<p>I had always heard and thought that Medill and some of the other smaller undergrad programs are harder to get into than wcas, but at a recent information session, the guy said this is a myth???! what do you guys think?</p>
<p>also how hard is it to switch majors and programs or take classes from a variety of areas? like i like public relation, communications, journalism, public health which are relaated but cover a wide range of majors and schools.</p>
<p>It is true that Medill and Engineering are very difficult in admissions for prsopective freshmen. However, it's easier to do an interschool transfer once you're at Northwestern, as long as you matriculate to another school within the university before the end of the freshman year.</p>
<p>from everyone ive heard from, its much harder to be accepted into medill than WCAS.
What i heard was contrary to tenisghs... but who knows, hes a current student, im not, but I talked to a medill student when i was visiting NU who had tried to transfer from WCAS into medill during his first year, but was declined, even tho he had good grades, because there wasnt enough room in medill he had to re-apply next year, than re-apply the year after that, and was finally accepted. Medill only accepts intercollege transfers when spaces open up because somebody leaves. Its much more common for people to want to transfer into medill than transfer out, so as you can see, transferring into medill is not easy, so if you plan to go into journalism, dont think your a genius for applying to the easy school, than transferring.. its actually much easier to just apply into medill as a frosh.
im not sure if it works out the same for engineering.</p>
<p>how about if you apply undecided....</p>
<p>you can't apply undecided... when you apply, you have to at least choose a college. You can apply to the College of Arts and Sciences but not declare a major within the college, or Apply to Medill school of Journalism and not choose a major within the school, but you have to choose a college to apply to. Admissions standards are slightly different between colleges, but not between majors.</p>
<p>TheCity is exactly right. Some interschool transfers are expected (I think my tour guide said they accepted like 30 people to SESP and ended up with a freshman class of over 100), but because Medill is so competitive, it is harder to get into and also difficult to transfer into.</p>
<p>So what about if I want to major in engineering and minor in directing at the school of communications? What school would I apply to then? </p>
<p>(I know diecting is kind of random but I always thought that it sounded fun:))</p>
<p>There is no "directing" minor, only theater or film specifically. Thats one big reason I decided not to go to NU.</p>
<p>I was admitted into Medill, and I've heard all of this talk about it being harder to get into than WCAS, but I'm not sure if that's completely accurate. From what I understand, Medill admissions puts more emphasis on English/Language/Social Science grades and test scores, as well as extracurriculars at the Northwestern essays than WCAS, which takes a more holistic approach to admittance? Perhaps I'm wrong, but this is what I've been told.</p>
<p>I mean, I don't think it's fair to call WCAS "the easy school," because it's not. There are less admits to Medill, but there are also fewer applicants.</p>
<p>WCAS is not easy at all.. it just accepts a higher percentage of applicants. Your methodology is flawed.. when people compare competetiveness, theyre talking about the percentage admitted. Medill admits a smaller percentage of applicants. </p>
<p>I wouldnt suspect the average gpa to be much higher (perhaps one or two hundredths of a percent).. but you can kiss any chance at medill goodbye if you havent been heavily involved in leadership of your high school journalism.. and high school editors-in-chief are, generally speaking, the top students in a high school.. so that may be where the reputation comes from. </p>
<p>Its hard to tell i know, because NU doesnt break down the admissions figures per school. When i went to Preview NU, i sat at a table with 3 WCAS students and their admits, just by chance. We got to talking about why i chose NU, and i mentioned medill... they were all like "wow, your in medill, thats amazing"... as if i must be smarter than their kids for getting into the "hard" school.
Of course you cant really tell teh difference just by talking to some one... but at least its the perception people have.</p>
<p>just curious, do you think it is easier for students not in the midwest to get accepted. I have a feeling like Rice, Northwestern admits students out of the midwest at a higher admit rate, b/c the yield is lower for kids not in the midwest (in Cali, NY, mid atlantic, SE, etc). If you look at NW's incoming profile, about 800-900 students out of the 1900-2000 come from the midwest states. Just a thought b/c out of 10 students from my school in Cali that applied, 9 were accepted, but we were all qualified for admission.</p>
<p>whereas, a school like Stanford, in Cali, out of those 10 students, only 2 kids were accepted.</p>
<p>yes, all schools try to get more students from underrepresented regions. Northwestern is not so popular on the west coast, and if the school wants it to become more well known (as well as more diverse), it will do more to attract a large number of out-of-state students. </p>
<p>Something like 40% of NU students come from the midwest... I think its about the same percentage for Stanford with Californians. </p>
<p>This is true for all colleges. I remember when the admissions rep from Boston College came to visit my high school, she asked me about my stats and stuff, and before i answered, she said "well, your from california, so you already have one big thing going for you. its important that we get students from out here.</p>
<p>Actually Northwestern's reputation on the West Coast is pretty good among Medill and Engineering alumni. It's the South where NU is recruiting heavily because not many people know about the school.</p>