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Hi! I am going to be a
junior at a highly competitive high school in New Jersey and am commencing my college search, and I
was wondering if you could help me decide if I should consider Northwestern. My unweighted gpa is a 3.7 and my
weighted gpa around a 4.0. I am taking all honors this year (4.5) except
for math, and am enrolled in the most demanding english and history program
(seminar) in the school (you have to apply for it, and we write 16 10+ page
papers a year). My senior year schedule is all AP courses (5.0), and by senior year (best case scenario) my weighted gpa would be a 4.44. My
highest SAT's so far are 790 verbal (I'm working to bring this up to an
800), 800 writing, and 690 math (I'm taking a class to bring this up). I am
student representative to the Board of Ed in my district, student
representative to the districtwide school improvement initiative committee,
member of the New Jersey All- State Chorus, first- chair soprano II in last
year's Region I Chorus, first- chair soprano II in Bergen County Chorus, in
my school's Vocal Jazz ensemble, Maroon and White (selective recital program
at my high school) performer, Walter Engel (recital) performer, attended
JHU- CTY for 3 consecutive summers, have played harp for 2 years, member of
the German Honor Society (selection for NHS is next year), peer tutor at my
high school, attended NSLC on International Diplomacy, and will be co-
President of Model UN and Model Congress next year. I also hope to apply
for NJ- Governor's School and/ or study abroad with AFS my senior year/
summer before my senior year. I love to read, write and discuss; I tend to
do better in seminar- style classes in which there is a great deal of
discussion and writing. I'm definitely more of a humanities person; I love
history and international studies, as well as the social sciences and
English/ foreign languages. I would major or minor in any of these topics,
as well as Arabic, Italian, Chinese, Music, journalism, and Asian or Middle
Eastern studies. I am very much a city person and would prefer a school in
or in close proximity to a city. I would like a more intellectual than
preprofessional atmosphere, and I tend to be shy, so I wouldn't want to go
to an overly large university; I am looking for a small- to mid- sized
college. I live in New Jersey but am comfortable going anywhere in the
country; a plane ride away from home wouldn't bother me at all. I want a strong focus on
undergrads; I don't want a big research university- type of experience. I am left- leaning politically. Do I stand a chance at Northwestern and would it be worth looking into?

By Nyclyzz (Nyclyzz) on Monday, September 06, 2004 - 08:04 pm: Edit

Please? Anyone? I need advice!

By Zcat18 (Zcat18) on Tuesday, September 07, 2004 - 07:11 am: Edit

You certainly have a shot at getting into NU if you maintain your current academic focus, but I'm not so sure that it is exactly what you're looking for in a university. It is a mid-sized research university with a left-leaning student body, but from what you describe, the feel may be a bit too "big research university" for you. Classes at NU aren't huge, but your average intro. class does have between 50-150 people in it. As you progress into your major, average class size drops to between 10-20, but you certainly notice the fact that you are studying at a major research institution, not a small college.

Do you even want to go to a research university or are you looking more for a small liberal arts college experience? That sounds like an important question for you and one you should ask yourself before you apply. Of course, there's nothing wrong with applying to an array of colleges and then deciding after your acceptances exactly what kind of institution you want to attend. Just be sure to give yourself the opportunity for as many choices as possible (meaning you should apply to schools with a wide range of sizes and selectivity levels so that you don't get stuck somewhere that doesn't fit your particular desires).