I currently have a 3.97 GPA and scored within the 99th percentile for English and 93rd percentile for math on the PSAT. With the copious amount of studying I have done for the latter, I should score well within the 99th cumulative percentile on the SAT.
I really wish to be able to get into Northeastern University, but my dilemma is twofold: I have only taken one AP class this year (namely AP chem, though I have an unweighted 100 in that class and should easily get a 5 on the test). I also have a fair shortage of ECs.
To remedy the first problem, I plan to take what remaining three AP classes my fairly small school offers (APUSH, AP lit, and AP Calc) in senior year, as well as physics, A&P, and Spanish 3.
My question is: Will the amount of challenging classes I take senior year be factored into my admissions, or will the school think I am not able to pull it off? I know I will be able to, so will the first quarter grades be factored into admissions?
Also, I have very very few ECs, so this summer I plan to volunteer for at least 200 hours at a local hospital, in addition to shadowing various physicians and surgeons and such twice a week as part of a special program. Will this be enough?
What is most important to colleges, including Northeastern, is course rigor. If you are taking all of the AP classes your school offers, you have a very rigorous schedule in the context of your school.
You should ask your counselor whether your schedule will qualify for the “most rigorous” designation on her recommendation. If it does, you shouldn’t worry about your schedule and can focus on other aspects of your application.
My school doesn’t offer honors, though I did take precalc rather than whatever other math courses there were. Next year will very much have rigour. Will at least the first quarter of senior year be considered in admissions?
Yes, they look at your schedule for senior year, but as mentioned above, there is a box your guidance counselor needs to check saying that you took the ‘most rigorous’ program at your school. If you take the APs senior year, will the GC be able to honestly check that box?
Another thing to think about, can you afford Northeastern? They give merit scholarships to the very top applicants, so you need to see if your financial situation is one that means you will qualify for financial aid or not. Run the ‘net price calculator’ on their website to see.
Yes, most likely the entire first semester will be factored in. As long as 1 AP junior year is rigorous for your school (which it sounds like it is) and you do well first semester next year, you should have a good chance.
It sounds like your schedule will be classified as most demanding in the context of your school––which is what matters the most. However, because your school only offers 1 AP to date, I think it’s very important that you score well on the SAT/ACT.
Admission itself is quite systematic and stat-based. However, any further admission (think Honors, Scholars) is much less predictable, and quite holistic. I had zero credits and went to a public school in Europe which would have been completely unrecognized by NEU, and yet they were open enough to my “interesting” background that they offered me a place in the Scholars Program. Since coming here, I have met many students with much better stats than I had who are not Scholars; as I said, NOT predictable whatsoever.
For Scholars they are looking for that “something special” that cannot be defined. Your stats have to be good of course but not necessarily 2400 SAT and 4.0 UW GPA by any means.
@TomSrOfBoston Right! I had a 2220 SAT which is good but far from the best. They do like languages though, which I think helped me a lot, as I did all my school in a foreign language but speak English natively as well. Also, unusual and varied extracurriculars are key.