Chance me: MI resident, 3.73UW, 1560 SAT, Northwestern or Rice ED for Chemistry

Chance Me / Match Me
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Could you please chance me for my chances with Northwestern and Rice? Stats are below, and at the very end I give some more specifics about my question.

Demographics
US citizen
MI resident
Private high school

Cost Constraints / Budget
Likely no budget constraints; income is probably high enough to preclude need-based financial aid

Intended Major(s)
Chemistry or a related science major like biochemistry

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
3.73 UW GPA (yikes, I know- explained in more detail at the bottom)
4.20 Weighted GPA - 4.0 scale
Top 10% of class, N/A Class rank (our school did not provide a rank)
1560 SAT (780 math and 780 English/writing, not superscored)
Didn’t take the ACT

HS coursework

  • English: Honors all 4 years, AP Lit and composition for junior and senior year
  • Math: Honors all 4 years, IB Precalc junior year and BC Calc senior year
  • Science:
    • Freshman year- Honors Biology
    • Sophomore year- Honors/IB Anatomy & Physiology, Honors Chemistry
    • Junior year- AP Chemistry (5), AP Environmental (4), Honors Physics
    • Senior Year- AP Biology, Honors Organic Chemistry, and a new research science course called STAN-X (there are details on google about it, in our school we needed to apply to get in and I was lucky enough to get accepted!)
  • History and social studies: Regular history freshman year, AP Euro (5) sophomore, APUSH (4) junior, AP Gov senior
  • Honors Spanish for 3 years, but not senior year
  • Part of my schools concert band for freshman year, was accepted into our honors orchestra sophomore year so I continued there since

Awards
AP Scholar w/Honor
Summa cum laude for first 2 years, Magna cum laude for junior year (honors system within my school)
Cum Laude Society (formed from the top 10% of the class)
National merit semifinalist

Extracurriculars

  • Forensics State Champion (competitive speaking, not science!) - started freshman year and participated in the state tournament; state finalist (4th place) sophomore year, state champion junior year
  • Varsity Sailing - started freshman year and made it to varsity at the beginning of my sophomore year, our team is decent but nothing exceptional; I don’t think there’s much of a chance for recruitment
  • Pioneer academics - performing research and writing a paper about a novel drug derivative I created meant to combat HIV
  • Science fair - 3rd place in my category in SEFMD, qualified for and got 4th place in MSEF
  • Music - as mentioned above, part of school’s honors orchestra, but no special music awards
  • Volunteered in 2 hospitals (as an ER assistant for one of them!) for a combined total of about 100 hours
  • Worked on a 3D printing project with a friend at LTU where we try to develop a method for recycling used PLA filament; successful and donated equipment to LTU
  • Personal project that was used in but not intended for science fair - tore apart an old honda civic and quite literally made it an EV by putting batteries, electric motor, etc into it- partially for fun, and partially for science fair

Essays/LORs/Other
AP Chem/Enviromental teacher - (7?/10) I’m confident for a good recommendation, but from what I can tell our teacher doesn’t write much. Content shouldn’t be a problem, though the brevity might-chose him because I’m majoring in chemistry.
AP Euro/Gov teacher - (8 or 9/10) Also confident of a good recommendation, and he is an excellent writer.
Music teacher (10/10)- also my academic advisor, he knows me REALLY well and I’m certain he’ll write a good letter for me.
Pioneer Professor (Name/details omitted for privacy) - He seems pretty happy about my work, and he’s also working at a university that I’m applying to (not Rice or NU though). Especially with Pioneer and research taking up a good part of my ECs, hopefully his letter will bear some good weight.

Essay shouldn’t be a problem; writing either about my growth and experiences with forensics or an injury I recieved from sailing during my freshman year. If the injury essay turns out sounding too much like a traumadump I’ll use the other essay.

Schools
As title states-I intend to ED to either Northwestern University or Rice University. If I get rejected/deferred from ED1 I’ll ED2 the other. However, I’m not sure whether I’m putting NU or Rice first. I’m more inclined to NU at the moment.

My main concern is obviously my UW GPA. I’ve been taking nearly all of the hardest classes my school offers, and many of our teachers grade with quite a heavy hand. There were several classes where I missed the breakpoint and landed with a B+ instead of an A- by less than 1%. But our school uses letter grades on our transcript, so my 88 doesn’t look any different than an 86.
Put everything together, and my UW is 3.73. My weighted GPA looks better, and I’m sure our college counselor will talk about rigor and other specific details in our school with his counselor rec, but I’m afraid that the rest of my application will be overlooked because my UW is too low.

How do my chances look for an ED to Northwestern? Is it even realistic for me to expect anything? And does it look any better for Rice?

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Just an fyi, Northwestern doesn’t offer ED2.

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I read three things:

  1. Private school - your parents are paying for college counseling, please use it.

  2. Top 10% of class

At some schools that might be a 3.7 (like yours) and at others it might be a 4.0.

So your GPA may not be a hindrance.

But I go back to point #1.

The only other thing I’d add is please ensure you visit and like any school before you bind yourself (ED) - as you’ll be there four years, day after day after day.

Best of luck.

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Thank you-I must’ve gotten the ED schedules confused with another school!

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I appreciate the reminder, I’m already involved with my college counselor, but I thought a second opinion wouldn’t hurt. :slight_smile:

Fingers crossed here! I hope that is the case-3.73 and top 10% do look weird together :sweat_smile:
Just hoping that my raw UW wouldn’t look too out of place next to other 4.0’s.
Thank you for your thoughts!

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So I think you understand the basic setup. Normally a lot of B+s and a 3.73UW could be a significant issue for those colleges. But maybe coming out of your specific HS, that is less of an issue. To figure that out, you really need historical data for your HS, and hopefully your college counselor has access to such data and can given you some informed guidance.

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Strategic considerations regarding your likelihood of admission to schools at this selectivity level may be counterproductive. As an opinion, since you are inclined toward Northwestern, this seems like your better first choice.

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I will ask my counselor about this the next time I see him. Thank you!

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That makes sense. I think that is what I’m going to do. Since Rice offers ED2 but NU doesn’t, I’ll probably apply to NU first. Thanks!

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Have you visited one or both ?

They are not the same.

ED is not a game. If you get in, you are going - that means four years, day after day.

Visit and find the school you desire. It may be neither (assuming you haven’t visited yet).

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I’ve visited Rice in person and I did a virtual tour of NU; I personally prefer NU more and my parents prefer Rice, although I believe I’ll be fine with both.
Northwestern’s academic rigor and research opportunities appeal to me, and it also has an excellent sailing program I am interested in (Lake Michigan!) On the other hand, Rice (since it’s a small university) reminds me of my current high school in a positive way. Not to mention that it’s close to the Texas Medical Center, and I’m considering med school as a possible future choice. Although the two are very different, I think I will be able to adapt and perform well in both.

Of course, I agree that ED is a binding decision, and I will not set anything in stone until I have to. In the meantime, I’ll try to familiarize myself as much as possible with the two universities. Perhaps something may change my mind, or not. I appreciate the reminder!

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In your case, your personal preference of Northwestern aligns with a reasonable strategy to enhance your chance of admission to one of these schools. Unless some form of indecisiveness creeps in, it seems that you can proceed with confidence.

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Given you live in Michigan, hopefully you can get to NU b4 deciding on ED.

Tons of schools have rigor and research. That’s not monopolized by a select few.

Who else is on your list ? Perhaps your back ups should have strong sailing programs.

Good luck.

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I think I have a good spread of target and safety schools, most of which I’ll probably apply to in case my UW GPA does weird things.
Safeties include MSU, University of Pittsburgh, and Purdue.
Targets (although some of these may need to be moved to another category) include Ohio State, Boston University, U of Wisconsin-Madison, U of Rochester, Lehigh University, Case Western, Northeastern, and of course U of M.
Reaches include UT Austin (putting it here because out-of-state), Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Emory, WUSTL, and Tulane, in addition to Rice and Northwestern.
I appreciate any input or feedback to my list!

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I agree with your safeties. Your targets have a few I’d call reaches (the Boston Schools and UM) but again you’d have to check vs the data the school has for past grads.

It’s a fine list with multiple acceptances at very good schools.

Pitt - apply as soon as your app is done. You’ll get a timely acceptance.

Good luck.

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I think U of M is considered a target only because I’m an MI resident (it’s definitely a reach otherwise!) Not too sure about the Boston schools, but I’ll check with my counselor.
I’ll apply to Pitt as soon as my essay is finished, probably before October.
Thank you for your time! I really appreciate your advice.

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Thank you! I’ll see how it goes. Even if neither works, I still have a good list of safeties and targets. Fingers crossed!

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Before you close out your research, I’d recommend you look into a few purely undergraduate-focused colleges, such as Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams and Hamilton. As a full-pay student, you would get a lot for your money at these types of schools. All would be excellent for the study of chemistry and related fields.

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Northeastern has a 6.4% acceptance rate, BU 14%.

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Yes - hence I told the student to check vs the data his hs has for them but they’re likely reaches unless ED.

Also Northeastern is a co op school - not sure how that aligns with the student’s desire.

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