how are my chances at getting into stanford or northwestern?
i’m a junior in high school, 4.60 GPA (3.97 unweighted), class rank 2/1200 students, and I will take ACT/SAT this spring (i got a 218 on the psat and I made stupid mistakes in math so I can definitely do better).
I live in the Chicago suburbs and am a white female. I will be the first person on my mom’s side of the family to go to college.
I have been on the tennis team all three years so far (and play at a club outside of high school season), was captain of the badminton team freshman year, and am very involved with Student Council (Representative Freshman year, Publicity Committee Chair for the past two years, Turnabout Dance Committee Chair, Prom Fashion Show Committee Chair, and I’m going to run for exec board next year). I have been volunteering at the hospital every week since the summer after Freshman Year (and plan to do so until the end of senior year). I work for the park district as a tour guide in my town May-October, as Santa’s Helper in December, and a kid’s birthday part host year-round. I am also serve as a youth representative on my city’s Transportation Advisory Board.
Another one of my hobbies is designing and constructing jewelry, some of which I have sold.
Classes-
Freshman Year:
Honors Biology
Honors World History (studied on my own and took AP World History test and got a 4)
Honors English
Honors Alg II/Trig
3D Art & Ceramics
Spanish II
Sophomore Year:
AP European History (got a 5)
Honors Chemistry
Honors PreCalc
Honors English
Business Orientation
Jewelry
Spanish III
Junior Year:
AP English Language
AP US History
AP Environmental Science
AP Calc BC
AP Statistics
Honors Physics
next year i also plan on taking a whole mess of ap classes as well as Calc III through University of Illinois.
these two colleges are my top choices. any advice on how to improve my chances?
and sorry this is long.
Eh…your GPA could improve and you could take more AP classes and extra-curriculars…that Honors Physics may be ur downfall
Get teacher recommendations, and remember it’s quality over quantity, so make sure the faculty that is writing it for you knows you pretty well. Also have your application essay revised and edited so that it is an A paper, and make sure it’s interesting and unique–something that makes you stand out. Remember you can take the ACT more than once, so if you’re not happy the first time then take it again.
Don’t get too caught up in the numbers. Good grades and high standardized test scores aren’t all that matter when you’re applying to be a Stanford undergrad. Great recommendations are definitely a good start. Remember that you don’t just want to excel, you want to stand out. Show through your application (especially in your essay and in the short answer questions) that you’re interesting and, probably most importantly, passionate. Stanford takes pride in having students who care about something.
do well on your ACTs. SATs are not required for northwestern.
teacher recommendations
statement of purpose
don’t do the ordinary extraccuricular activities everyone engages in
The best way to find out info is to contact a student. You can find some contact information for Illinois universities here. Students always seem to know what’s going on better than outsiders since they spend so much time on campus.