OK grades; better ECs. Where can I get in?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Demographics
I am a domestic citizen of the United States. I go to a small private school. I am not a legacy or an athlete.

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
GPA is 3.7 unweighted at the end of Junior year, and, if the upward pattern continues, a 3.9 by the end of senior year (freshman year really threw me off)

  • Unweighted HS GPA:
    (As of now) 3.7
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system):
    3.8
  • ACTScore: 33

Coursework
I have taken no AP classes so far. However, my school offers a very small number of APs with subject matters that don’t interest me. In other, more specific words, my school offers no AP or honors government, no AP or Honors English, and honors history courses are only available junior and senior year.

I have taken the one honors history class available to so far, and it has been a breeze. I am going to be tripling up on honors history senior year, and I also applied (and was accepted) into the teaching assistant program for one of our school’s most rigorous history classes. I will be a TA in the fall.

I am most worried about my courseload and grades out of all of the things in my application.

Awards
I am in our school’s honor society.
I won an award for a project I did about the impact of charity on certain groups that was given out by a global academy.

Extracurriculars
(Include leadership, summer activities, competitions, volunteering, and work experience)

I am the founder and president of our school’s first and only internet radio station and podcast network. I am also on the editorial board of our school’s newspaper (started sophomore year on the E-board, but have been writing since freshman year) and have served in student government for two years. I was an intern at a radio station for two years and an intern on a political campaign for one year. In my own time, I’ve launched multiple podcasts and my own online newspaper. I also own and operate my own internet radio station.

In terms of charitable work, I have a decent amount of service hours. I am a member of the junior board of a local charity, and I also serve as a teen digital/social media engagement advisor for another charity.

Separate from that, I’ve produced more than 120+ hours of originally sourced, news/politics-focused podcast content since before high school began, with much more on the way over the summer. Additionally, I started an international media production business that has completed hundreds of projects for clients in more than 45 countries. My work has been seen/heard hundreds of thousands of times by people all around the world.

Essays/LORs/Other
There were (and are) stressful/unprecedented circumstances surrounding my high school experience. I prefer not to be specific, but there is a credible explanation for my less than stellar grades that will likely be compelling alongside my ECs.

Schools
Northwestern is my top choice. It is certainly a reach, and I am honestly not sure how to use my ED/EA choices. I’ve recently had the dream of going to Harvard, which may be a dream that was had too late in the process considering my grades and class lineup. Do I have a chance? How should I use my ED/EA? Other colleges I’ve had on my mind include (in no particular order) Fordham, Boston College, Boston University, Georgetown, NYU, Marquette, and Loyola. Would applying to Harvard restrictive early action be the dumbest decision I could possibly make?

I’m new here, so please forgive me if any of these questions/explanations are inadequate. Also, please note that all of the things that I do extracurricularly are truly done out of a passion, not for college; I did not even think about how they would factor into college placement until recently. Let me know if I need to clarify anything. Thank you for your help!

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First off, your grades are more than OK. The issue comes down to how you compare with your high school and how you compare to other applicants. If your school offers 11 AP classes but only 3 interest you, is taking those 3 enough to be classified as taking the “most demanding” classes by your school? Know that some kids take 7 even though only 3 interest them. If you apply to highly selective colleges, know that many, many students will have taken the “most demanding” classes available to them.

Second, ECs are great. No college wants a test taking automaton. Colleges want to see that you have interests that you explore out of the classroom and can contribute something to the campus community. That being said, if you are not a recruited athlete or if you play the tuba but they need an oboe in the orchestra, which ECs don’t necessarily matter, specifically.

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There are many, many students with 4.0 GPA’s, 10+ AP classes, 36 ACT’s who don’t get into Harvard. Do you have more safety/match schools?

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ED/REA whatever is your top choice. It will give you the best chance and you might regret it if you don’t shoot your shot!

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What is the budget you are hoping to stay under?

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That is a great point. Thank you for your help. I am going to take at least one or two APs next year. The grades situation really comes down to my overall weakness in math and strength in history. Almost all of the APs offered at my school are math-related, and I am not a math/science person, nor do I want to pursue a career that heavily involves STEM. I know that strength in all areas is always preferable to strength in just one, but I was told by my college counselor that my demonstrated success in honors history classes (in addition to the teaching assistant role) mildly offsets the slacking STEM APs, but I agree I should have taken more APs overall. I think my school only has something like three or four APs in total. Looking back on my pre-sophomore and junior self, I had no idea that APs were such a big part in college placement. I am learning all of this stuff now, and I regret not educating myself sooner! Thanks again for your help.

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At the moment, I am very grateful that budget is not a concern.

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Do you really think so? I feel like it may be too risky since the Northwestern ED admit rate is about 30% (that’s a ~20% or so increase compared to regular decision) whereas Harvard, which I (and pretty much everyone, but especially me considering my lacking APs) already have an extremely low chance of getting into, is just slightly less selective than Northwestern’s regular decision. It’s also hard considering Harvard is restrictive early action, so I won’t even have the opportunity for a higher chance at Northwestern. These are both far reaches, but I am curious what people would advise.

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Sorry - my first reply was intended to go to @helpingmom40

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So your grades are fine, your ACT is very good. Your rigor may lack - but it depends on how many AP you take vs. what is offered. If 3 are offered and you take 3, you are fine. You said they offer a small amount - if that amount is 8 and you take 2, not good.

If you want to reach for Harvard or Northwestern, go ahead. They are reaches.

Where can you get in - loads of places and you can get money too!! You don’t say your state - but what’s your state school. Miami Ohio, Arizona, Alabama, U of SC (great Honors), ASU (great Honors), Florida State all come to mind - and you’ll get into all.

Target schools - again, don’t know your state - but Miami FL (target to slight reach), Purdue, Georgia, Florida, Syracuse.

What do you want to study? Where do you want to be - mid size, small, large…urban, rural. East coast, west coast.

How much do you want to spend? Money is no issue is different than my parents can afford it…but they don’t want to afford it.

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Thank you! I appreciate your insights on this. My school offers less than eight, and I really wish I knew about APs and the effect that course rigor has on college admissions. It seems like such glaringly obvious common sense looking back on it, but I just wish I’d started sooner… much sooner. I’m just going to try my best and take the hardest courses possible senior year (I have three honors, at least one AP, and a teaching assistant program lined up). That way, I can at least try to demonstrate the upward trajectory not only in grades but also in rigor.

My state is Illinois. And, thanks for the money adivce; I’m clearly a noob at all of this, and a discounted education is ALWAYS welcome :slight_smile:

I’ve had my eye on Syracuse as a target school like you mentioned. I want to study marketing and communications. A mid-size to large school is a good fit for me, but not humongous like U of I.

And, I know Harvard and Northwestern are crazy far reaches like you said, but how do you recommend I apply to them? ED for Northwestern? Or REA for Harvard? Or neither? I think It makes the most practical sense to do ED at Northwestern, considering the chances of admissions are much higher in that pool, and it is such a great school; I consider that way more of a realistic reach than Harvard (though still far). But nothing compares to Harvard, obviously… what do you think?

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If you want to apply to other schools EA and Harvard is not your top choice than it doesn’t make much since to apply REA. For Northwestern, ED if it is definitely your top choice and you can afford it. I don’t know what you mean by “risky” if you really like the school.

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You might want to look at Ohio University, which has a number of schools/departments that are related to journalism, communications, and media: Academic Schools and Departments | Ohio University

Generally speaking, you should consider looking at the Common Data Set for any school you are interested in, and specifically these sections of the CDS: Section C7 tells you how each school weighs both academic and non-academic admissions factors; Section C9 gives you the SAT and ACT ranges of admitted students; Section C10 tells you how admitted students ranked in their respective high schools; and Section C11 gives you the GPA ranges of admitted students. (NOTE: While all universities and colleges are required to maintain this information, some schools do not have a published common data set.) Reviewing this information can give you some idea of how you might fit in, statistically, in recent admitted classes at the schools you are interested in.

In terms of how many schools to apply to, I had my children apply to 9-10 schools: 2 that were safety schools (admission would be a slam dunk, and which were affordable); 2-3 reach schools where admission is a crap shoot, no matter how good your stats are (e.g., most Ivies + Northwestern, BC, and Georgetown on your list); and the rest being match schools, where your admissions chances are in the median 50% of accepted students, and where you would have a good but not guaranteed chance for admission. (NOTE: These are my informal definitions; other people will have definitions that will vary.) Try to sit down on multiple occasions with your high school’s guidance counselor and discuss admissions strategies. Further, if your high school uses Naviance or similar software, look over where you fall on those plots of GPA vs. ACT/SAT compared with those of other students from your school who have applied to the schools you are interested in; and discuss those with your guidance counselor.

On the subject of guidance counselors, you attend a private/independent school, so in a very real sense your parents are paying for you to have individualized attention from a guidance counselor. Take advantage of it (and get your parents involved in those discussions with the guidance counselor as well).

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If you want to maximize your chances using ED, I think Northwestern is probably the better choice (odds-wise). It has an outstanding journalism program and has a strong communications program as well. If these are your areas of interest, it is a great pick. Also, your ECs really demonstrate strength in these areas so I think you would have the strongest application there. Some schools with strong communications programs that might be a more of a target: BU, Northeastern, University of Wisconsin.

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In terms of curriculum.rigor, you need at least 5 core courses every year.
You need English every year, History/social science every year, Foreign language through Level 4 or AP, Math through precalculus or calculus (ap stats if you want to major in history), bio, chem, physics + one more science.
Then, electives that show your academic interests-in your case history.

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Absolutely. Harvard is unrealistic in all ways for me, and, in all honesty, Northwestern checks every one of my boxes in terms of rigor, location, and program strength. I’m going to do ED there. I’ve been eyeing BU and Northeastern; they were both recommended by my counselor. I’ll do my research on University of Wisconsin. Thank you for the advice!

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You are very welcome! Good luck.

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I personally don’t like ED - you are locked in. If you can afford Northwestern and absolutely want to go there, then go ahead.

So you want a mid-large size school for Marcomm - besides Syracuse, look at Elon, American, Pitt, Miami Ohio, Miami (FL), Nebraska, and DU (Denver) + Mizzou.

Good luck

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What is your home state?

You definitely need to put some thought into finding solid safeties.

You also should make sure that your parents are fine with spending $320,000 over four years with no debt at all. If the answer is “no”, or “ummmmm”, then you need to consider your budget. Ten months from now you want to have some affordable acceptances to solid schools with a good program in your likely major(s).

I would not expect ECs to make up for “only quite good” grades at Harvard or Northwestern. I think of ECs as how these schools choose from among multiple very strong applicants with exceptional grades some of whom also have exceptional ECs.

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In terms of Marketing, nowadays it requires a very strong background in Statistics, which would expect you to have some form of Calculus or at least Precalculus Honors with an A. Marketing is best paired with Data Analytics (because marketing cannot be dissociated from data analytics nowadays).

Can you list your jr and sr classes for these core subjects:
English =
Math=
Science=
Social science/history=
Foreign Language =
What will your electives be?

To increase rigor, you could take dual enrollment classes at a community college (and get an A), especially in subjects that apply to your interests, such as social science (branch out a little: take a class in philosophy, cultural anthropology…) or a subject that’s missing from your high school (comparative or US government). Check out whether a local CC offers summer classes of interest.

What major would you apply for?

I don’t think Harvard is really in the cards and using REA for it would likely waste it.
I’m not sure about Northwestern - run the NPC and show the results to your parents: is it affordable outright? If so, ED is the right choice in order to give you a boost.
Does your school have a tight relationship with Northwestern?

You need solid, affordable safeties and matches, respectively colleges with at least 50% acceptance rates and colleges with 35-40% acceptance.
U Wisconsin and your state flagship would be good matches if you apply to the business school.