Chance me (anxious junior): Northwestern ED [GA resident, 1520 SAT, mid ECs, 3.91 GPA)

Chance Me / Match Me
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This is mainly geared towards Northwestern, as I am hoping to apply ED!

Demographics: transferred junior year from a highly-competitive public school in the Chicago suburbs to a small private school in coastal Georgia

Legacy: dad graduated from NU law school, brother graduated from NU undergrad, 2 cousins graduated/are graduating from NU undergrad, one uncle graduated from NU undergrad, and one uncle graduated from NU law school

Intended Major(s): Sociology or political science

GPA: 3.91 unweighted

Class Rank: N/A

SAT: 1520

ACT: 33

AP scores: AP psych (5), AP comp sci principles (4)

English: highest level offered

Math: highest level offered (got a B+ and B in honors precalc)

Science: highest level offered (A- and B+ in honors physics)

History: AP psych, APUSH, AP US Gov, AP Comparative Gov; AP micro/macroeconomics senior year

Honors: 8 by senior year

APs: 11 by senior year

Awards:
Congressional Dames Essay Contest, where I won a four-day trip to DC to participate in Model Congress and visit the Capitol

DECA Illinois State Competition: 5th overall for Principles of Marketing

Extracurriculars/activities:
Math Team - Co-chair of communications (sophomore year) and competed at the state competition for freshman and sophomore year; after transferring to my new school, I co-founded our school’s Math Team, and we competed at a regional competition

Key Club - sophomore year, Kiwanis service activities

Book club - junior year, co-president, organized a holiday book drive where we donated 220 books

Congressional debate - sophomore year, competed at the Harvard tournament in Cambridge as well as 5 regional competitions with local schools

Model UN - junior year, president for senior year where I am helping organize the New York MUN conference for our school

Varsity tennis - junior year

JV/Varsity XC - sophomore/junior year

JV track - sophomore year

Interned at an allergy clinic during the summer of 2024 (roughly 80 hours)

I have worked in a restaurant since my freshman year (switched restaurants when i moved)

I am interning at a law firm for the 2025 summer

LOR: counselor will take into account the different classes at my old school as well as extenuating circumstances (undiagnosed ADHD until junior year)

Colleges I am interested in:

  • NYU
  • Columbia
  • UGA (EA)
  • Northeastern (EA)
  • American
  • USC (EA)
  • Bowdoin
  • Georgia Tech (EA)
  • Tufts (ED II)
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Congrats on your record. You have a shot everywhere and most are reaches.

American is attainable with demonstrated interest.

Northwestern ED1 with legacy gives you a bump but still a reach. Tufts also likes ED so you’ll get a bump there for ED2 but also still a reach.

Take your shot and good luck. And add a safety.

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Congratulations on building a strong academic record in high school!

I agree with @Bruno99 that the bulk of your list is composed of reaches.

Talk to your school counselor about UGA and Georgia Tech since you’re in-state for those, though Georgia Tech seems surprising for someone who’s interested in sociology.

If you show a lot of demonstrated interest, then I suspect American is a likely admit. If you don’t, however, it could easily turn into a waitlist or rejection.

Since you added that you’re an “anxious junior” to your subject heading, that puts me in mind of two things:

  1. Add some extremely likely admits to your list, and/or schools that have rolling admissions that will notify you early in your senior year about your college decision. Having acceptance(s) at schools you’d be happy to attend are great ways to relieve anxiety.

  2. Think about your own mental makeup, particularly with respect to rejection (which you may not have had much of, as an academically successful student). For some people, rejection is like a fuel that makes them want to be all that much more amazing wherever they land in order to prove the “rejector” made a poor decision. For most, however, rejection can be a big mental and emotional blow. I find that most people do better with more acceptances than rejections, but this is very much an individual-specific situation. I would give this issue serious thought and perhaps discuss with some trusted people who know you well to determine how you want to balance your college list.

Also, when looking at your list, it seems to be a very eclectic mix of schools. I don’t normally see Bowdoin on the same list as NYU or Columbia, or Tufts on the same list as Georgia Tech, and I’d love to know how you selected these schools.

If you’d like help brainstorming schools that would be toss-up, likely, or extremely likely admits for you, please let us know more about your priorities for college. Some questions that might help prompt your thinking include:

  • What size school do you prefer?
  • What size classes do you prefer?
  • What climate do you prefer (or prefer to avoid)?
  • Are there states/regions that you prefer (or prefer to avoid)?
  • How do you feel about urban/suburban/college town/remote locations?
  • How do you feel about significant enthusiasm for intercollegiate sports?
  • How do you feel about Greek life?
  • Are there any particular interests that you want to pursue outside of your potential major?
  • Are there any other factors (such as religion or politics) that will play a role in your college decision?
  • What is the budget, and does the Net Price Calculator at Northwestern (or a similar school) come back with a price that your family is willing and able to pay?
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Be sure and calculate your UGA GPA. Many applicants will have straight As so those Bs may be a challenge particularly in non AP classes. Ask your school counselor his opinion about your chances. He should have very good data. UGA is either a target or a reach depending on GPA. Be sure you have some safeties. Does GT even have sociology? Are parent willing to pay full 80-90k a year for these schools?

Where are your safety schools?

Be sure and only use core classes. Non core do not count for UGA. If you have a question about whether a class is core or not read the comments. It will likely be answered there. Also UGA only looks at English and Math for ACT. What are those scores?

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I think you appear academically qualified for Northwestern and therefore it would be reasonable to apply to them ED, assuming you and your family are also comfortable with what that would cost you and you do not have any interest in comparing merit offers and such. But of course the odds are against you, just because they are against almost everyone these days.

Tufts, same analysis basically. Being in such a popular student market, it has become a much harder admit. I note I hope you would be applying ED2 to Tufts because it really was your second favorite college after Northwestern (as it might be), and not because people say you have to ED2 somewhere they think there is an ED2 “boost”.

OK, then like others, I am a little puzzled by the rest of your list, as those are not all colleges I would normally associate with someone whose top two were Northwestern and Tufts. I think if you explained more about exactly what led you to those two as your top two, people here could give you a lot of good suggestions about Likelies and Targets that have a lot of the same virtues.

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So i chose NU and Tufts as my top 2 because i grew up near NU and loved the campus. I also toured Tufts and really liked the environment. My counselor put UGA as a safety, because on scout it says i have a 97% chance of getting in with at least 20 ppl from my school who have applied.

I forgot to include that i also briefly helped volunteer for a congressman and ill have ~50 hrs volunteer service by the end of the summer.

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I was considering UGA a target/safety given that i am in-state. On Scoir it says i have a 97% chance of getting in EA, but of course those websites are often very inaccurate. I left out some specifics of my ECs and i am hoping that more detail will enhance my application.

I am applying to Georgia Tech because it is in-state, and my parents are encouraging me to apply.

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So I think there is a common misconception that your “Safeties” have to be large public universities very likely to admit you and known to be affordable. But there is an alternative concept, sometimes known as a Likely versus a Safety. And although the core requirement–that they are very likely to admit you and be affordable–is the same, the idea is to actually pick Likelies that are still a really good fit for you as an individual.

OK, so you liked Northwestern and Tufts. I don’t want to speak for you, but I can casually observe they are both midsize private research universities (Tufts has about 7000 undergrads, Northwestern 8000), near very major cities (Chicago and Boston). So, you could look for Likelies that also fit that description.

UGA, of course, is a very large public research university–around 31000 undergrads. It is located in Athens, a classic college town a tiny fraction of the size of Chicago or Boston. Of course some kids would prefer that experience to Northwestern or Tufts. In fact, some families may not be willing or able to pay what Northwestern or Tufts would cost them, but could afford UGA. But it sounds like your family can in fact afford a private.

So, why look at UGA as a Safety/Likely if you would not actually prefer that type of college? There are possible answers to that question that could keep UGA on your list anyway. But even in those cases, you could at least look at some other Likely colleges that better fit your preferences, indeed possibly some that might offer you merit.

And then same thing for what I would call Targets. You have good numbers and so lots of colleges are potential Targets for you, and some might well offer you merit if they do admit you. So why not find the ones that would actually be as close as possible to what you are really looking for?

I note, by the way, that American DID strike me as a good choice for you. Private university in the same size range as Northwestern and Tufts, and in DC, another big, global city. As others noted, American can be a little tricky because they have a reputation for waitlisting or rejecting high numbers kids they think are very unlikely to yield. But with some serious demonstrated interest, they could at least be a possible Target for you.

So what I would normally expect is almost your whole list would look like Northwestern, Tufts, and American, through a range of Reaches, Targets, and Likelies. A couple off that model for specific reasons might make sense, but probably not many.

Edit: Oh, and just to make this clear–if that concept sounds attractive to you, then you could tell us more about what you might be looking for in a college experience, academically and non-academically, plus any thoughts on budget. And then we can give you specific colleges to consider.

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Im definitely into more mid-sized schools, and I’d like to be near an urban setting, so I’ll add GW. Also, I am interested in schools that offer need-based aid

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I prefer mid-sized schools, and I would like to be outside of the south. I liked Tufts because of its student opportunities for clubs and extracurriculars. I will add GW and Loyola Chicago to my list. Thank you so much for your help!!

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Loyola chicago is a safety. And I would predict you would get $30-35K per year merit. And you could get invited to apply for their full ride. Plus rolling admissions so you could get an answer within just a few weeks. It was one of my D24’s safety schools and it was really nice to have a sure thing with merit so early on.

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Loyola Chicago seems like a good choice for you, and I wonder if you have considered any other Jesuit colleges. Some others that might be good fits could include Fordham (in NYC), Marquette (in Milwaukee), Loyola Marymount (in LA), Santa Clara (near San Francisco), Saint Louis University (obviously in Saint Louis), University of San Francisco (obvious), and Seattle University (obvious).

Another private university you might consider is the University of Denver. Again, great city, some really good programs, and robust merit.

For all these colleges (and any others), you should run their Net Price Calculator. That will estimate how much need aid they might offer (again understanding they might also offer merit).

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I’m assuming you’ve run the NPC for these schools and they’re affordable?

Have you visited NYU? It’s not your typical campus. You could walk by it and not really notice.

Urban and mid-size could be Emory.

If you’re determined to be in Chicago you could add DePaul too.

Good luck.

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Another likely admit would be Marquette. It’s a Jesuit school in Milwaukee with about 7700 undergrads. Butler in Indianapolis has about 4500 undergrads, and U. of Dayton has about 8200 undergrads. If you’re a fan of Boston and an urban campus like NYU or GW, then you may also want to look at Suffolk which has about 4500 undergrads.

For targets you might want to look at Brandeis which has about 3700 undergrads and is located just outside of Boston, or U. of Rochester which has about 6800 or Howard, an HBCU of about 10k in D.C. Case Western in Cleveland with about 6200 undergrads, is another to think about which might be considered a hard target/easier reach.

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Best way to know is calculate your UGA GPA. You are taking the bulk of your APs senior year so they will not count in the calculation. Average admitted student GPA is a 4.22. If yours is below that it is not a safety. EA is more likely to heavily weight stats so to have a 97 percent chance of getting in you need to be at the higher end. This is the current year admitted student EA profile. https://www.admissions.uga.edu/blog/2025-uga-overall-ea-admissions/

Best way to know is to talk to your high school counselor. Admission gets more difficult every year.

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Based upon my experience with in-state Georgia applicants, UGA leans safe and you will also likley be admitted to tech (although not quite safe). Your grades, tests, and major choice should be plenty IMO.

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If you like Chicago’s north shore, in addition to Loyola Chicago, of which I am a big fan, you might also want to consider Lake Forest College.

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Why is Bowdoin on your list? It feels like an outlier. You will probably get into UGA and 100% yes if not in a competitive county. Georgia Tech is a pointless application considering your major(s) but I get why the counselor encourages blanket applying anyway so probably not worth fighting. NU ED seems reasonable here but the Bs and ADHD may read as red flags. However, I predict you will get into Tufts EDII if push comes to shove. Good luck!

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Math may well be a problem for GT. At our in state private you have to take BC Calc to have a chance. Bs in math plus no upper level math may be a deal breaker. All majors at GT are required to take Calculus 1 and 2.

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Holy Cross is another one to consider.

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