<p>Ever consider the possibility you’ll end up at UIUC? Your ACT science score of 28 is weak. It indicates you may have trouble as a pre-med especially at Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Penn or Chicago. Secondly, what are your actual grades? If your school uses numeral grades, you can calculate your true average. Weighted GPA’s are meaningless outside of high school and to admissions officers. If you get a 88 in an AP course or “honors” course that’s a 88 not a 98 - period. Further, the University of Chicago has always been less of place for Midwesterners than NU. Don’t count on being from Chicago as meaning anything at the U of C. UChicago now gets more applicants from California than Illinois. Northwestern now has a 15% admit rate. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, despite your Catholic prep’s record of success!</p>
<p>Eliminate Yale, Harvard and Stanford from your list and add JHU, WUSTL and Rice instead. Rice is an extremely well-endowed small university that may be more affordable for you than NU.</p>