Hi guys… I’m asian so keep that in mind
I’m a junior and I am in a weird situation.
So you see during the first semester of my Junior year I had an unweighted GPA of 3.92 and a weighted GPA of 4.0
However, I screwed up a class and my second semester GPA and it will probably be an weighted of 3.82.
The good thing is that I received an ACT score of 32 and I would like to apply to Northwestern early decision (btw I live in Illinois).
Do you think the GPA drop will be of any problem?
Thanks.
For northwestern that probably hurts your chances because GPA plays a big part. With a 3.92 UW you probably for sure could get in ED, but a downward trend could hurt you badly. A 3.82 is still competitive but you probably dropped from the top percentile of ED applicants to more of the middle. If it’s just one class it will probably have less of an impact. You have a good ACT (though maybe you want to try bump it up a point to compensate for the GPA decrease just in case?) so with good ECs to accompany that your probably ok. Write really good essay to try to improve you odds. What school are you applying to by chance that could make a difference as well. For Weinberg or SESP your probably fine but for McCormick your probably not competitive ED. Also if you have legacy that helps ED and might solidify your chances if your borderline. What will your UW cumulative GPA be at the end of the year? I think the biggest threat you could face is they might defer you to see if you can improve your grades (I really don’t think they’ll flat out reject you which is the good news) which would put you in the RD pool which was insanely competitive this year. Try to do everything you can to show interest-- go on a tour, maybe email admissions, think of something unique for your Why NU essay. Good luck you have a good chance you can do it! I’m going to NU later this year and have been around the university my entire life because of family that went there so if you have anymore specific questions let me know. 
I agree with Heisenbergyk, also it sounds like you screwed up one class, so if the rest of your grades are good that’s better than if everything went downhill. If there was some sort of personal issue that caused the grade drop you can have your counselor explain that in their letter. Also, like Hesienbergyk said, it’s possible they’ll want to wait til they see your first semester senior year grades and hopefully you can make that an upward trend. Good luck!!