<p>“Not willing to switch to AP Lit because I SUCK at English. I am still in shock after getting a 3 on the AP Lang exam while only completing 2/3 essays. The AP Lit teachers are very challenging and not worth my time since I am not majoring in anything relating to English.”</p>
<p>This is the point of AP, to challenge yourself. To say that you aren’t going to take it because it’s actually a challenging environment and b/c you aren’t phenomenal at it is not a good start. I am a chem/biology double major and maybe half of my AP courses in high school were social science, history, and English. I never said “oh my god, I might make a 3” or “oh my god, they are so challenging”. All of them were challenging. That’s the reason I took them. They were generally more stimulating than comparable honors courses and demanded more (and I never took my prospective major into account, that’s just silly). I got over it and just worked hard. Also, you assume NU doesn’t have gen. ed requirements like a writing course, in which case another stab at the AP (getting a 4 may exempt you) or more experience can really help. Also, AP government is awesome. I recommend the course (it was rigorous, but good. I took both comparative and US)</p>
<p>My senior year, I also worked like 25 hours during the school week and almost 50hours/week once you throw in the long shifts I took on weekends. This is when I had 6 APs and a hellish honors and engineering/design course. I did it despite any risks of getting a 3 (of my 6, I received 1 3, and I’m okay w/it) on the stupid exam (by the way, hardly no university takes this into account, they want to see that you took these courses and challenged yourself, stepped out of your comfort zone. They don’t expect everyone to get 5s on everything. Those are for placement purposes. They may really only look at SAT IIs for competency). That person “got” in. That was the past. Given that schools like NU are getting more competitive each year, I would not measure chance of admission against someone who got in previously, especially if they had a low caliber schedule. Do what you need to do, even if it involves taking a risk. Northwestern, like other elites, is rigorous. Being afraid of rigor/being outside of comfort zone won’t make you a great match, especially if you are going into the sciences/engineering. I promise, even for a person good at science/math, challenges will be unavoidable. </p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t know your chances. I just no that dodging rigor certainly can’t help. You’ll need other compensating factors, and even those may not be enough as top 20 admissions is so sketchy now-a-days.</p>