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friend interested in attending nw. very low gpa's fresh & soph year (1.9 & 2.4). however junior year perfect gpa (4.6 weighted). cumul gpa is unfortunately low and is only ranked in the top half of our class.

1570 SAT (800 Math 770 Verbal)
35 ACT
took Calc BC as a sophmore. very good at math and took multivariate calculus junior year and will be taking differential equations & linear alg. senior year.

4 AP's junior year and planning on 6 senior year.

nothing too much in the way of extracurriculars.
outstanding recommendations from math teachers and teachers he had junior year.

By Miluo (Miluo) on Saturday, August 14, 2004 - 02:54 am: Edit

What the hell happened between his sophomore and junior year?

By Kk19131 (Kk19131) on Saturday, August 14, 2004 - 03:01 am: Edit

I don’t know why, but I can’t believe a word of this....

By Buckwald (Buckwald) on Saturday, August 14, 2004 - 05:32 pm: Edit

its not a friend its hdotchar's resume. He relizes that someone might catch on to the fact that his parents relized he was gonna go nowhere so they paid the teachers at his schools off, including the college counceller who administers the SAT test and gave him an early copy. I think you will get into northwestern Hdotchar, and then drop out once u relize that most of these kids actually worked for their grades, and just destroy you. good luck to all you future applicants! Northwestern Wilcats baby!

By Hdotchar (Hdotchar) on Saturday, August 14, 2004 - 08:03 pm: Edit

this is hardly my resume. i am only posting this information to help him out a little bit because he doesn't own a computer. i think you buckwald are an overpresumptuous ass and posted on of the most stupidest comments i have ever read on any thread. paid off the counselors and SAT proctor? wtf.

from what he tells me he just didn't feel like doing any of the tedious work required in classes freshman and sophmore year. at least this is what he tells me. he did very well in his math classes freshman and sophmore year. i.e. in calc bc he took a practice ap exam given out by our teacher and scored nearly perfect on it. he took multivariate calculus largely as a self-study course through uiuc; i don't believe he's ever scored anything less than a 95 on anything in math.

i know its somewhat hard to swallow considering how low his gpa was fresh&soph year. but gpa really has less to do with how smart you are and more to do with how hard you work.

By Zcat18 (Zcat18) on Sunday, August 15, 2004 - 03:41 am: Edit

High scores and being "very good at math" alone aren't enough to get you into any selective college. Not to be harsh, but even with a perfect junior year, I'd say the chances are less than 5%, especially with no extracurriculars.

By Wildcat86 (Wildcat86) on Monday, August 16, 2004 - 12:07 pm: Edit

I'm a little confused about those bad GPAs. Even if you don't do homework, if you score well on tests, you should do better than Fs, which is what it looks like he got in every class if he got As in math.

By Jshifton (Jshifton) on Monday, August 16, 2004 - 06:17 pm: Edit

Have him apply to a bunch of schools similar to Northwestern, knowing he will get into maybe 1 or 2. Have him write the most tearful essay about his struggles, and maybe blame the grades on depression about weight or some pitiful excuse that a female admissions officer will fall for.

Hell, someone will take a 1570.

By Zcat18 (Zcat18) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 01:33 am: Edit

The only colleges that will take a 1570 based solely on the SAT score are mid- to low-level state schools. No school on Northwestern's level would accept somebody based solely on a high test score.

By Hdotchar (Hdotchar) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 12:47 pm: Edit

most of the classes freshman/sophmore year are more homework/project based. most of your grades would come from this type of work. he pretty much didn't do any of it. besides his junior year was pretty stellar.

its not that he doesn't have any extracurriculars, its more like he doesn't have anything that is too brilliant (at least from what i've seen in these forums.) then again i didn't have anything too brilliant when it came ot ec's and i still got into cornell. but that's beside the point. he's won some stuff like some calc based competitions. he's involved in like youth& government and model u.n. type stuff and bpa he qualified for nationals for computer programmming, but didn't go. i think he's a national merit semi-finalist, he'll never get finalist status because his overall grades suck. in addition he'll probably be the first one in his family to graduate h.s.. i dont know if this is going to help him or not. he's a pretty good essay writer and would defintely be able to get great recommendations. the only thing really hurting him is fresh&soph gpa. honestly those two years i dont even think he brought a backpack to school. there are some subjects where you have to at least look at your textbook to get a good grade on tests, it doesn't matter how smart you are.

By Licensedtokill (Licensedtokill) on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 11:42 pm: Edit

Looks like he's one of those smart-but-lazy types that suddenly snapped out the slacker mode , most teachers wouldn't fail a student if he showed some effort. A record like that would raise a lot of red flags, and he'd have a lot of explaining to do.

By Spunkymunky1 (Spunkymunky1) on Thursday, August 26, 2004 - 11:34 pm: Edit

Wow, I just read this and I'm totally amazed by this kid's story.

My honest opinion? I don't think the chances are good. I know some kids who had a similar route, but ended up at state universities (albeit they weren't as extreme). I don't think NU will accept him, but he should definitely try anyways if the turnaround continues. I want to see what ultimately happens with this guy.

By Midwesterner (Midwesterner) on Monday, August 30, 2004 - 01:10 pm: Edit

What is his financial situation? I can't see a lot of aid coming his way even if he does get accepted. He should look at schools he can afford; either state schools that would accept him on numbers alone, or at less selective private schools that may want to take a chance on him.

If he wants to try NU, maybe he should talk to someone involved in their MENU (Math honors) program and see what his chances are.