<p>Ya, I’m a student at the 5th best school in the nation ranked my Newsweek and am gett ing all As and a B in english. I will probably do premed possibly HPME. I’m taking a very challenging courseload (only 2 PIB courses rest are AP and IB out of 7 classes) . I REALLY want to be an orthopedic surgeon and go to Northwestern. It’s by my family and my grandfather was buried in Northwestern and I would love to be able to see him everyday! I’m a varsity swim, play water polo, volunteer at a hospital, and am a member of math honor society. I plan to join key club, JSU, and learn club. I’m probably going to get a job at publix IF I can. What would you recommend I do? I know I need to get straight A’s, but my school is known for its rigorous courses and while HYPS came, they said they knew about my school andf would take that into consideration. Would Northwestern do the same? I’m sorry it’s long, but it would REALLY mean a lot for an answer from anybody. I fell in love with Northwestern and being close to my family would mean so much for me.</p>
<p>just work as hard as you can.
i mean, they might not know your h.s.
but that doens’t mean you won’t have a shot.</p>
<p>that’s a lot of ECs you have there, and while i understand the sports and the volunteering and some of the clubs,
are you sure you’re genuinely interested in all those clubs?</p>
<p>because i can tell you that if you’re doing everything in hopes of setting yourself up for NW, they’ll see right through it.</p>
<p>just do the best you can and take things one step at a time :]</p>
<p>and btw, they might not know a LOT of h.s’s, and (no offense), just because yours is on newsweek doesn’t mean it’s necessarily better than MY school or any school for that matter, it just meets newsweek’s criteria more.</p>
<p>that doesn’t mean others applying don’t have classes as hard/harder than you did.</p>
<p>so there’s no reason for the admissions people to focus too much on the school the person came from. the school itself won’t give you the edge (that wouldn’t really be fair, since not everyone can go to those schools, you know?)they focus on the APPLICANT being themselves and how they think that person will fit into their school.</p>
<p>I see that you plan to join three clubs. Are you joining them because they look good, or because you want to contribute positively and make a difference?</p>
<p>It’s better to show focus and commitment to a few extracurriculars than simply being in many. When you market yourself, you want to be able to say what you did and what its effect was.</p>
<p>I don’t know you personally, but you said that you are in varsity swimming as a rising sophomore. Sounds like you’re athletically talented. If you enjoy swimming, I recommend that you really commit yourself to improving your times.</p>
<p>A close friend of mine started the application season last year with the intention of just walking on to a cross country team. He kept training, and he ended up being recruited by several top schools.</p>
<p>If you can improve your times to state-level, that can really be a kicker in your favor to admission at Northwestern. Good academics coupled with great athletics results in very high chances.</p>
<p>The good thing is that you’re young. Keep studying and if you like swimming, keep training. With dedication, focus, and hard work, you could be a state-ranked swimmer come Fall 2009.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. I am interested in all these clubs and sports! I love math (haha), swimming, planet eart, learn club, etc. The reason why I want to be a doctor is to help people rather than the money. Every year I pick out through my old clothes I don’t want and give it to Good Will. I honestly wouldn’t do a club I wasn’t into. I think that’s immoral honestly. Any more help would still be appriciated :D!</p>
<p>Also, right now I’m only ranked in the top 25% of my class. I’m trying to reach top 10%. WIth my schedule (AP Calc AB, AP Stats, PIB Chem, PIB French 3, AP English, AP US govt/VPS, and IB Computer Studies), and get good grades, would that help anyway? Also, do they lookat classes you take at colleges? Right now, I’m taking Calc 1 at a local CC to help me with AP Calc next year. Would that hurt or help me in anyway?</p>
<p>chill out. you’re only a sophomore. enjoy high school. i’m sure u’ll get into a good college. if you don’t get into northwestern, it’s not the end of the world.</p>
<p>bump…</p>