Extracurriculars/Essay/Interest

How much do the admissions committee look into quality extracurricular involvement? How about the supplement essay? As for showing demonstrated interest, will participating in Northwestern-sponsored programs (such as CTD) boost chances of admission? I’m thinking about applying ED to WCAS next year, but my unweighted GPA is a little sub-par (3.78 unweighted). However, I do I have a high weighted GPA from taking many AP classes from freshman-junior year so far and am ranked in the top 4% of my class. I also have several state and national level speech and debate awards, am in line to be the Editor in Chief of my school newspaper next year, and have been involved in several different youth orchestras since 7th grade. I do have much more, but those are my main involvements. I am planning to focus immensely on the supplement essay, but will I even have a decent chance despite the sub-par unweighted GPA? Thanks and please advise.

Yeah why would n’t you?

3.78/4 is not a bad GPA. Everybody thinks oh I don’t have a 4.0 so I’m not smart. When in reality a 3.78 is good a 3.6 is good a 3.4 is good a 2.1 isn’t good. Honestly you’re worrying over nothing.