I am a white female junior in Illinois. My gpa (weighted) is 5.35 and (unweighted) 3.8.
AP classes I have taken in order of year: Human Geography; Chemistry, World History; Physics One, U.S. History, English Language; ( I plan to take either ap physics or bio, English literature, and calculus next year)
I haven taken 4 years of Spanish and have spent 12 years in polish school. I am in the first generation in my family to go to college.
I got a 760 on a chem sat. 5 on the ap human geo test. 4 on both world history and chemistry.
I got a 32 on my ACT (which I am taking again so my score can be higher).
Extracurriculars: Orchestra, Polish school, Polish Girl Scout troop leader for 3 years so far, ski and snowboard club, NHS, scholastic bowl, science Olympiad, PE leaders, freshman mentor.
I am also taking a independent study organic chemistry course and I have an internship through my school at a pharmacy.
I plan on majoring in chemistry and later in chemical engineering or pharmacy.
What are my chances of getting into: UChicago, UIUC, Northwestern, Columbia, NYU, University of Michigan, or IIT?
I’m also a junior from IL, and I think your stats look really good. Maybe try to raise your act 1-2 points to be more competitive at UChicago, NW, Columbia, NYU, and even Michigan. (I don’t know much about IIT). And, UIUC should be easier for you, unless you’re going for engineering, which would fall under the same category as the other highly selective schools above. Maybe a few more safeties/matches. (NOTE: I am not in a super good position to answer so take my opinion with a grain of salt because I’m basing this off of what I’ve heard from other people.)
Emphasize your STEM achievements and goals, plus draw attention to your first generation status in a fun/quirky way and you have a shot at UChicago. If you think you want Northwestern or Columbia you need to apply early. There has got to be better places than NYU for chemistry?
I have a few safety schools; I just wanted to know if I could get into the selective schools. As for NYU, the area better places but I want to keep my options open.
So you are in the right ballpark for ‘selective’ schools but you’ll be competing against thousands of kids with records as good or better than yours. It seems like you favor big urban private schools and Midwest publics- is that right?
I guess- these are the schools that most people are looking at in my school
You will have an excellent chance of admission to Illinois Tech with the possibility of a good merit scholarship as is. It will be even better with stronger ACT scores.
Just one note about choosing majors. Chemical Engineering is not so much about Chemistry as it is about engineering and quite a bit of Physics. If you want to be a Chemical Engineer, just start with that as a major.