Northwestern Grad to Grad School

<p>I hate to make this another chance me thread, so I'll try and just lay out my plans and ask for your opinions.</p>

<p>About me:
- Internationally diversified (7 years in Australia, 2 in Canada)
- Rising Senior at Northwestern in ChemE w/ 3.6GPA
- GRE: 800Q 700V and 5.5W
- 10 Quarters of Research amongst several ChemE professors, the latter 6 quarters with the same prof. -- Letters of Rec from here (most went to Berkeley etc.).
- Summer Jobs/Internships every summer for engineering companies based in the United States, but worked at satellite location in Perth, Australia (where I grew up).
- Do not require Financial Aid
- Involved in the SolarCar program for several years, worked as a peer adviser.
-I hope to have a co-authored paper published this year, but this is a big "If."</p>

<p>So essentially, my plans are to go straight from a BS to a PhD program in ChemE. My top choices (the ones I really doubt about) are MIT, Stanford, Berkeley and Caltech. My backups range from UT to GT, but I don't have too many doubts about those.</p>

<p>Do you think that I have any potential gaps in my application, any real efforts I should make senior year to improve my application (due in like 6 months or something). </p>

<p>I truly appreciate any comments. I really don't mean this to be about "Will I get into MIT" even though it is my top choice, I just want to know if I should be concentrating my efforts elsewhere to continue my education.</p>