Chance Me: First-Generation student, Northwestern ED

Chance Me / Match Me
,
1

Demographics
US Citizen
Pennsylvania
Uncompetitive Public High School in a rural town
White Male
First-Generation, LGBTQ (important for essay)

Intended Major(s)
Environmental Science + Political Science

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.98
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 4.8 (5.3 max with all IB/AP- complicated GPA system)
  • Class Rank: No Class Rank, assumed top 10%
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 34 ACT (32r, 33m, 34s, 35e)

Coursework
AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC, AP Comp Gov, AP Psych, AP Spanish Lang, AP Chem, ADV Physics 1, ADV US History, ADV Chem 1, IB Enviro, IB Lang 1 + 2, H Precalc, H Algebra 2, H Genetics, H Biotech, H Spanish 2, 3, 4
(note: my 9th+10th school did not offer APs only “ADV” courses. also I have no scores yet)

Awards
IB Diploma Candidate
Silver Medal- National Spanish Exam Level 4
World Language Award
Academic Distinction for all semesters

Extracurriculars

  • Private Tutor: Virtual Volunteer Tutor for Interns 4-Good. Focused on helping underprivileged children with school subjects (I specialized in math and biology)
  • Varsity Swim: 2 years of varsity swim. No specific award besides varsity letters.
  • Political Work: Phone/Text banking for local mayoral politicians, as well as part of MoveOn’s text team.
  • National English Honor Society President (projected 12th): in charge of organizing and leading monthly meetings
  • Sunrise Movement: Community Event Coordinator for local branch of political and environmental organization that promotes environmental justice through protests and other demonstrative methods. Specifically, I helped recruit new members and organize protests, etc.
  • Teens Teach Technology: Presenter for local chapter of TTT, a volunteer organization that teaches older individuals how to use modern technology through Zoom.
  • Work Experience: Worked 2 jobs simultaneously throughout high school: one at a market as a designated employee trainer and one at a restaurant as a food runner.
  • Volunteer Work: ~70 hours volunteering for a nonprofit food bank/ministry.
  • National Honor Society (going for leadership senior year)
  • National Spanish Honor Society
  • National Science Honor Society
  • Spanish Club

Essays/LORs/Other
Common App Essay: 8/10- not very polished but everyone I have talked to said it’s a good topic/start. Basically I write about my experience as a closeted g@y man and compare it to a permanent acting performance. Probably 9/10 with revisions
Why NU- none/10 haven’t written yet, probably 8-8.5/10

Schools
Northwestern ED1, ? ED2

Reach: UPenn, Pomona, Vanderbilt, UCLA, USC
Target: BC, Tulane, Northeastern, UMiami, UF
Safety: Penn State, Pitt, Santa Clara, LMU, ASU
Will EA when I can.

Thanks!

2

Budget? Have you checked the net price calculator on each college’s web site?

Northwestern is generally considered a reach for anyone without inside or connected information, or something like important recruited athlete or relation to a huge donor.

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Northwestern’s net price calculator checked out for me-- the others I’m not so sure about. I’m in PA so PSU and Pitt are my two financial safeties because of in-state tuition. Other than that, I’m hoping for potential merit or need-based scholarships but worst-case scenario I go somewhere in state. Do you think I could have success with Northwestern since I’m doing ED (the rate is about 25%) or does that typically not matter for non recruits/non legacies?

4

ED presumably helps (Northwestern does consider level of interest, which ED is the strongest expression of), but beware that ED admission rates do include many of the recruited athletes and legacies.

5

True, I should consider that. Thanks for your input!

6

I think you’d need to be near the top of the class of an “Uncompetitive Public High School in a rural town.” Awesome that the school offers Calc BC and you’re in it. Overcoming economic adversity will help.

What’s your passion?

Northwestern is a tippy top university with lots of Midwest apps.

7

Environmentalism is really my passion, but I also love Spanish a lot. I really want to create a passion project over the summer about one of the two. Do you think being from a rural area not in the midwest would help me stand out? Or is it a detriment?

8

I’m from a rural area in Texas. If you’re an exceptional student with some exceptional/unique attributes to rural areas — unlike the suburban kids wanting to do pre-med or engineering— you’ll stand out. Best wishes with the summer projects.

If you haven’t already, listen to the Yale podcasts for application tips.

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I would move Northeastern, BC, and Tulane to reach. Unless you ED Tulane, it’s not easy - and Northeastern is brutal getting in. There are kids getting into Ivy getting turned down there.

While being LGBTQ is a part of you and you want to explore it in your essay, I can promise you admissions gets a million related to the topic - so hopefully angle of comparing it to an acting performance stands out as unique. My guess is, it doesn’t - but I’m not you or LGBTQ so I do not know. I’m simply saying , if it’s an over written about subject, it won’t stand out.

10

LGBTQ + performing arts may be more common than you think (it is common enough to be seen as a stereotype by some).

There may be some truth to the 'gay jobs' stereotype | LSE Business Review notes that acting is the male majority occupation with the highest percentage of gay men among male workers.

11

Are the instate schools affordable for you? They are notoriously stingy with aid, esp PSU. Check and double check the Net Price Calculator on their sites.

(Note: NPCs are not usually accurate for those with divorced parents, or with parents who own a business, farm or real estate beyond the main home).

How much can you afford per year? Parents contribution + $5k loan + job earnings = budget.

If we have this info, we can help you identify affordable match and safety schools. Once you have these, you can knock yourself out on reaches etc!

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I would move Santa Clara to the target group
I don’t think it’s a safety.

Re:UCLA
if you can not pay the full $65,000 a year cost of attendance, you probably should take this one off your list. Even if you get merit, this will be a small dent in the cost to attend
and merit is extremely competitive. UCLA is not using the SAT or ACT at all
so they won’t even be looking at your score. You won’t get a dime of need based aid from UCLA as they don’t give aid to OOS students.

Re: your essay
I am not sure an essay about LGBTQ issues is a good idea.

Re: applying ED
if you need to compare net costs, you won’t get to do that with an ED acceptance.

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Being a (closeted?) gay boy at a rural high school is absolutely a legitimate topic if it shows unique qualities about you, in your adaptability, strength, resilience, creativity, etc. As well as depicting your environment with light touches.

Run the npc on Penn State and Pitt: they’re incredibly expensive (the state only provides something like 5% of the budget. In your parents’ days, tuition was slightly above $6,000 a year
 its now something like $17,000!)

You need to apply to more match universities, especially since you can’t count on Schreyer and Pitt Honors.

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I didn’t say it wasn’t legitimate. I said it won’t be ‘uncommon’ or new if you will. There will be lots of similar essays so how do you make yours stand out ?

15

The topic doesn’t matter at all. The treatment of the topic is all that matters. The essay stands out through depth, nuance, clarity of thought and expression, evocative prose, etc, and most importantly because it shows personal facts or qualities that aren’t immediately apparent when reading the rest of his application, help contextualize the application, etc. in ways that make the reader want to meet him/her.
Adcoms aren’t looking for “new” topics and if this is important to OP it matters, then it’ll be up to OP to handle it well.

16

This is more of an issue if the college requires both divorced parents’ finances for financial aid. For colleges that only require the custodial parent* (including colleges that only use the FAFSA form without any supplemental forms), then you just need the custodial parent’s finances.

*Currently, the parent lived with most of the time, but will change soon to the parent providing the larger share of financial support.

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