Is Northwestern too much of a reach for me? Should I even bother?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

I love Northwestern and would absolutely love to get in, but I feel like maybe I’m in over my head with this one. I know chance threads are arbitrary at best, and I have similar threads in other sections, but it does help ease my anxiousness, so anything would be appreciated, good and bad!

ACT: 30 composite (36 English, 34 Reading, 28 Science, 21 Math) and 31 Super Scored
GPA: 3.46 UW/4.03 W
Rank: 154 out of 500+ (Top 30%)
Senior Courseload: AP Gov, AP Research, AP Japanese, AP Lit, Honors Physics, Honors Intro to College Math

Highschool Context: extremely large public school that has over 25 APs, known as an extremely competitive environment (ie. often ivies+top 20s will ONLY visit our school in the whole area because they love getting our students. A lot of people say our top 20% is most schools’ top 10%)

Freshman: all honors classes
Sophomore: all honors/pre-AP classes
Junior: AP Psych, AP Seminar, AP Language, honors
Senior Courseload: AP Gov, AP Research, AP Japanese, AP Lit, Honors Physics, Honors Intro to College Math

Extracurriculars:

  1. School Literary & Art Magazine (10th - 12th) This magazine had been dying since at least 2004, and my sophomore year I made it my goal to bring it back so students could have an outlet to express themselves…I’m now the editor and our coffeehouses have the largest turnouts in years.
  1. college prep program designed to help underrepresented kids get opportunities outside of the city (10th - 12th) I'm on this programs student executive board and I also am the focus of another program where I help guide 10 young freshman through their first year of high school; I had previously led them on a wilderness expedition to help them develop leadership skills.
  2. Student Council Executive Board, Senior Commissioner of Activities (12th) I organize all events for the senior class including community service and work with the administrators and class officers to help push policies/petitions.
  3. Church Soccer (9th - 11th) I played a season every fall; had to stop because of how busy my senior year was.
  4. Work (Party Bus; my sister's dad took a bus and recreated it. He knew I needed help with money so he offered me a job to manage the consoles on the bus; i've been working weekends and partial summers there since 9th grade.)
  5. Japanese Club (9th -12th) (we interact with exchange students and learn and celebrate japanese language/culture)
  6. a leadership organization designed to help keep young black boys on track, help them succeed to college, and help them become leaders within their community. lots of community service through this organization. (11th/12th)
  7. links organization - this is actually for women but they created a special section that has an emphasis on black male youth because theres a big problem with them not succeeding in my area; they help us with leadership as well (12th)

Volunteer Work:

  1. Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 11th/12th
  2. local zoo’s halloween function 11th
  3. school’s green team, cleaning the school and collecting recycling every week 11th (had to stop because student council took the slot)
  4. Martin luther king Jr. Da of Service cleaning up the poorer portion of the city 11th/12th
  5. various other events through the leadership organization I’m in 11th/12th

Honors:
National Honors Society (11th/12th)
Distinguished Honor Roll (9th - present)
Citizenship Award (9th - present)
Honorable Mention in my state’s Letters About Literature
AP Scholar

How I Spent my Summers:
2014: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), local college honors camp, local high school’s honors camp (writing)
2015: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), Rhodes College Summer Writing Institute, Kenyon Young Writers Workshop
2016: Vanderbilt Summer Academy (Writing), Deer Hill Expeditions (where I led the kids)

Race: African American
Sex: Male
First Generation College: No, mother went to college. Father dropped out of college and is currently unemployed. I rarely see him.
Family Income: 61k
Household: 3 (my mom, my sis, and me)
Intended Major: Sociology
Hooks: URM, single parent household, love for writing/expression(?)
Weaknesses: Class Rank, C junior year in precalculus

2

I think you will get in, but you really should try to raise the ACT math score. I think this is critical given the really low score and bad grade in precalc, which is a pretty important course. This will most likely help your composite as well. If I were you, I would consider taking SAT IIs and doing well on them too: Japanese, Math I, and Literature. You like English, so Lit should be a strength. Math I can help you prove your Math competency. And if you are good at Japanese, it would be helpful to demonstrate that.

I’d really play up the English/writing along with the Japanese in your essays to demonstrate your love for communication/expression. I think this shows passion and depth of achievement in one area. I assume you are applying to Weinberg if you intend to do sociology. Where does this interest come from? If you can’t explain it, saying you want to do English might fit better with this story about your love for writing/expression. You can always change your major.

Anyway, I think being a first gen URM from a somewhat lower income single-parent household really helps, and without that, I would think you’d probably be denied. Also, applying ED is a big help if you’re set on NU.

3

@pacepea would it help if I have a similar 30 composite with a slightly higher Math? Not terribly better, but better nonetheless.

4

@sumuzu Ideally you would increase the math, while at least maintaining the same performance in the other areas. However, I would say keeping the 30, but getting all the sub-scores more balanced with a higher math score still represents a more desirable test performance. Of course, you can always send in multiple scores if you want to demonstrate the higher English/Reading scores, but NU doesn’t super score the ACT (only the SAT). This is where a strong performance on the Lit SAT Subject test could help demonstrate additional achievement in that area.