount of oppurtunity at NU. I thrive and compete my best in large communities because of vast amount of people fighting for one singular thing. Thank you for your response!

6

@mg3130 my “big ocean” comment was referring to the level of academics, not the actual size. Good luck with your applications :slight_smile:

7

Oh ok haha sorry I read that and responded at 3 am. I was not fully functioning.