What did your extra curriculars look like? I have a 3.61UW (with a strong upward trend and a very good mid year report), but its encouraging to know that someone who was below their average test wise can in fact get in. My sat is the same as yours except distributed slightly differently
Hi. Could you please comment on Residential colleges vs. Residential halls? Are halls more party places and colleges more academically focused? Also, are conservatives socially accepted on campus?
Not necessarily. RC’s are living spaces that are centered around a specific topic or academic area. We have RC’s for theatre, humanities, commerce, and environment. Residence halls are just dorms. There are social residence colleges and there are antisocial dorms. It just depends. Ayers residential college is very social. Roger House, which is a residential hall is really quiet and tame. I am an independent, but I have conservative views. I have had academic discussions with different students on campus. We had Newt Gingrich and some Fox News contributors speak on campus. We also have a College Republicans group. Like most elite colleges, NU is primarily liberal but there are outlets for you to have real discussions. @DominicBayer
@SpacemanPiff I debated and became the captain of my debate team. I had a lot of writing ECs, I also worked during the school year. 7 years of volunteering as well.
@CaliCash. Thanks for your reply! Thanks for explaining more about the RC’s and halls. I’m glad that there are opportunities at Northwestern to engage in discussion despite differences.
Also, how many clubs and/or extra-curricular activities are a full load?
@DominicBayer What do you mean? You control your involvement in your activities.
@CaliCash. Sorry for my wording. I meant to ask how many activities or clubs you can participate in before being completely overwhelmed, getting bad grades, and/or having no sleep.
@Calicash thanks, I actually got in. This is the one time where I’ve felt that the application was analyzed holistically as opposed to them just tossing it because of my GPA and test scores
Spaceman what are your stats?
@DominicBayer My friend participates in a club sport, Greek life, and speech team, and that seems to be the max for her. It depends on what it is. She’s really involved in all. She actually travels around the country for speech and she makes it work.
@SpacemanPiff congrats!
@kimfuge88 I’ll put them in the results thread
I got waitlisted and NU is my #1!! :(( This year, so many universities hit the highest record number of applications and hit lowest admission rates (NU being one of them) and also NU filled up half the class of 2020 in ED (unfortunately I missed my chance because of a binding scholarship program that notified me that I didn’t get in A DAY AFTER ED WAS DUE UGH). How do you guys think these stats will change the likelihood of being admitted off the waiting list?
and what does it mean when NU says their waiting list is “not ranked”? This can put me in an advantage because I’ve seen people on CC posting up their stats and they have much better test scores than me, whereas I have better EC’s plus sibling legacy
@bongdali “not ranked” means that there isn’t someone next in line on the waiting list, they don’t have students assigned a number for who will be pulled off the waiting list first. Best of luck 
@CaliCash and any other northwestern student do any of you know anything about the Northwestern 7 year medical program for high school seniors? I am thinking about applying to that program. How hard is it to get in? I got a 34 on my ACT, and am 5th in my class and I am taking the SAT subject tests this October. I’m also URM.
Hi, prospective student here.
I know how incredible the pre-med program at NU is, but I wanted some info from some people that go here.
How rigorous are the pre-med req classes? Are they able to teach interesting, engaging material with assignments that really make you critically think, or is it just a pile of work?
What is the most difficult course sequence and why? (I’m sure everyone will say Orgo but I wanna know why)
How much freedom do you have outside your pre-med course load? Can you, say, major in CS while in a Musical and do a Farley Certificate? (The last one might be a stretch)
How easy is it to get hospital internships, research positions, and the like?
How did NU prep you for the MCAT?
On a side note, what is the MENU 290 sequence like? MENU 291?
Thanks!
@CaliCash
Congratulations on your acceptance!
NU is my#1 school and I’m so grateful for the thread!
How would you rate NU in terms of school pride? Is there an all pervading unity among the students? A real sense of community? Just an idea about the general school spirit and sorry for the vague ish question
Also, do the engineering students get time to actually utilise all that NU has to offer or do they have to forgo most things to study?
Thanks so much!
Go wildcats!
Littlebitanxious - Don’t be anxious! I have 2 kids that graduated from NU with engineering degrees. They both did Work Study, and both participated in Club Sports & IM sports while getting their degrees, so obviously there is more to NU than study! D flies to East coast every year to meet up with friends she met at Res College, and S met girlfriend as part of a study group at his Res College. Regarding school pride - they both still have “NU Family” window stickers on their cars. Good Luck to you!
@nugraddad
Thanks a lot!
I also hope to play IM wherever I go
Go wildcats!
School spirit tends to be way better when the football team is competitive. More students usually go to games then. Ryan field is usually empty until maybe the 2nd quarter. If you want the rah rah atmosphere. you’re better off going to Notre Dame or Stanford. Way better sense of school spirit there.