Tell me how you got your kid into Northwestern
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Anonymous
yes, very likely the wl was legacy courtesy. My kid was Deferred ED this year (single legacy), and denied RD. college counselor definitely thinks it was just a courtesy for legacy. Apparently NU does this. Then again, I've also heard NU only defers 1-2% of ED (not 60-70% like many of the ivies or other Elite schools), so we still held out a tiny bit of hope, with a great list of backups. |
Anonymous
| Every private school kid I know this year who who got in is African American (I'm thinking of at least a dozen kids across 6-8 schools) |
Anonymous
| Interested in this thread as we have one spiky DC with a couple other ECs and DC would be a full pay legacy. But not counting on it even with ED. It is just too competitive these days. The sad thing is DC is significantly more impressive than I was when I was admitted. |
Anonymous
White kid from Sidwell front and center on the sidwell 2022 insta page. First private school page I checked after reading your post. You may know some AA kids admitted but you don’t know the whole universe or even a fraction of it to be useful. Pls don’t make such unhelpful blanket posts. |
Anonymous
I have one similar but got in after wl post ED. Single legacy also. Mine would have been fine at another school but in the end going to NU. Test optional. |
Anonymous
Yes, it's like UChicago. They accept a very, very high percentage via ED. |
Anonymous
+1. According to the school newspaper of the FCPS high school my DC attends, four seniors are heading to Northwestern, none of whom is AA or a recruited athlete. |
Anonymous
Hooked. |
Anonymous
Absolutely. ED acceptance is around 25%, which is very doable. Little to no chance at getting in RD, especially if white and/or unhooked. |
Anonymous
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My white kid got jn RD. 3.9 UW, 4.86 W GPA from public magnet STEM program applying for theatre. Theatre at NU is highly competitive, but she also has pro experience and a regional acting award. Also, national speaking awards, state music, regional composing and science. 1560 SAT. Did not expect to get in. Did not visit due to distance/covid but contacted AO with award updates and write very specific essays.
Another friend got in from same STEM program with less diverse achievements but probably more awards/ECs overall for music dual degree. Also RD Another friend got rejected ED, not from magnet. Great all around student with some good awards but not as many or as diverse as the two above. I know a few other non magnet kids did get in but not sure if they were ED or RD. I think the key is to look as special as possible (variety of accolades/activities and contact to update) and make them feel as special as possible (serious essay detail). I would agree w/ applying ED if you can. I think they take 1/2 the class ED. Good luck. |
Anonymous
| Apply to less popular major/program |
Anonymous
I went to Northwestern for grad school. I had a work-study job in admissions, and I learned it was unusually easy to get in to my program my year, because they bought new equipment, and they needed student cash to pay for the equipment. One moral: Especially if you’re a respectable applicant who’s full-pay, always apply to your dream schools, because, sometimes, the school might really need your money, even if it seems as if it wouldn’t care about your money. Other thoughts: - Northwestern seemed to me to be the kind of school that’s aimed at good corporate game players. I normally answer questions like these by saying something like, “Kids shouldn’t twist themselves into pretzels to please admissions officers,” but I think the core Northwestern undergrad is like a young version of a sane, functional character from “Madmen.” Middle or upper class high school juniors who are right for Northwestern, and who don’t have amazing hooks, should already have College Confidential accounts and should be active on a wide range of college admissions forums. They should probably be able to give you the user names of three admissions professionals who are active on social media sites. They should have understood the importance of creating a spiky collection of ECs when they were freshmen. If they’re too sincere and dreamy to have been that strategic when they were freshmen, they’re not really a great fit for Northwestern. Maybe they’ll get in anyway and win the lottery, but maybe they’re a better fit for Wash. U., Emory or the University of Rochester. - Understand that the Northwestern admissions people might have a very hard-headed, Chicago-centric approach to life. Even if they’re poets, they’re the beer drinking barfight poets, not wine-drinking Yale poets. Much more likely, they’re sober, lemonade-drinking siblings of CEOs with very sensibly diversified portfolios. A kid applying to Northwestern should have excruciatingly sensible, down-to-earth essays. Dreamy students can F off and apply to Oberlin. - I think that one strategy might be for an applicant to look at academic programs and student organizations at Northwestern, and try to figure out what programs and organizations might have practical itches the applicant can scratch. Students should essentially be figuring out how to present themselves as students who can contribute to and benefit from specific programs at the philosophy department, the sociology department or some other out-of-fashion department, and they should be presenting themselves as potentially great, eager managers of specific service organizations or other important, non-glamorous, non-overrun student organizations. Not as editors of the Daily Northwestern, but as would-be marketers for much smaller, hungrier student groups. - Students should avoid saying they want to major in a major that attracts a lot of idiotic lemmings, like computer science, at a very selective school, unless they have truly spectacular achievements in that area. It’s hard for a polite person to convey how lacking in commonsense it is for normal great students to apply as preprofessional lemmings right now. This is a great year as to go in as a women’s studies major and somehow double major in economics. It’s not a good year for an 18-year-old who’s not already working for Google to apply to Northwestern as a CS major. Full-pay would-be premeds should already be working for pay in a hospital or clinic, and they should be doing some program this summer that should lead to them probably getting a low-level paper published in a mediocre journal. If they’re truly full-pay, and they didn’t find a program like that on their own and just have you pay for it, they’re absolutely not smart enough to get good grades in Northwestern premed classes. - Still another strategy for kids who like Northwestern is to look at other Big 10 schools, and at the top research universities in Big 10 school states, and to create a list of schools that are like Northwestern but less trendy. Possibilities could include Case Western, Indiana University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Iowa, and Chicago schools like DePaul and Loyola. Even high school students with very high stats should view applications to schools like these as the main course and possibly getting into Northwestern as a surprise gift dessert from the chef. |
Anonymous
But ED includes recruited athletes, legacies, quest bridge, etc. So while higher than the RD rate, it’s really nowhere close to 25% for a white unhooked kid. |
Anonymous
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My DD got in Early Decision. She took a class over the summer there at NU. I think that helped. She interviewed with an alumni locally (Denver). She was over the moon when she was accepted.
That said, she is pre-med and has a 3.2 average heading into her SR year. I doubt she will be able to bring her average up enough (3.5ish) to be easily accepted into medical school. Just something to consider. |
Anonymous
| what the hell is spiky? |