Confused about NU competition?

1MX
Sun, 02 Sep 2007 18:45:42 +0000

A kid from my school was accepted to NU last year. He had good scores, but I just thought that NU was more competitive than his ‘stats’ (rank was kinda poor) Can someone tell me if this is a typical NU student.
Male, White, Midwest
GPA: 3.8 UW 12% of class
ACT:34

ECs:
varsity xc and track (4 years, captain)
150 hrs of volunteering

Awards:
national merit semifinalist.

He had no connection to the school nor amazing recs/essays, etc