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Indian rising senior in a small competitive private high school in Alabama. Probably applying as an Engineering major, but Math/Physics is also a possibility.

SAT:
800M
770V

SAT2
Chemistry:800
Physics 800
Math 2C: 800
Writing: Projected 770-800(80 on PSAT with ~1 hr of prep)
APs(8 total, taking Calc BC, English Lit, Physics C, and Euro next year):
Chemistry:5
Physics B:5
US History: 4
US Govt: 4

GPA: 3.63 UW, top 25%
ECs:
Captain science bowl, 2nd place in state last year
Science olympiad 7, 8, 10-12 7 regional 2 state medals in middle school, 5 regional medals in high school
Scholars' Bowl 7-12, probably captain senior year
Math team 7-12 (I have only gone to about 4-5 tournaments in high school because of lack of interest in the school, have 7 top 10 finishes, 6 from middle school), Vice president Mu Alpha Theta
Winner of various in school math contests
AMC: 103.5 (lots of dumb mistakes that day)
AIME: 4
Habitat for Humanity roughly 150 hours, President
Duke TIP 3 years
Play about 7-8 hours of tennis every week, will play varsity next year

By Zcat18 (Zcat18) on Sunday, September 05, 2004 - 12:28 am: Edit

Your scores and schedule strength are obviously excellent. Your ECs seem a bit on the weak (or, more accurately, the common) side, and much of your academic extracurricular achievement seems to be from middle school. Still, for ED, I wouldn't worry too much about that as long as you package yourself well and write excellent essays to back up your achievements.

The big red flag with you seems to be your grades. I see that you took a very rigorous schedule, but somebody who has near-perfect scores across the board yet can't even finish in the top 20% of his or her high school class will raise some serious question marks with the adcom. From what I've observed (and I stress that I am in no way part of the admission committee, nor do I know exactly what they look for on a given day or in a given year), the admission staff seeks consistancy as well as excellence. Somebody with, for example, a 1600 SAT I and 5 800 SAT IIs shouldn't have a GPA of 3.5 or lower. This suggests motivation issues, and motivation is a huge factor in university academics.

You have two challenges awaiting you if you really want to gain admission to NU or any other highly selective school. The first is to convince the admission committee that you have the motivation, the desire, and the love of learning to succeed in a very rigorous academic environment. It's one thing to sit for a test and do well as a result of your basic knowledge and ability to adapt to certain academic processes. It's quite another to surivive a quarter or semester of college in which you really have to sit down, work, and truly perform in order to get the results you want. Writing a 15- or 20-page paper on the political environment of early modern Europe is a far cry from answering multiple-choice questions on an ETS scantron, and if you want to be an engineer, I think you'll find that Engineering Analysis 1 (the first in a sequence of three EA classes for freshmen) will be far more challenging, taxing, and time consuming than even your most frustrating high school course. You have to be prepared to work, and you have to convince the admission committee that you are not only ready to give 500% to your studies, but also that you want that challenge above all else--that you will welcome the late nights, the endless problem sets, and the rewards that, you hope, will spring from that effort.

Your second task is a slightly easier, though hardly less important. You have to force them to take a second look at you. This is true no matter where you apply. A student may be the most common of 18-year-olds, but if he/she knows how to package and market himself effectively and creatively, he or she will always open opportunities to succeed. You have to do this in the form of killer essays as well as an attractive and creative presentation (don't rule out visual aids, copies of newspaper or magazine articles in which you appeared, copies of awards and medals, etc.).

The rest is up to you. I can't accurately predict your chances, because in the end, who knows what they're really looking for? I will say that you'll have stronger shot ED than you would RD. High scores tend to count for a bit more in the ED round (or at least, they seem to), and a slight lack in interesting ECs doesn't tend to hurt as much as it would RD. My guess is that you'd have some trouble in the RD round due to your GPA, your lack of standout ECs, and the descrepancy between your test scores and your grades, though I wouldn't call you a long-shot, either. ED, your chances would be decent, though you're by no means a shoe-in.

Do what you can to make yourself as attractive a candidate as possible and to convince them that NU (or whatever school you happen to be applying to) is where you belong for the next 4 years. Good luck!