Please Chance Me NU!!!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
1

I’m a rising junior in high school and I live in Cambridge, MA! So far these are my stats and I was wondering, what are my chances at my dream school, Northeastern? I REALLY messed up freshman year, failing in latin and getting two D’s. But I’m much better than what I have shown by my grades. During freshman year, I got a big concussion and missed a bunch of school and work and that’s why I got the grades I got, but still, I could’ve tried harder.

I was wondering, if I really do amazing the next year and a half before apps, will I be able to get in? And by good I mean straight A’s/A+'s even.

Current GPA Unweighted: 2.4 (79%)
(If I get straight A’s next year and first semester senior year I calculated my gpa to be about 3.3)

SAT (2400): Taking classes currently, will be taking the October 3rd test, aiming for 2200+, I got a 2040 on a diagnostic test 2 weeks ago

PSAT (2400): FIRST TIME: 1700, no studying what so ever, didn’t even know that they were being given until the day of

Freshman year classes:
Semester 1:
HN Algebra 1 ©
Exploratory Arts (A)
Foundations of Arts (B-)
HN Latin 1 (F)
HN English 9 (D)
Semester 2:
HN World History 2 (B-)
HN Physics (B)
Dance 1 (A+)
Health (A+)

Sophomore Year Classes:
Semester 1
HN Geometry (B)
HN US History 1 (B+)
HN Chemistry (B)
HN Photography 2 (A+)
Semester 2
HN Algebra 2 (D+)
HN Bio ©
HN French 3 (C-)
HN English 10 (B-)

First semester soph year, I did do a bit better, but my mom got laid off her job and I don’t want to go in depth but it effected me, again I want to try not to focus on that or blame it on anything. I also tore my ACL so I had to miss a bunch of school also. Again I don’t want to blame it on stuff because I could have tried a bit harder but, I have a very difficult french teacher and have never taken french before, only through my own knowledge from home (I am Algerian so we speak in part French). My Junior year schedule is very heavy and I am planning on really putting everything I have into it, aiming to get straight A’s and fix my GPA.

Junior Year Schedule:
HN Pre-Calculus
HN US History 2
HN English 11
HN French 4
HN Photography 3
AP Stats
AP Bio

Sports: 1 Season of Novice rowing. 2 seasons of Varsity Rowing (Currently). 1 season of JV Swimming.

Extracurriculars:
-Founder and President of UNICEF Club
-Elected on Student Government
-Model UN (2 years, chosen to be one of 20 from my school to go to the international New York conference out of over 100 at my school. Also the club advisor told me I’m going to be on leadership next year because I’m the most active from my class in the club),
-Club 4 (2 years. It’s a club about homelessness awareness and supporting the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, the biggest at my school and the club advisor said the same regarding leadership for next year)
-I own my own jewlery buisness and I’m the top student at this entrepeneurship program I’m in
-Science Club for Girls Junior Mentor for 5 years
-Doing a year long research internship at a biomedical institute this upcoming school year

Major Awards: The MIAA Athlectic Academic Honor Award

Other: First person going to college in my family, and I also have 150+ hours of community service, I am a muslim girl with 2 younger sublings and a single mom (we are low income and recieve benefits also), I am apart of an entrepeneurship program where I am the top buisness (my buisness gets international customers and I run it on my own), I am a junior mentor at Science Club for GIrls, I am participating in an internship at a biomedical company this summer

Reach: Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Harvard (this may sound crazy I even had the audacity to put this down but my school is the only one in the world who have a deal with Harvard (they’re right across the street) and they have 15 reserved spots from our school each year)
Dreams: Northeastern, Boston University, George Washington,
I’m not really sure what else to list since there is so many but I’m hoping you all will help?

So overall, I’m very well rounded when it comes to activities. I will be continuing my participation on Varsity rowing and I will be doing more community service at a hospital next year as well as that year round internship and a summer internship also. I’m a very confident test taker and and think hopefully I will be able to get a really good SAT.
I’m just very very worried about my GPA, as I should be, since that is basically the biggest thing bringing me down. Please respond I would love to hear from you!

Female
Arab
First Generation
12 Year old brother and 4 year old sister
Income: 45k

2

I don’t like chance threads. But thought I would bite. You second semester sophomore year grades are not an improvement - you did very poorly. You have to bring down your expectations since you have no chance at Tufts or any of the other (IMHO). Is it realistic to except to get straight As in the 2 hardest years of high school, when you haven’t had a single A in any core courses in high school

My recommendation is to move down from honors sections for French and ABSOLUTELY DO NOT take AP Bio nor AP Stats. How is your counselor allowing you to register for AP classes with these grades? If you fall into the AP trap (you think/hope you will do well, but then realize HOW HARD THEY ARE) you will be lucky to pass. I know you have extenuating circumstances, but its best to do well in lower level classes and explain that was the reason to drop than to get C/D/F in Honors or AP.

3

You mentioned a number of times how things outside the classroom affected your grades, so I might actually argue that all of your extracurriculars are a problem. You are a student, so your schoolwork needs to come first. Have you considered cutting back on some of the ECs during the school year to leave you more time to focus on schoolwork? All the extracurriculars in the world won’t do you a lot of good of you don’t have a minimum level of academic performance. Also, for something like rowing, don’t you have to maintain certain grades to remain eligible to participate? That could be a problem.

You also gave a lot of excuses for your poor grades. While I understand you’ve gone through some rough stuff, colleges don’t want to hear a litany of excuses. You need to figure out what you can do to become a resilient student in the future.

Also, don’t worry about chances for specific universities yet. You have well over a year before you’ll be applying. Right now, focus on what you need to do in school.