Early Decision Chances! Fall of 2012

Colleges & Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>My name is Ken and the first time I visted Northwestern was the summer before my freshmen year. I've always known I wanted to go there. Now the application process is coming up. I'd like to hear from other students in my position and what they feel.</p>

<p>Asian American Male
I come from a fairly large public high school.
Top 3% 23/706
29 on my ACT
4.356 Weighted GPA</p>

<p>Classes I've taken</p>

<p>Math: Honors Geometry, Honors Algebra 3-4, Honors Pre-Calc and Trig. (Senior year) AP Calculus</p>

<p>Science: Honors Biology, Honors Chemistry, Honors Physics, (senior year) AP Chemistry</p>

<p>4 years study of a language (spanish)</p>

<p>4 years of English (hon/AP track)</p>

<p>Social Studies: AP World History, AP US History, Pychology, H. Civics, AP Macroeconomics</p>

<p>Have been in choir for 4 years</p>

<p>Activites:
Choir 9-12
Speech Team 9-12
Musicals/Plays 9-12
Peer Leaders (Freshmen Guidance) 11-12: you apply end of sophomore year
Tutor 9-12
National Honor Society 11-12
Music Honor Society 11-12
Spanish Honor Society 11-12
Drama Club 9-12
Newspaper 10-12
Class Council 9-12
Jazz Choir 9-12
Community Service 200+ hours
General Studies Theater Program at the Goodman Theater</p>

<p>Leadership:
President of Choir
Team Captain for Speech Team
Executive Board Member for Peer Leaders
Historian for NHS
Secretary for MHS
VP of Span. Honors Society
Historian for Drama Club
Student Choreographer for Jazz Choir
Dance Captain for musicals
Head of Adopt-A-Grandparent Program (I plan activities to bring to the senior home)
Managing Editor for Healthy Respect Internship
Interned at Fox Valley Repertory as Assistant Director (Local theater company)
Choreographer for Powderpuff Cheearleaders </p>

<p>My essay is about the Coffeehouse Shop Benefit Concert that I organized in order to raise awareness and money for pediatric cancer. All the proceeds went to the Children's Memorial Hospital.</p>

<p>I'm applying as a communications major. Will hopefully double major in Economics and minor in theater or dance. I want to get a job as a public relations specialist at a theater company. My biggest dream is to be able to open my own Theater Company in order to expose underprivileged kids to the importance of the Arts.</p>

<p>I plan on getting a recommendation from our principal who I have close relations with. A club sponsor who is an alum of NU (majored in Communications). My counselor (Communications major as well). And my teacher who taught me in AP World History and AP Psychology. </p>

<p>I am also applying to:
Loyola University of Chicago
University of Chicago
University of Southern California
Elon University
Emerson College
Ball State University
Penn State University</p>

<p>I'm afraid my ACT score might hold me back A LOT. But I am hoping that with my leadership and extracurriculars I am able to balance it all out.</p>

<p>Thanks!!!</p>

2

<p>Your essay will most likely make or break your application to NU.</p>

3

<p>As you have already recognized, that ACT could prove your undoing.</p>

4

<p>You’ve got a lot going for you. Is it too late to take the ACT again? Have you taken the SATs? It’s not too late for those. It would be a shame if a standardized test kept you from getting in. I can’t guarantee it, but most people do better on their second SAT/ACT attempt.</p>

5

<p>Did you prepare for the ACT before taking it? If you didn’t, sometimes the time limit takes some getting used to. You can try some practice tests to get used to how the questions are asked and how to pace yourself, and then try taking it again. Or you can try the SAT, because some people find one test easier than another. Other than the test score, though, you have great chances. Just make sure you express yourself and your passions well in your essay, and you should be in really good shape.</p>

6

<p>Here’s the sad part I’ve taken the ACT three times. my scores were 26 29 26. I don’t know what happened the third time. I was two points away from the 30 when I got the 29. But based on everyone’s response I fourth try won’t hurt.</p>

<p>It’ll suck terribly if the ACT score kept from attending. Thanks!!</p>

7

<p>Viviste is correct, but I will offer an amendment. Your essay (especially supplement) WILL make or break your application. President Schapiro wants students who want to go to his school. Slapped all the “perfect” applicants in the face (eg my valedictorian going to Harvard).</p>

8

<p>Ken:</p>

<p>Some students do better on the SATs, others on the ACTs, and for some there is no difference. Have you tried the SATs?</p>

9

<p>I don’t think even a grade A essay gets you past those scores.</p>

10

<p>WCAS</p>

<p>What would you think he needs to raise the ACT to to have a reasonable shot?</p>

11

<p>WCASParent, yes, a 29 ACT is bottom 25th percentile, but that’s still a quarter of the admitted students who submitted an ACT score. A grade-A essay is typically precisely what got that bottom 25th percentile admitted. Past the “retake and raise if you can” - which he obviously already knows - realizing his essay is what gets a student like him admitted is the advice that’s both relevant and helpful here.</p>

12

<p>I cannot speak with firsthand knowledge about NU’s adcom, but I know a fair amount about how some of its “rival” or “comparable” schools work. Most adcoms in the upper echelon of schools have a first reader rate the application. The most important factors in that rating are usually the board scores and the transcript (with the assessment of the latter being a combination of the difficulty of the curriculum and the grades achieved, with difficulty of curriculum generally being the more important). That rating is usually a number, e.g., 1 through 7 (although it could be a greater or smaller range). It is not unusual to see more than 85% of “1s” accepted, more than 60% of “2s”, etc. “3s” usually fall between 30 and 40%. So the higher your board scores the greater percentage chance that you will be accepted (with other aspects of one’s application, of course, becoming key). A 29 ACT is not going to make the 1, 2 or 3 pile, and at NU, given how its selectivity has risen (for, among other reasons, its surging popularity which has caused an ever-increasing flood of applications), I don’t know whether it makes the “4” pile, where percentage of admits really begins to fall off. A 2 point increase on the ACT, to a 31, puts one in a different ballpark, especially going ED; a 32 would be a tremendous boost. But with two 26s and a 29 so far, I am not optimistic that this applicant will get there on a fourth try.
Viviste - I think that there are many things that get “that bottom 25th percentile admitted.” URM status is very important, but is not a factor here. Other considerations concern a look at the class that is being put together by the Adcom, which will want diversity - in ethnicity, geography, personal histories, interests, and socioeconomic background, among others. There are so many excellent essays that, especially with a 29 ACT, I would consider an excellent essay to be necessary, but not sufficient, for a decent shot, and even a decent shot means that this applicant has somewhere below (possibly well below) a 1-in-4 chance of admission.
Of course, none of this means that kengonzo shouldn’t apply. Of course he should. At most top schools (that are not HYPS) the lion’s share of the accepted applicants come from the “3” and under groups, which by definition means groups from which less than 50% were accepted.</p>

13

<p>incongruence between gpa and act score would be a problem as well.</p>