Do I have what it takes to be a Wildcat?

Colleges & Universities Northwestern University
1

<p>Hey guys, I was just wondering about my chances for admission to Northwestern University. I know it’s a really selective college so I was wondering if I got what it takes. I go to a relatively competitive public high school in Ohio. I will be applying Regular Decision. Here are the stats…</p>

<p>Numbers:
GPA: 4.85 weighted, 4.0 unweighted (all A’s)
Rank: 5/300ish, top 2%
Toughest courseload available
Junior Year: AP Bio (5), AP Euro (5), AP Chem (3)
Senior Year: AP French, AP Gov, AP Physics, AP Calc, AP AP English
SAT: 700M, 730V, 720W with 10/12 essay (2150 total, 1430 M+V)
PSAT National Merit Commended (score: 213)</p>

<p>ECs:
Tennis: JV 9,10,11; Varsity 12
Basketball: JV 9,10; Varsity 12
School Newspaper (9-12); Sports Editor (11-12)
Politics Club (10-12); Co-Founder & President (10)
Key Club (Chairman of various activities)
School television station: videocamera man and announcer
French Club
NHS, high honor roll, all that fun stuff</p>

<p>Other/“hooks”:
Summer Internship at Cleveland Clinic Hospital - competitive program, fulltime, 9 weeks, completed a research project there which improved clinical mammography rates, will be sending a “Research Abstract”</p>

<p>Regional winner and National Finalist in an Essay Contest sponsored by Society of Plastics Engineers, “The Wonder of Plastics.”</p>

<p>Research at Case Western Reserve University - in Electromyography Lab (studying neurological disorders and such) </p>

<p>Acoustic Guitar - I’m no prodigy but have been playing for a couple years and have been taking some professional lessons and will send a “Music CD” which is rather decent</p>

<p>And thats about it. Teacher reccomendations are extremely good (also, I have an excellent supplemental reccomendation from my mentor during my summer internship). Essays are quite good as well. What do you guys think? Some people tell me Northwestern is overrated, what is your guys’ opinions? Is it too far away from Chicago? Are my SATs high enough? Obviously I’m leaning towards something pre-med but do I have what it takes to apply for the HPME program? Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I think it is a match for RD but HPME is as selective as HYP (i.e. a reach). If you haven’t taken SAT II math 2c and chemistry and are not planning to take them, you can’t apply to HPME anyway. </p>

<p>As far as “overrated” goes, the top-25 schools are so close/equivalent to each other that some are gonna be “overrated” and some are gonna be “underrated” when they are artifically assigned rank. For example, NU is no better (but no worse either) than Brown but Brown is like few spots below NU. In this case, NU is probably “overrated” relative to Brown. But if you swap their places, someone is gonna say Brown is overrated too. If I were to rank schools, I would place HYPMS as group 1 and all from #6 to #20 on US News as group 2 or something like that.</p>

3

<p>Agreed with above. </p>

<p>As to your question about Chicago: You can see the city from the lakeside part of the campus. To get into the center of the city (“The Loop”) is about a 30-35 minute El ride. So if you want to be IN the city, that’s not NU…but it’s not difficult at all to get into the city if you want to, and when you can’t, Evanston isn’t that bad…it’s a little uptight, but it’s not tiny…and has some of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to.</p>