<p>I am a shoo-in for UIUC engineering but not very competitve for WUSTL, U Chicago and NU, but still I want to apply to at least NU. My dilemma is that I don’t know if I should be an All-Star at a good state school or be middle of the pack at a great school. (I hear undergrad in some cases doesn’t matter where you go) I plan on doing BME and potentially graduate research. Med school and going straight into the job market are not ruled out as options. My reason for not being a narrow-minded pre-med person is that I don’t want to be a doctor because of the prestige and money–I want to find out what I like first. </p>
<p>Before I list my stats, I would like to mention that my school has horrible counselors (my school is segregated into two parts: the majority of the students make up the 60% graduate and 17 average of ACT scores and the minority of the students are NU, UC, Ivy League feeder with multiple 36s and 2400s and national merit scholars.) I was never advised to take SAT IIs, and was never pushed into extra-curriculars as a younger student or even advised on anything to help boost my resume. I’m going to make a lot of excuses and I fully understand they mean nothing–I am just explaining my circumstances for my and your entertainment.</p>
<p>31 ACT (math score only 31 because I had not had finished neither College Algebra nor started Trig.)</p>
<p>Rank 47 out of 378 or about top 12-13 percent. A 4.0 GPA won’t even get you into the top 25. (90% of the state scholars in the county go to my school)</p>
<p>3.62 GPA (I don’t know what my unweighted is, plus all of the weighing down can be attributed to my first 3 semesters)</p>
<p>AP Scholar with Distinction, expected to be National by the end of the year
Illinois State Scholar</p>
<p>Very rigorous courseload -3 years German, incl. Microbiology and Organic Chemistry 9 AP Courses (none of the joke like Geography or Env. Science, all histories or sciences or English) </p>
<p>Great AP performance .All 5s one 4 (I wrote too philosophically and abstract on the English exam) one 3 (Macr. Econ, my teacher did not teach; the average that year for my school on that test was 1.6)</p>
<p>4 years of football, 1 year NHS (rough rough freshman year mentally made me shy away from doing quiz bowl or baseball and made my qualifications for NHS not met until after sophomore year)</p>
<p>I have an EXTREMELY favorable grade trend. GPA of 4.1 since 2nd sem. 10th grade and 4.3 GPA junior year with straight A’s 2nd sem. Every class my soph. and junior year I improved any non-A’s from 1st sem. to 2nd, and any C’s (physics = GPA killer) went to A’s–Nothing has gone down from a previous semester. All maths and sciences in those ranges are A’s except for that 1st semester physics I mentioned and a first semester B in AP
Bio…I choked on the final and ended up with an 89…)</p>
<p>I’m a white male and I fall in to the “not enough money to pay for college but not so little money that I can get great aid” category.</p>
<p>Thanks for reading or skimming this text.</p>
<p>Any advice and thoughts are appreciated. Ask me any questions at all.</p>