Where does your Questbridge list stand? You could include both Chicago and NU on there. I still encourage you to choose some meet full need LACs where your stats will be relatively more competitive than they are at schools like Chicago and NU. Schools like St Olaf, Oberlin among the many mentioned on this thread (whether thru QB or not.)
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Neither Chicago nor northwestern need to worry too much about yield protection. U Chicago CDS says level of applicantâs interest is ânot consideredâ. Northwestern has it as âconsideredâ, which is below the âvery importantâ categories of gpa, rigor, class rank, essay, LORs, ECs, talent and character.
In short, interest is not going to get you over the line at either of these.
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Given the new information about your home not being owned by your mother, my understanding is that you are now much more likely to qualify for QB and should focus on that application.
And I still want to say that I am concerned that if you want to go to med school, then gunning for the most rigorous of the highly rigorous colleges is likely to not be in your long term best interest given the need to maintain a high GPA in college to be a competitive med school applicantâespecially in the context of your high school GPA and science grades. Looking at the long game, you really might be better served by aiming for the schools where you are at the top of the academic profile. This will make your success once in college easier.
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You would be the level of student for Northwestern and Chicago where demonstrated interest is not likely to help you. They, unfortunately, have countless students with profiles like your or better who apply.
Northwestern: Demonstrated interest doesnât appear to help.
U Chicago: Demonstrated interest counts a little bit, but not much.
(I canât post the links, because thatâs prohibited by this site, but you can find them).
Demonstrated interest is more likely to help you at Washington and Lee, at Hamilton, at Whitman, Lafayette, Denison and other prestigious liberal arts colleges like these (and they are prestigious). I would recommend that you not fill up your Questbridge application with the hyper reaches and spend all your other application time on hyper reaches like these schools. Your grades are imperfect. Grade inflation has brought the world to a place where 4.0 unweighted is not unusual.
Iâd recommend that you shoot a level lower and put only a little effort into schools like these. Iâve interviewed fantastic applicants to Princeton, and most get turned down. Iâm not an admissions officer, however, and maybe theyâll view things differently.
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OPâdo you have any sense of the rigor of your HS compared to other high schools? I think you said that the average SAT is considerably lower than yours? Is that true?
Northwesternâs CDS says DI is considered.
UChicago officially says ânot consideredâ - but they love ED apps (so much so that they introduced ED0). Applying ED is the ultimate form of demonstrated interest.
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So QB is in !! Thatâs good.
I think you need not to worry about expressing interest. Putting them on your list lets them know.
You need to add the less competitive, not just top - Imho.
Chicago and NU are different. Make sure you understand the environments best you can of any school bcuz you have to be there four years.
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One thing that I would do before completing your Questbridge application is make a trip to visit some liberal arts colleges in August, with your mother if she can go.
Bearing your location in mind, Iâd think about seeing Swarthmore and Bryn Mawr (Philadelphia area), Vassar, Union and Skidmore (Albany area), Lafayette and Lehigh (Allentown area â Lehigh is really a small, mostly STEM university) or Hamilton and Colgate (Utica, NY area). Simply walk around these campuses to see what a liberal arts college is like, because theyâre closed in the summer, for the most part. Some of these are on the Questbridge list. I would consider all of these schools to be reaches for you, either because of their admissions difficulty or because they are need aware.
(There are absolutely no slouches on the Questbridge list â that is a list of highly prestigious schools. If you match to any of them, you should be ecstatic, especially when considering the price).
If you put a few of the elite Ivy or Ivy-like schools on your Questbridge list, thatâs fine, but a full list of them would be a wasted chance. Youâre entering a contest, right now, with the prize being free college education.
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Thatâs good news for you institutional financial aid wise. No home equity.
I do agree that schools that are less competitive that meet full need should be considered.
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Theyâre both great. Both are different schools, too, even though theyâre both in Greater Chicago.
From an admissions standpoint, they are as difficult as any Ivy League school, and equivalent academically. The acceptance percentages may differ slightly from some of the Ivies, but that doesnât mean much. They have tremendously talented and accomplished applicant pools.
To give you an idea of the competency of the admissions pools, Harvard announced that they could form 5 classes of equal competency from those who applied. Princeton announced that they could form 9 classes of equal competency from their admissions pool. The 5X or 9X is merely an estimate, so donât think that means that Princeton is getting a better applicant pool. What it means is that these schools (and that includes Northwestern and U Chicago, too) are overwhelmed with applicants who are not only academically strong, but also have strong achievements outside of the classroom.
Thatâs why Iâm urging you not to put many eggs in this basket, when there are great schools out there that you can probably go to for free and will be far, far more likely to accept you.
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This is correct about the SAT. Only 25% of AP courses are offered
A lot of people forget that essays and rec letters can completely benefit my odds. These schools arenât just looking for 4.0 robots, they want real people with real stories, depth, and purpose. If I show why my grades dipped and how I bounced back, it actually becomes part of my strength.
And once Iâm in that âacademically qualifiedâ zone (like 1500+ SAT, strong course rigor, etc.), it becomes more about how I stand out in my honest opinion. If I apply smart and strategically, especially to a good mix of Ivies + LACs + other Public reaches with holistic admissions, one of them is bound to give me a shot, hopefully. Would be incredibly grateful as would anyone
If med school doesnât work out my friend, youâre going to have a GREAT career in sales!!! You know how to craft a story of impact!!
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I appreciate you! Thank you
No-one is forgetting that. There is even a whole section on CC to help with essays.
But if I may be somewhat blunt, you came on here with a âchance meâ thread, and you donât seem to be listening to what people are saying. There are literally thousands of applicants at these schools and the majority of them do have a good story and good recs. Posters here - and there are some who are on admissions committees- have some experience that you seem reluctant to listen to. If youâre really happy with potentially only having the prospect of Rutgers if you luck out everywhere else, then fine. If you think (as most people here do) that you have a lot of good options between Rutgers and the top tier of schools - then you should have some of those on your list.
And itâs not some kind of probability problem where âif I apply to x schools one of them must accept meâ. Every year on CC we see some good applicants who are accepted to multiple top schools - and we see equally good (on paper) applicants who donât get into any and end up at their safeties, assuming they have true safeties on the list (some donât). People are genuinely trying to help by being realistic, and essays and LORs and interest only go so far. There is a reason colleges publish the middle 50 on GPA and test scores. Your test score is in the ballpark for most top schools. Your GPA, less so. Some realism and strategy is needed to craft a college list where you take your shots for the high reaches but also leave yourself enough options to get into a very decent school with good aid, that may be outside the T20.
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Regarding Connecticut College: Another superior, beautiful school. NESCAC. Campus looks like a resort, overlooking Long Island Sound. As a bonus, you get to watch the cadets at The Coast Guard Academy getting tormented. When my child visited, it was 100°, and they were out marching in full dress uniforms on about July 3rd.
In any case, The local podunk high School, which has a graduating class of 50, had a valedictorian who wasnât even looking at college. One of the teachers had graduated from Connecticut College, and contacted them. The valedictorian applied, Connecticut College met his need, and he went there. Thatâs not the worst place for anyone to wind up.
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You are missing a very important point.
There are students out there who also have a story to tell- significant financial problems (lived with no electricity for months at a time), abused by a family member, mental health issues etcâŠand still maintained a 4.0 in HS taking the most rigorous schedule that their school had to offer (along with high test scores).
I am not making this up. I know some of these students and have heard their stories.
You have an opportunity to take advantage of. Apply wisely.
Adding: you will be premed. There are students who graduate premed with all As while also navigating personal/family problems.
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Great school that is wildly overlooked here.
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Seriously, kid. 419 posts and youâve gotten pretty much the same advice from a myriad of posters trying to help you, and you keep coming back with, âWell what aboutâŠâ
I hope you spend as much time on your applications.
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Also, on this: Unless theyâre in your home state, these are not likely to be affordable. Some publics do offer a lot of merit to out of state students, but they are not the âreachâ schools (by which I assume you refer to the so-called public ivies)
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