Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 17:37     Subject: Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
I would be decently optimistic about some admits in RD but I do think it pays to start to get really excited about the options she has on the table.

Good luck!
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 16:45     Subject: Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
To OP: don't stress and enjoy these last months with your DC. I know, easier said than done, and I should take my own advice. Your DC has worked so hard and her application is strong and compelling. Let us know how everything turns out!
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 15:48     Subject: Re:Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why do multiple responders say this is definitely not a Northwestern admit? What's so different about this kid and what Northwestern wants


NU likes kids who go DEEP on something outside of academics. Really deep. It's an academically diverse campus (Medill, Bienen, SESP, Comm) outside the two big ones and has a HUGE arts and music scene. Kids with "talent" are extremely valued - more so than at other schools in its league.

Kids who have multiple strong (even unrelated) spikes are seen as desirable, versus a preprofessional or overfocused on one area. Northwestern looks for applicants with a specific interest/a particular reason for attending Northwestern and NU alone (some of the essay questions get at it). A good NU essay focuses on your unrelated interests and how only NU can satisfy it - the "and" - similar to Yale.
Also, the quarter system is unique and facilitates this with multiple majors and minors and dozens of certificates.

In terms of who/what NU likes:

HS newspaper editors, particularly from the summer program.
national accolades in niche sports.
Published writers
YoungArts winners and other arts awards
Actors/musical talent



From my kid's high school, NU likes:

The editor-in-chief of the newspaper who did the summer program and applied ED.
High stats LGBTQ+ Asian male who applied ED.
Legacy kid with mid-stats, mid-EC's x 3.
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 13:32     Subject: Re:Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
Anonymous wrote:Why do multiple responders say this is definitely not a Northwestern admit? What's so different about this kid and what Northwestern wants


NU likes kids who go DEEP on something outside of academics. Really deep. It's an academically diverse campus (Medill, Bienen, SESP, Comm) outside the two big ones and has a HUGE arts and music scene. Kids with "talent" are extremely valued - more so than at other schools in its league.

Kids who have multiple strong (even unrelated) spikes are seen as desirable, versus a preprofessional or overfocused on one area. Northwestern looks for applicants with a specific interest/a particular reason for attending Northwestern and NU alone (some of the essay questions get at it). A good NU essay focuses on your unrelated interests and how only NU can satisfy it - the "and" - similar to Yale.
Also, the quarter system is unique and facilitates this with multiple majors and minors and dozens of certificates.

In terms of who/what NU likes:

HS newspaper editors, particularly from the summer program.
national accolades in niche sports.
Published writers
YoungArts winners and other arts awards
Actors/musical talent

Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 13:13     Subject: Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
I would say solid chances everywhere (well, with the exception for MIT) if their essays are interesting.
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 13:10     Subject: Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
OP- are you applying for financial aid, or is DD full pay?
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 13:02     Subject: Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
Anonymous wrote:DD got into the honors program (with merit) at UMass and honors program at UMD. Deferred MI, deferred MIT (this is why there's no ED). Do the honors program acceptances indicate top tier schools in March? I realize you're not fortune tellers but I was hoping if you've seen honors acceptances EA you might have seen what happens next. Major is STEM. Great and relevant ecs. 1590 SAT. 4.0 unweighted and no ranking in the school. This wait is hard. CMU, Northwestern, Hopkins and a variety of ivies plus the deferrals are what we're waiting on.


In state for MD or OOS?
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 13:01     Subject: Re:Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why do multiple responders say this is definitely not a Northwestern admit? What's so different about this kid and what Northwestern wants


I don’t understand this either. Would love more of an explanation and details there.


Dig into the ethos of northwestern. Its pretty clear.
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 12:59     Subject: Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Parent pf HS and college kids who also happens to be an academic here, and I'm just gonna say that it's only 1 in a million HS kid who is capable of contributing in any meaningful way to faculty research/publishing. Admissions knows this and understand that it's either rigged by parent connections or by pay-to-play. But they like to tout ridiculous stats about their entering class so they may reward kids who have this BS on their applications. Or they may not.

Parents encourage your exceptional kids to do exceptional things on their own. Don't fall for this BS, especially if it costs you money.


Fellow STEM researcher and agree with you. I did get hired as a lab tech as a high schooler back in the 90s, but nobody told me to apply for this because this would look good on college apps. I was just really eager to be in a lab. It was a valuable and rewarding experience but definitely not something that made me a better scientist in the grand scheme of things. It seems like many more kids get involved in "research" now as admissions counselors and parents encourage this. And don't get me started on "publications." It's harder to sense whether all this activity is an honest signal of unusual early interest anymore. This a problem with the current admissions frenzy, I guess. Whenever unusual activities do signal genuine interest, the word gets out and they lose their meaning.

Anyone who has done true academic research would find the combination “research” and high school” cringeworthy!
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 12:20     Subject: Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
Anonymous wrote:DD got into the honors program (with merit) at UMass and honors program at UMD. Deferred MI, deferred MIT (this is why there's no ED). Do the honors program acceptances indicate top tier schools in March? I realize you're not fortune tellers but I was hoping if you've seen honors acceptances EA you might have seen what happens next. Major is STEM. Great and relevant ecs. 1590 SAT. 4.0 unweighted and no ranking in the school. This wait is hard. CMU, Northwestern, Hopkins and a variety of ivies plus the deferrals are what we're waiting on.


I would expect honors program admissions at schools that are not super selective so it's not really predictive of top admissions. With her stats, she should be in the mix (ie in the qualified group) for top schools. Beyond that, we can't predict. We don't know her ECs, leadership, recs, essays, institutional priorities, etc.

Look at the Naviance data from your kid's school.
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 12:18     Subject: Re:Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
Anonymous wrote:Why do multiple responders say this is definitely not a Northwestern admit? What's so different about this kid and what Northwestern wants


I don’t understand this either. Would love more of an explanation and details there.
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 12:17     Subject: Re:Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
Anonymous wrote:I wonder why she was deferred by UMich?


May have been an auto deferral because UMich haven’t had to time to get to it by the EA notification date.

Remember, they had a crazy number of ED apps to deal with first, including many they initially deferred in December and then admitted two weeks later (after Xmas break) - before notifying the EA applicants of their status.

No clue exactly what went down there, but it’s possible they just needed more time to get through the ED apps, which then delayed review of the EA apps. (BTW, DC has two friends who were deferred in December and accepted in early January. Thrilled but weird.)
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 12:09     Subject: Re:Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
Why do multiple responders say this is definitely not a Northwestern admit? What's so different about this kid and what Northwestern wants
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 09:09     Subject: Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
Hopefully she spent a lot of time on those Cornell essays.
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 08:11     Subject: Experienced Moms: Help With A Prediction For College Results For RD?
She could easily get shut out of top20s or get into several. For every kid like this on here, on Reddit or who I know in real life who got into one, there is a kid like this who didn't get into any. these schools all have a 2-3% admit in RD.