Chance me ED/RD please! =)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
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<p>Hey guys!
Name - Brian
Age - Upcoming Senior
Sex - Male
Ethnicity - Caucasian
$ Bracket - Don't want to say, but my mother is a middle school math teacher, so infer.
Intended Majors - Business (Economics or finance depending on school) and Theater</p>

<p>HARD STATS!
UW GPA - 4.0/4.0
W GPA - 4.55~/4.0 (will change after my latest year for the better)
Class Rank - 1/350
SAT - 2170 (760 M, 750 W (11 E), 660 CR) (Taking again for hopeful 2300+)
SAT Subject Tests - 770 M2, 770 BM, 660 Lit (not sending lit)
ACT - 33 C (30 E, 33 M, 32 R, 35 S) (Taking again for hopeful 35+)
AP - Biology [5], Language and Composition [5], United States History [5]
Schedule - Hardest possible, including 5 AP's my senior year (Calc AB, Gov and Pol, Physics, Lit, and Stats)</p>

<p>SOFT STATS?
EC's - (the big ones, leadership in brackets)
Dance (Dance captain) - 9.5 hours + a week!
Fencing (Captain) - 5 hours + a week!
Theater, various (Lead rolls) - depending on the season, but sometimes 12 hours + a week
Volunteering, various - ~150 hours total
Morning announcement program - 3 hours a week
Chorus - 7 hours a week including class, 2 hours outside
Band (bassoonist 1st chair) - 5 hours a week in class
ETC!</p>

<p>Honors/Awards/Etc -
National Honor Society (Secretary!)
National Merit Commended
AP Scholar
Honorable Mention in VFW essay competition
Award for excellence in Musical/One Acts/Etc.
Principal's List every quarter all of high school
Transition Project Leader (helps freshmen become used to high school all year)
Spotlight Student
All State Chorus
All South Jersey Chorus</p>

<p>Summers -
'10 - Cornell Summer College, 4.0/4.0 GPA
'11 - NJ Governor's School in the Sciences + I FINALLY CLEANED MY ROOM!</p>

<p>Rec's - I know who I'm going to get, one told me I'm the smartest student she's ever had D': Made me cry!
Essay - Began working on it, I'm liking how it's turning out, totally shows my personality</p>

<p>Strength's - Personality, GPA, EC's
Weaknesses - Scores, lack of big awards</p>

<p>Thanks for the chance!
In addition, how "good" is the school with financial aid? I'm worried doing ED because of the money reason, though NU is my clear first choice at the moment. My mother is a math teacher, as I said, so a 50,000 dollar college without aid is not exactly plausible.</p>

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<p>I’ll be pretty terse with this part: you stand a great chance of getting in. Your test scores, GPA, and ECs are well above average - you are a great applicant as a whole. </p>

<p>You say you want to major in economics, and I’m sure that even if you applied RD to Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the odds would be in your favor of getting in. But you are not applying to WCAS - you would be applying to the School of Communications as a Theater major. I don’t know if you are aware, but to major in Theater here, you have to be in the SoC - from Comm., you can major in anything granted by Weinberg. The opposite is not true. </p>

<p>Northwestern’s Theater department is quite literally one of the best in the country (you could probably make an arguable case for the best amongst undergraduate programs). They accept only 100 students comprised of 50 males and 50 females which you probably know since you say that NU is your first choice school at the moment. Northwestern doesn’t do auditions for Theater though so it can become a little murky. Frankly, for a specialty department like Theater, acceptance can be even more of a crap shoot than normal. ED only helps your case, but who’s to say you don’t get in RD? For NU’s Theater department, it’s a gamble either way. </p>

<p>I would say virtually nowhere else can you get as good an education in the amalgamation between Economics and Theater. It comes down to whether over the next couple months you still feel strongly that NU is the absolute school for you, and you would take it above all others. They’re usually pretty generous with financial aid, and if you’re gung-ho for it, then go for it! Like I said, you might get in if you applied RD or ED, but any top school like NU (and especially its Theater program) is never a given even for a seemingly wonderful applicant like yourself. If you and your mother deliberate long enough and decide that no matter how much you want the school, the cost might just be too great, apply RD. I’m pretty sure though that if you apply ED and are accepted, but you are given an aid package that does not fit your means, you are allowed to opt out of your so-called “binding” contract. I’d do some research on that topic. Yet, in the end it all comes down to chance, and you have to weigh yours. </p>

<p>Good luck, Brian.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much! You’re post was incredibly informative!
I’m very worried about the theater because I know how incredibly difficult it is to enter the program, give the 50 limit on the men. But, I’ve reached the point where I can’t imagine going to another school because Northwestern, as you mentioned, is so perfect for my double major, in addition to the fact that the 100 person slot is rather frightening. So, I really feel that the ED may be my absolute best option.
The one thing hadn’t know until rather recently was the fact that I could only apply to the school of communication. When I visited in may, the student I met with told me that I could apply to either school and still be able to major in theater, and rather the 100 person limit only applied to musical theater. So, that certainly changed my perspective when I found out recently that I had to apply to communications - and therefore fight the several thousand other people vying for those 100 spots.
As far as financial aid goes, I think I may be a good candidate for aid because my mother is a teacher. The funny thing, though, is how much my mom does not want me to go to Northwestern, as it is about a 13 hour drive from where I am at. But, she ultimately will be happy as long as I’m happy, so I’m sincerely hoping she accepts the fact that Northwestern is indeed my top choice, despite what she may wish otherwise.
But, once again, thank you so much for the comment! It was really informative, and gave me a lot to think about in addition :)</p>

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<p>Unless your EFC is $0 plan on having to secure loans to attend. Our EFC was under $3K (single income as I lost my job) and we were expected to provide close to $6,500 plus my son had a $3,500 loan component in addition to work study. Not the worst of the schools but not on par with the Ivies.</p>

<p>P.S. Just as an FYI, although their web site indicates you can get out of the ED agreement for financial reasons we were told by an admissions counselor that we should not apply ED if there was any chance of turning an acceptance because of that reason. We chose RD and it worked out better for us as could compare aid packages. If you apply ED and turn it down what guarantees do you have that the RD colleges you apply to will be any better?</p>

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<p>Staryulover,
My son will be a sophomore in the Theatre program in the fall. I’m sorry that you received incorrect information when you visited in May. Tinfoyl gives you correct information that you must apply to the School of Communication if you want to be a theatre major. The “100” number seems to apply to an upper limit accepted yearly. For example, my son says that there are ~33 guys in his year, and a total less than 100 theatre majors. Musical theatre is a much smaller group and extremely competitive. Applicants for the musical theatre program, which you can audition for after freshman or sophomore year, are drawn from both the theatre department as well as vocal performance majors from the Bienen School of Music.</p>

<p>Your grades are outstanding. It would be excellent if you could raise that CR score as NU doesn’t really pay attention to the writing score. You need to show a real devotion to theatre and it looks like you have that. Besides your academic teacher recommendations, could you get a supplemental rec from a theatre director?</p>

<p>If NU is truly your first choice, I think you should apply Early Decision. The one reason you can back out of an Early Decision agreement at any school is because of finances.
Good luck!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the information kdog! I’ve basically accepted the fact I will be in debt the rest of my life due to loans. I’m okay with a certain amount of loans, but I don’t want to be so bogged down I can never get out of them. I think 10,000 a year is rather extreme, but if I could get to where your son is at, actually, I’d feel okayish. I’m worried none the less, but I really have to sit down and have this conversation with my mother on what she wants from me as well.</p>

<p>Momof3sons, thanks so much! I really wish the student I had talked to in May had told me the correct information, because it certainly has changed my whole perspective of applying to NU! I am definitely working on getting my CR score up, hopefully to around a 750 by October, but we’ll have to see. I was actually planning on getting a supplemental from my dance teacher, who is by far the finest dancer I have ever seen (although that really isn’t important, I just like to brag about her because I love her so much!) She knows me so well from all of the theater I am in, but most importantly the dance company I’m in, so she can not only give a view of me as a dancer but me as an actor/performer. I really am thinking on applying ED, the more I find out about the theater program. This certainly is my dream, and it seems nearly everyone that graduates from theater, regardless of musical theater or not, leaves ready to take on the work force as an actor/actress.</p>