What are my chances at Northwestern, Syracuse, etc?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm a junior heading into my 4th quarter. I want to go into journalism. I really appreciate any responses!</p>

<p>These are the schools I'd like to be chanced for; if you ask me, they are all essentially reaches.</p>

<p>Northwestern University
Syracuse University (Newhouse)
Lehigh University
George Washington University
American University
Elon University</p>

<p>I'm female, and Filipino.</p>

<p>OBJECTIVE
- SAT: CR 740, M 780, W 800 - 2320 (one sitting, not taking again)
- GPA: currently 4.01 W; my school does not give us UW. This is probably my weakest point, largely due to a rougher sophomore year, but I expect this to go up by the end of the year. School doesn't rank either, but I'm probably fairly high up.
- APs:
Junior Year: AP US, AP Lit/Comp, AP Bio - no scores yet, of course
Senior Year: AP Calc BC, AP Physics, AP Studio Art, AP Psych, AP Lang/Comp
All others highest honors as available; orchestra and art all 4 years.</p>

<p>OBJECTIVE
- FIRST Robotics for 7 years counting- team captain and founding member. Definitely my most involved extracurricular, at times I'll work 40+ hours a week. We're a competitive team with many state awards. As it stands, we work in my basement with my dad as a coach, but we're trying to get the team a part of the school next year- a significant challenge as we live in a highly sports oriented town. Beside the robotics part we do a ton of community service and mentoring.
- Winter/Spring track since 10th grade; varsity from the winter season of 11th grade on
- Very involved in church. Among other things, I'm a retreat leader for incoming sophomores approaching confirmation; this is about a 3+ hour a week commitment.
- I participate and have won various awards in local art shows. I designed a mural at my school, as well as the logo for the NJ FIRST Tech Challenge. I am really passionate about art and will probably send a supplement when I am applying next year.
- Guitarist for 4 years, violinist for 10 years. Definitely not sending a music supplement, haha
- Perform in POPS orchestra; low key local performances
- Not sure of the exact number, but probably 100+ hours of service through church, peer tutoring, and robotics
- Week long mission trip to Appalachia summer before 11th and 12th
- Natl French Honors Society 10, 11
- Natl Honors Society 12 (I made a mistake in my application this year that kept me out- annoying, but completely my fault)
- Natl Art Honors Society 11, 12</p>

<p>With these stats alone, NU and Newhouse are serious reaches for me- I have no journalism ECs, save writing the occasional press release for my robotics team. I didn't think I'd want to be a journalist until very recently, and it'd be useless to tack on one year of writing for my school publication (which no one reads, sadly), so I'm hoping to do some sort of summer internship or something- no idea how to go about this, but I'll try to work something out.</p>

<p>Again I really appreciate all your feedback, CC :) Thanks guys.</p>

2

<p>Actually, I got a 790 on math, so my composite is 2330. The scores just came in today and I’m still a little shocked. Not crucial to my stats, but this can be a bump anyway!</p>

3

<p>I think you should try to better quantiify your UW GPA or post your actual grades, because a 4.01 W GPA can be reasonably competetivie or not competitive based on how your HS weights and what courses you have taken.</p>

4

<p>My GPA certainly will be the weakest part of my application. I unfortunately don’t have ready access to my entire transcript. To give you a better idea of how my school calculates GPA, A+ in a regular class is worth 4.33; an A+ in an honors/AP class is worth 5.41. The only regular classes I have taken have been french (3 years), orchestra (4 years), art (3 years- next year it will count as an AP), and health/gym (does this even matter?)</p>

<p>Freshmen year I was a straight A student. Sophomore year I received almost all B’s. This year will be mostly A’s, with B’s in english in history. This is all the information I can provide at the time- I apologize.</p>

5

<p>Your GPA may hold you back somewhat, but I would not underestimate the rest of your resume. While NU (are you considering Medill?) is an incredibly challenging admission, and will reject many 2330’s, you are certainly in the target range and your EC’s are solid. The weight placed on essays at the very elite schools is vastly underated on CC. WIth a particulary powerful/provacitive/insightful/or other/ essay, you have a reasonble chance:</p>

<p>Northwestern - Low Reach</p>

<p>The rest of the schools on your list are well within target and you have excellent chances for positive admission outcomes.</p>

<p>PS… Your EC’s, community service, music, etc are subjective… not objective.</p>

6

<p>Thanks for your response, really helpful. I am considering Medill, of course treating it as a reach school. I love to write so I’ll definitely give plenty of attention to the essay.</p>

<p>The objective bit was a typo- I made a few careless errors the first time around and already had to edit the post, and for the time being, no longer can. Oh well. Thanks again!</p>

7

<p>Any other feedback?</p>

8

<p>While your GPA certainly is the weakest part of your application, I think you have a good chance of making the schools you listed. Northwestern might be somewhat of a reach though. Maybe consider applying under a different major and switching into a journalism school?</p>

9

<p>Your ECs and SAT scores are very impressive. I’ll chance what I know:</p>

<p>Lehigh - In
American - In
GWU - In (know a kid with a 1920 with fewer ECs who got in)
Northwestern - Low reach</p>

10

<p>Thanks for the responses guys. As far as I know, transferring into Medill from another school at Northwestern is virtually impossible, but it’s where I want to be, so in the end it’ll just be a crapshoot…</p>

11

<p>Your Extra Credits and SATs make you a match for most of them; the GPA is your only weakness. Just work on getting that up this year and the start of next year and show its upward trending and you should be fine</p>

12

<p>I would say you are a good candidate for all of them (except Northwestern, which is a significant reach), and will probably be in in Lehigh, GWU, Elon, and American. Don’t know much about Syracuse. Good luck!</p>

13

<p>Thank you, all.</p>