<p>Decision: Accepted, School of Communication</p>
<p>Objective:[ul]
[<em>] SAT I (breakdown): N/A, did not submit
[</em>] ACT: 33; English 35, Reading 35, Science 32, Math 31, Writing 10
[<em>] SAT II: N/A, did not submit
[</em>] Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.9ish
[<em>] Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): No rank, 15%
[</em>] AP (place score in parenthesis): Macro (5), Micro (5), Psychology (5), English Language (5), English Literature (TBD), Calculus AB (TBD), World History (TBD), US Government (TBD)
[<em>] IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
[</em>] Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP US Government, World Affairs/Aquaculture (semester courses), AP English Literature, AP World History, Weight Training
[li] Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>Subjective:[ul]
[<em>] Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Model United Nations (no official leadership, but placed 1st in Harvard Conference & Outstanding in Brown conference, along with winning many others); Thespian Society (served as President this year, Secretary last year; honor bar thespian with over 600 cumulative hours; competed at District and State levels, earning Superiors; received various school-based awards for my work; been a crucial member in several One Act competition wins); Musicals (served as a lead in 3 out of 4 years including this year, major character for the other year); Founding member our school’s Film Club (written/directed/edited/acted in several short films; also serve as the club’s secretary); Bridges program (exchange system between our school and the Koc school of Istanbul, Turkey; I have both traveled there for a week and hosted two Turkish students for two weeks); Student Government (Upper School Treasurer this year, Junior Class Representative last year, helped stage successful prom); Mock Trial (served as the lead lawyer, placed 2nd overall in the district competition; did not participate this year due to conflicts, but did mentor the team’s new lead lawyer who went on to win the Best Defense Attorney award); National English Honor Society (serve as President, planned and executed for a school-wide Poetry Week)
[</em>] Job/Work Experience: Acted as the titular character in a professional community production of Romeo & Juliet, which involved 4 months of rehearsals and then a 3 week run of the show. Also have recently been hired as the Lead Writer for a new theme park based website; both of the published articles I have thus far written have been featured and syndicated by Screamscape.com, the industry’s leading site. Other duties include administrating the forum and managing/creating video content. This is a paid position.
[<em>] Volunteer/Community service: About 120 hours of community service, with work ranging from coastal cleanups to acting in a community haunt to restoring a Southwest Florida Historical Society facility.
[</em>] Summer Activities: Not a lot of $$ for summer activities, but did attend a week-long course with the New York Film Academy in Orlando on directing.
[<em>] Essays: Excellent. My common app essay focused on how Mark Twain’s The Mysterious Stranger impacted my religious views. My extracurricular essay involved the evolution of my theater work. My “Why Northwestern Essay” honed in on my love of filmmaking and why I feel Northwestern’s School of Communication would allow me to explore that passion.
[</em>] Teacher Recommendation: Strong. One from my AP English teacher who also heads the NEHS (which I am president of) and thinks I am a brilliant writer. Another from my Social Sciences (both economics courses and one history) teacher who also heads the Bridges program. Final one from my drama teacher/director who has supervised my artistic endeavors since middle school.
[<em>] Counselor Rec: Also excellent. We are very close and she thinks highly of me.
[</em>] Additional Rec: N/A
[li] Interview: Did not interview[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>Other
[<em>] State (if domestic applicant): Florida
[</em>] Country (if international applicant): USA
[<em>] School Type: Private, very rigorous
[</em>] Ethnicity: White
[<em>] Gender: Male
[</em>]Income Bracket: Upper Middle Class
[<em>] Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None
Reflection
[ul]
[</em>] Strengths: ACT, sheer amount & quality of extracurriculars, essays, and recommendations in addition to strong grades
[<em>] Weaknesses: Being a white male, no interview/campus visit/college fair visit, already an accepted white male applicant from my school from the Early Decision round, several other top candidate applicants from my school
[</em>] Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Most likely due to my strengths. The other factor to consider is the top contender applicants from my school all applied to the College of Arts & Sciences while I went for Communication… I think this might’ve saved me. Despite my lack of visitation, my passion/faith in Northwestern’s film major came off very well in my essay.
[li] Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected: Northeastern Honors (accepted), Drexel Honors (accepted), Boston University (accepted), University of Miami Honors (accepted), University of Southern California Dornsife (accepted)/USC Film (rejected), American University Honors (accepted), Harvard (TBD), Emory (TBD), Columbia ED (deferred)[/li][/ul]</p>
<p>General Comments: Honestly very surprised I was accepted due to the amount of quality applicants from my school who have slightly higher stats than I do. As I noted before, I think going for Communication saved me - in addition to the ED acceptance, one other applicant from my school was accepted (a Russian female) to Arts & Sciences. Regardless of the reasoning, I’m very honored and excited, and if the money allows I’m going to try and make it out to a Wildcat day so I can actually visit the campus. I know they’re stingy with financial aid, but I’m hoping I can get something… while I am upper middle class, I have a sibling in private school with divorced parents. In other words, I have money to pay for a lot of it, but not enough money to pay for all of it.</p>
