Desperate junior from WA aiming for Northwestern [3.89 UW, 1570 SAT]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics:

  • US citizen, Washington State
  • Private High School, South Asian, upper middle class (no cost constraints)
  • Intended Majors: Biology double major with some kind of engineering not sure yet - will def be taking pre med route but will likely do some kind of engineering as major for backup route

GPA: 3.89 UW (taking most rigorous course load, and have good explanation for 2 of my Bs, upward trend)
Test Scores: 1570 SAT (790 Math, 780 English)
No school Rank
Full IB Diploma (4 HLs → HL AA Maths, HL English, HL Global Politics, HL Biology, SL SEHS, SL Spanish)

Awards: (Probs weakest part)

  • Presidential Service Award (shooting for gold, but I know this doesn’t hold much weight)
  • IB English Award likely
  • Biology Olympiad Certificate of Merit (top 30% nationally)
  • Trying to see if I can get anything more here from research but otherwise this is it. honestly not sure how to get more awards → could use tips!

Extracurriculars: (will keep brief)

  • In process of conducting research paper with local college professor about nueroscience with focus on addiction
  • Copresident and founder of school healthcare club with 20+ members
  • Hospital Volunteer
  • SAFE volunteer (for addiction)
  • WA State Teen advisory group (chosen as one of 25 from across state ages 12-25)
  • Enviromental Internship (not sure how selective but nothing crazy)
  • Orchestra
  • MUN (may not list)

I am in the process of trying to build an app that will help people in recovery, but we will see. Applied for a couple prestigious lab internships but they are really selective.

Essays:
Not written but guessing will be like a 7/10 maybe?
LORs: Think these will be pretty strong maybe 8-9/10?

Schools: (please feel free to be brutally honest, i am only including reaches and targets here but don’t worry I have safeties)

reach: (10)

  • Northwestern (ED)
  • Georgetown (EA)
  • Tufts (RD or ED II)
  • JHU (RD)
  • WashU (RD or ED II)
  • UPenn (ED)
  • Brown?
  • Columbia?
  • Emory (RD)

Target: (6)

  • University of Illinois Urbana Champaign (EA)
  • Baylor (EA)
  • URochester (RD)
  • University of Washington (in state, RD)
  • UW Madison (EA)
  • Case Western (EA)

If anyone has some advice that would be awesome, as I have seen some of the other people out there and know I am nowhere near as competitive as I should be for a school like Northwestern but feel free to be brutally honest! Thank you!

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It is very hard to predict admissions to a university with a 7% acceptance rate, other than to say that you are a competitive applicant.

I do have to wonder however, why Northwestern? This is a distance to go for a bachelor’s degree. Also, you will be traveling to and from home over winter vacation and while snow storms might be rare in Seattle, they can be relatively common in the winter in Chicago (and also in the northeast where I live).

On the one hand taking both the required premed classes and the required engineering classes is going to be very tough. However, it is a very good idea to have a “plan B” for anyone considering medical school, since the large majority of students who start university thinking “premed” do end up doing something else. It seems reasonable to start with both in mind, but if the course load is too tough be aware of the possibility to spend perhaps the last two or three years of your bachelor’s degree more focused in one area.

There are a lot of universities that are excellent for both premed students and for engineering students. Obviously your in-state flagship is one of them.

With regard to ECs, my general advice is to ignore university admissions, and instead focus on doing what is right for you. As I understand it, this is also the recommendation in the “applying sideways” blog on the MIT admissions web site. This approach of “do what is right for you, and do it very well” is the approach my family has taken and it has worked for us, but what we each did was very different, and it got us into a range of very good universities (only one of which was MIT). I think that it is worth reading the “applying sideways” blog if you are aiming for admissions to any highly ranked university in the US. Also, doing very well in a few ECs is the point. This is not a competition to see who has the longest list of ECs.

As long as medical school is a realistic possibility, make sure that you budget for a full 8 years of university where the last 4 are going to be expensive. Also, be aware that any highly ranked medical school, or PhD program in a biomedical field, or graduate engineering program, will have students who got their bachelor’s degrees at a very wide range of universities (may of which will be ranked lower than U. Washington). Doing very well as an undergraduate student will be more important than where you do it.

Also, I wouldn’t ED anywhere unless (1) It is clearly your top choice; (2) You know that you can afford it (for a premed student as part of an 8 year plan); and (3) You have visited the campus.

Given your excellent results up to now I expect that you will have multiple good offers and a very good university to attend when the time comes, as long as you make sure to apply to solid safeties.

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Congrats on your record. Your private school counselor is your best source for your odds.

As for your profile, don’t panic on awards. Most don’t have. It’s about what you do and achieve - not what award you have. If you get carts out of a parking lot for a grocery store or walk dogs at the animal shelter - you don’t get an award. Yet they are great. So focus on what you do - not who recognizes it.

Also, you got two Bs. So what ? There is no reason to explain it. Those are great grades.

That your essays and LORs may not be great - obviously that would hurt.

Make sure you ED at a school you want to be at - ie that you’ve visited. Especially for pre med and for engineering - short of a few schools, the where won’t matter. So don’t chase names - chase the right schools. Emory and Gtown don’t belong on your list - not for ‘some type’ of engineering since they don’t have.

I think you are qualified for every school but you might also be rejected at all your reaches.

You have mostly mid size schools but then three large publics. Why those three - would you have true interest ? I get UW. You might look at Purdue if you want big.

Also, your list is too big but eliminating the two I mentioned would help. It is a solid list - so you’ll have acceptances. But you chose big names for big name sake - I wonder what you truly know about them. And for engineering, not necessarily the strongest schools.

Best of luck.

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Thank you so much for the reply! Originally I was aiming at a biology major so this list is very pre-med catered, however I realized that I should have an alternative route which is where engineering came in! I’ll do my own research as well but would you have some other reccomendations for schools?

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What type of engineering ?

What do you seek in a school - besides a big name - which is not necessary for both bio or engineering or pre med.

Is there an area of the country or size or weather or diversity level or environment - city vs rural vs suburban. Sports or Greek life etc.

Cost is no issue but is that true with an additional $400k for med school ?

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Any reason you aren’t applying EA to UWash? You would greatly increase your chance of acceptance.

You cannot apply ED to both, you will need to pick the school that is truly your top choice.

You cannot apply EA to Georgetown and ED anywhere else.

  1. No need to explain your Bs. If an explanation is truly needed, let your counselor do it
  2. I don’t think you should feel desperate. You’re a competitive applicant and will likely get into one of your target schools and possibly into one of your reaches too.

Good luck!

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Congratulations on your great record. I’ll note that you will need to choose from among G’town, Penn and Northwestern for ED/REA - you can’t apply to all 3 early. If you do pick an ED school, make sure you visit before making that commitment. I think you are likely to get into most/all of your Target schools if you go for a biology major - engineering would make admission more difficult, especially at UIUC. As to the reaches, well they are reaches for everyone. S24 had slightly better stats (3.98/1580) and was WL/rejected at the 4 T20s he applied to - I say this not to discourage you but to point out how competitive the process is. You will be a competitive applicant at all schools, but unless you are hooked in some way, admission isn’t likely (and how can it be at schools that are admitting on 5%+/- of applicants). That being said, I think your best chance at the reaches is probably Emory, WashU and Tufts (especially if you go ED2). Ivies are nearly impossible to predict.

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I would encourage you to do a deep dive into the 4 year plan of study for the schools on your list. Double majoring in engineering and biology will be extremely difficult, if not impossible at some schools, or you will need an extra year. If you are aiming for med school, that is not advisable.

If you are saying you will major in engineering with pre-med intentions, that is different. Doable, but it will be difficult to keep a high GPA, especially at a school like Northwestern which is extremely fast paced because they are on a quarter system. Again, spend some time looking at the graduation requirements and courses. Typically BME, chem e, and bio engineering majors lend themselves best for pre-meds because there is a good amount of overlap with classes.

I hope you have a some true safeties you are considering because I don’t see any on your list. If you are applying for engineering, the out of state publics will be significantly more competitive than their overall acceptance rate.

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Your private school counselor is your best source

This. Please discuss your college options with your school college counselor.

And PLEASE check the guidelines for applying ED, or REA to these schools. Some of the info is noted in posts upstream.

You need to make some choice amongst your reach schools.

First…please find a sure thing for admission…I’m not sure I see that on your current list.

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University of Washington does not have EA, ED, or rolling admission.

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Ah, ok! I thought they did.

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OP - one more thing - and your record is very good as every poster has noted.

You want to be an engineer - and short of a few schools, the where matters little.

You may want to be a doctor - and the where matters little.

There’s zillions of schools what would love to have you - including some on your current list. Some don’t belong though - given they have no engineering.

So what I would say to you is that your headline is patently false. I hate the pressure all you kids put yourselves under. It’s truly unnecessary.

If you ended up at Oregon State or Arizona instead of UW or Northwestern, as an example, you’d still have every opportunity to become an engineer or a doctor.

I note this because this is how you start: Desperate junior

I promise you, that you have zero need to be desperate.

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Why biology + engineering?

Why not biomedical engineering?

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I agree with the others’ comments, so won’t reiterate those.

I think that your schools are pretty correctly categorized, though I would call Baylor a likely admit for you, and Case Western would be a hard target…make sure you show demonstrated interest here if you want an admission. But since you attend a private school, make sure to make full use of the guidance department there.

Make sure that your safeties really are safe for admission AND that you would be happy to attend them for four years. Many students put little thought into their sure things for admission and then are dismayed when their sure things are their only options. Please don’t let that be you. If you want additional recommendations of schools that are extremely likely for admission that you may want to research, please let us know.

There is absolutely no need to add more reaches to your list (in fact, I’d recommend culling some), but you might want to look into Rice as it seems as though it could be a good fit for you.

Since all of your reaches are medium-sized, it appears as though that may be your true preference. If so, below are some additional “target” schools that you may want to research, all of which are ABET-accredited for one or more of biological, biomedical, or chemical engineering:

  • Fairfield (CT): About 5k undergrads
  • George Washington (D.C.): About 11k undergrads
  • Lehigh (PA ): About 5800 undergrads
  • Tulane (LA): About 8100 undergrads (this would be a hard target and need demonstrated interest)
  • Villanova (PA ): About 7100 undergrads

My last comment is to take a good look at your personal mental/emotional makeup when finalizing your college list. For some people, rejection serves as a fuel that fires them up to be even more awesome wherever they happen to land to prove to the “rejectors” what a big mistake they made. For those individuals, having a very reach-heavy list can be a reasonable decision. I think that for most individuals, however, that rejection can be a definite mental and emotional blow. Some individuals who receive a lot of rejection will start to question their own worth and the worth of any offers that they have received (if all these others didn’t want me, then the ones who want me can’t be that good, can they?). I find that most people tend to do better with more acceptances than rejections, but this is very much an individual-specific decision.

I have no idea what kind of a person you are. But I would suggest being very reflective and perhaps discussing this with trusted people who know you well as you decide how to balance your overall application list in terms of reaches, targets, and sure things.

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Wazzou would likely be a safety.

As others have noted, the OP doesn’t have to go to a “name” school in order to get into a medical school – that will be more of a function of GPA, MCAT scores, and recommendations than where you get your undergraduate degree.

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thank you!! I didn’t include my safeties in the post but currently I have WSU, SeattleU, Oregon and St Olaf (however I may cut two of these)

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Thank you! I will definitely look into these schools, I am trying to figure out what a manageable number of schools to apply to is currently and I need to narrow down my major choice as well which will likely influence the school choices

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Thank you! I am aiming for med school so yes bio engineering and chemical engineering are likely my top choices - would you say this is doable at northwestern with the pre med reqs to manage a high gpa?

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Currently, I am thinking of doing either bioengineering or chemical engineering (I need to do some more research on the jobs that these degrees will get me first however!). I was drawn to Northwestern as it seemed to offer all of the things I wanted in a college: the size, its school spirit (good sports), its location, diversity level, environment (near the city but not directly in it), as well as its early assurance program for pre meds.

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Thank you! This was very solid advice - I touched on it briefly in my last comment but I was drawn to Northwestern due to its early assurance program for med school, its location/size/enviroment/diversity/school spirit, etc. Overall, the school seems to offer everything I have been seeking in a school - however, cost wise the UW offers an incredible education at a much lower cost as well so I would be happy at either!

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