The Office of Undergraduate Admission will notify applicants for the Class of 2015 of their decision this evening. Financial aid awards will follow in approximately one week.</p>
<p>We received 30,975 applications for freshmen admission, up 12% from last year and up 22% from two years ago. We admitted a total of 5,573 students, or a record low 18% of the applicant pool. Last year, we admitted 23% of the applicants, and two years ago 27% of the applicants.</p>
<p>Despite the lower number of accepted students, we admitted our highest number of African American and Hispanic applicants in at least twenty-five years as well as a record number of Chicago Public School applicants.</p>
<p>Our goal, as it every year, is to enroll a class that is academically first-rate and from a variety of backgrounds. We hope their experiences, perspectives and talents will make Northwestern a more dynamic, interesting place year after year. Selecting the candidates for admission was particularly challenging this year when you consider the following:</p>
<p>Almost half of our applicants earned the equivalent of a 4.0 or higher grade point average.</p>
<p>Of our applicants reporting class rank, 71% were in the top decile.</p>
<p>Half of our applicants earned a 1420 (CR+M) or higher on the SAT (the equivalent of a 32 ACT).</p>
<p>We admitted 1,300 fewer applicants this year than two years ago.</p>
<p>We will all hear from upset students, parents and alumni about a deny or waitlist decision. Some points I like to stress every year:</p>
<p>The review process is a holistic one and each application submitted is evaluated by multiple members of the admission staff. I assure you we didn’t miss anything.</p>
<p>We do not have quotas of any kind for high schools, states or regions. We review each applicant within the context of the entire applicant pool, not just their high school or state. With 6,390 high schools represented, it would be impossible for us to admit one candidate from each school.</p>
<p>Given the highly selective character of our applicant pool, it is not possible for us to offer admission to all of the applicants who present strong credentials, especially when one considers all of our institutional priorities. Over 3,300 applicants with a 1500 SAT (CR+M) or higher (the equivalent of a 34 ACT) were not offered admission.</p>
<p>We denied more applicants this year than the total number of applicants we received two years ago.</p>
<p>The acceptance rate for applicants who had a parent graduate from Northwestern was 37%, double our overall acceptance rate.</p>
<p>At this point in time, it is impossible to predict if we will need to admit students from the waitlist. Once the national reporting deadline of May 1 has passed, we will have a better idea as to whether or not we will need the waitlist to round out the Class of 2015.</p>
<p>Many thanks to all of you for helping us recruit, evaluate and admit what we anticipate will be a terrific freshmen class for Northwestern. We could not have done this without the support of the faculty, staff, alumni, and students. Of course, our work is not done - we must now convince the admitted students to enroll. Wildcats Days, our admitted student programs, will be held April 11, 18 and 25. In the meantime, we have already begun to recruit for the Class of 2016!