<p>If anyone has any questions or anything they'd like to run by me in this stressful application season, please let me know. I'd like to help, as I know how stressful the admissions process is.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for opening up for questions. I’ve submitted my application, but I have to admit that I’m in the stats flurry - what were yours like when you applied? I really don’t have the best stats - a 2080 SAT, and only a 1310 M+CR. My GPA is good, and my SATs are good, but still…Northwestern seems quite stats-driven. My ECs are good, too.
What is your experience, and do you have friends you know of, who got into NU despite bad stats. What was their “hook”?</p>
<p>Great question. My stats weren’t hot but they weren’t abysmal, and I certainly don’t think yours prohibit you from admission. In my experience, unlike what you said, I’ve found Northwestern to not be stats driven. I know a number of students who had poor stats, and I know a number who I can’t imagine to have had good stats. I believe that Northwestern, more than most schools, looks to create a unique and complete college community. In that sense, I think you need to make yourself interesting more than anything else. Paint a picture of who you are that fits well into the Northwestern community, well enough that admissions officers would say “I know what this person will do when they come here, it will be good, and because we know what they’re spot will be here, we’re going to give it to them.” More often than not, the hook is simply something unique that showed lots of commitment and initiative, such as starting a magazine or creating a club, etc. Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any more questions.</p>
<p>How is NU’s financial aid for students with EFC of around 1k? i don’t believe my parents have any assets, no house, business, etc.
combined salary less than 50k?</p>
<p>I’ve heard that NU’s financial aid is excellent. I know a number of students whose parents have a combined salary of under 50k. I currently do not have financial aid, but from what I have seen I have never heard of money being prohibitive for anyone wanting to attend. </p>
<p>In short, I believe you will be fine, but if you are worried you could always email whoever is in charge of financial aid. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.</p>
<p>thanks for the quick response.</p>
<p>@collincampbell, thank you so much for helping a bunch of panicking high schoolers</p>
<p>Glad to help.</p>
<p>Ok I know this is probably one of those questions nobody can truly answer but I just need to know. I’m a hispanic female from FL with an 1880 SAT and a 3.3 UW/5.2 W GPA currently in the IB program. Honestly speaking, do I have at least a decent shot of getting in? Again, sorry for such a bad question cause I know there’s so much more to this admissions thing than just stats but I’m curious to know if you’ve heard of anyone get in with similar stats. Thank you:)</p>
<p>Also… this might seem like a random question but what are you currently studying at NU?</p>
<p>Your stats are relatively low but they aren’t cripplingly so. There are plenty of people interesting enough who get in to NU with low scores - I really do mean plenty when I say plenty - so don’t stress. Although they do put you at a disadvantage, you are still a candidate that doesn’t simply get thrown out.</p>
<p>I’m currently an Economics major.</p>
<p>Thanks for the quick reply. I’m also a POSSE Scholarship finalist and NU happens to be a partner school for POSSE. Do you think this might help my chances? POSSE says that it does but I really don’t know if that’s true or not.</p>
<p>I’m applying as an economics major. What do you like about the program so far? What makes it different from other economics programs you might have looked at?</p>
<p>Not sure if you know, but just thought I’d ask: NU’s website says everything has to be there by the 1st of January, but my high school is closed until the 7th so I can’t get my transcript there on time. If I submit the common app and recommendations and ACT scores by the 1st, will they still accept it, and then just wait on the transcript?</p>
<p>@mgm0909: That won’t hurt your application, in fact, it will help. It won’t make your application, however. A number of different scholarship programs and academic achievement recognition programs exist, so while it will help your chances, I don’t believe it to be unique. However, I could be wrong as I’m not very familiar with POSSE itself.</p>
<p>@impressionistic: I’ve actually been a little upset with the major so far. I’ve found some of the professors in the program to be minimally accessible—they are accessible when you reach out but they aren’t horribly thrilled or committed to you. Further, I’m very frustrated with the classes. It seems that in our economics lecture for macro we only learned qualitative information, while in our TA sessions we would spend the first half of the discussion learning quantitative skills and then we would be tested on exactly what we just learned the second half of class. My experience isn’t typical, however; I do know a number of people thrilled with the program. One of the things I do like about it is the variety of things you can complement your economics major with: MMSS major, LOC major, Financial Economics cert, Managerial Analytics cert, and so on. That does make it unique if that’s what you’re looking for, though there are some other schools that offer strict finance majors (WashU) or other ones, just not as many as NU. Further, I’m upset that NU doesn’t have an economics club. I am currently starting one this year so maybe we’ll run in to each other next year if you decide to join.</p>
<p>@bookwurm007: I think you should be alright. I think the best course of action would be to email your regional admissions officer and try to explain your situation and have your school send it in as soon as possible. I’m not positive, however, so let that be known that this may or may not work; I don’t want to falsely make you think one thing if it ends up being untrue.</p>
<p>@colincampbell I’ve heard people say that as undergrads at NU, they feel sort of lost and ignored. What’s your experience? And how large are your classes?</p>
<p>Thanks! I appreciate you replying.</p>
<p>At Northwestern, would an international student (non-US citizen) attending a US high school be evaluated against his American classmates, or against all other international students, or against students from his country?</p>
<p>@colincampbell, I’m also applying as an Economics Major and was wondering if the classes were hard?</p>