Impossible to get into..but an amazing school with incredible teaching, beautiful lake side and safe campus/ 25 min from downtown Chicago, incredible STEM/humanities programs. Student body is much more intense with double/triple majors but it’s a dream school for most.

The Fiske Guide To Colleges shows that those who apply to Northwestern University most commonly apply to these schools as well:

Duke, Stanford, U Penn, Yale, U Michigan, Princeton, WashUStL, & Harvard. Of course, if admitted to Princeton, Harvard, or Stanford, the student will almost always pick one of these schools over Northwestern--but that is true for any school as well other than MIT and Yale.

College Transitions views Northwestern's overlap schools as:

Cornell, Duke, U Chicago, U Michigan, & U Penn.

While the Fiske Guide list is the actual overlap list of schools, College Transitions' list of "overlaps" is more realistic in the sense that a student accepted to all might likely select Northwestern as he/she would any school on this list (except if admitted to Penn's Wharton School of Business).

I really wouldn’t bother unless you are URM or something. We just went through this process. Not worth it. Northwestern isn’t worth it. Only people I have noted getting in are URM

Anonymous wrote:UPenn, Duke, Columbia, Yale, UChicago > Northwestern = Cornell, Johns Hopkins > Vanderbilt

(UPenn, Columbia, Yale) > UChicago > (Duke, Northwestern, Cornell) > (Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt)

The only people we saw get into Northwestern this year from our competitive suburban high school was URM

I grew up next door to Northwestern. It was the dream school for many suburban kids, but all we ever heard is "impossible to get into from Chicago suburbs". I'm now fascinated to see the same comments about DMV kids. I always though Northwestern was a big east coast draw.

UPenn, Duke, Columbia, Yale, UChicago > Northwestern = Cornell, Johns Hopkins > Vanderbilt

Anonymous wrote:It’s overhyped and overshadowed by U Chicago

Not if you want to do engineering, UChicago doesn't have engineering whereas Northwestern's engineering is strong and definitely in the same realm as UPenn, Duke, Columbia and probably better than Yale

It’s overhyped and overshadowed by U Chicago

Northwestern is not easy to get into. Sorry!

*exist

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what to make of it, DS likes it but also likes a number of other schools more. He's considering EDing for "strategic purposes" since it seems a bit easier to get into than some of his higher choices. Is Northwestern more akin to schools like UPenn, Duke, Columbia, and Yale, or more akin schools like Cornell, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, and UChicago?

Northwestern = Duke

For undergrad Penn, Duke, Columbia, Yale > Northwestern

Maybe but in my experience Northwestern is just as difficult to get into from the DMV as these other schools are,

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what to make of it, DS likes it but also likes a number of other schools more. He's considering EDing for "strategic purposes" since it seems a bit easier to get into than some of his higher choices. Is Northwestern more akin to schools like UPenn, Duke, Columbia, and Yale, or more akin schools like Cornell, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, and UChicago?

Really cringey trying to parse whatever minuscule differences exit amongst these schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what to make of it, DS likes it but also likes a number of other schools more. He's considering EDing for "strategic purposes" since it seems a bit easier to get into than some of his higher choices. Is Northwestern more akin to schools like UPenn, Duke, Columbia, and Yale, or more akin schools like Cornell, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, and UChicago?

Northwestern = Duke

For undergrad Penn, Duke, Columbia, Yale > Northwestern

Admission for those two groups are the same.
In our top private in LA, almost equal amount of kids were accepted at all of those schools. 0-3 kids per college.
Really no difference in chances of getting in.
Very silly to make those distinctions.