Where did you 2019 D end up?
I agree. It’s an absolutely great school. Put any of this on their forum and they will deny it or combat it. I thought after my son’s experience he would love it there. He didn’t even apply plus it’s too close to home for him. But not even applying was telling to me. But we do know people there that love the school. But they are that type of kids that would also. I really think “fit” is super important to places like NW, WashU and the like.
From what you’ve said about your daughter so far, NU doesn’t sound like her. Has your thinking changed due to Covid and maybe wanting her closer to home?
@Lindagaf Not really. The things I like about NU for D? Good mix of academics and school spirit. And I love that the journalism, music, and theater school make mixing with the student body such a full experience. When we were there, I had friends who were so so talented and it was really fun to read their stuff and go to their performances. I met so many interesting and bright students. She’s been going to football games forever and loves that.
When we were there, the school it used to be I guess, would have fit her perfectly. I guess it’s just not like that anymore. My H keeps pushing against that because our experience would be awesome for her. And I still wonder, if she wasn’t STEM or Econ trying to compete with the kids who get those types of jobs, would she still like it? If she had more direction, could it work? I think undecided isn’t a great way to start there. If she did her homework and really loved Medill or the Communications School that have a more set class structure, would she like it?
Lots of schools are stressful. Sometimes, the stress is mostly in certain majors. I think the stress is over-arching there but I’m not 100% sure.
@Mwfan1921 regarding your post #1397.
I disagree with the portrayal of several of the schools discussed recently in this thread.
Northwestern University is full of brilliant, hard-working, ambitious students. The retention rate is about 98%. If a student is looking for easy, then NU is not the right school.
Comments about lack of advising & financial problems are overstated to say the least. Northwestern’s endowment is among the top 10 in the country.
But, when discussing schools such as Denison & University of Dayton & LMU, then I agree that Northwestern should not be considered.
@Mwfan1921 one need do no more than examine the list of overlap schools for Northwestern (Yale, Stanford, Michigan, UPenn, Princeton, WashUStL, and Duke) to understand the quality of student, expectations, and focused energy. With a 98% retention rate, it is reasonable to assume that lots of students & families are pleased with Northwestern.
@publisher We won’t always agree, and of course, there are some brilliant people at NU.
But I stand by the other things I said, I know dozens of students there currently, or recent grads, and have been on campus frequently over the last several years, although I am more involved with Kellogg, where I am an alum.
I expect @homerdog’s feedback is also accurate and based on significant personal experience, not to mention the handful of other people who have chimed in to report similar findings.
@Publisher you always have these opinions but do you KNOW Northwestern? I’m an alum. As is my husband. And my BIL. And about 30 other friends of ours who we still see all of the time. I know probably a dozen kids there. You comment using USNWR data, not personal experience with the school.
Yes, I KNOW Northwestern quite well. And your assumptions are incorrect.
How?
Disclaimer: I’m an incoming First-Year at Brown, so I’m obviously biased, but I would highly recommend Brown because it’s perfect for students like me who have a deep interest in one field but also have other passions that they don’t want to sacrifice by going to a school with a more rigid curriculum.
As noted in your post, Brown would be extremely expensive for your family, so I cannot comment on how much of an advantage going to Brown vs. a school that’s a bit lower ranked w/merit scholarships would be. But if you’re able to afford it (for other applicants reading this, Brown has an extremely strong financial aid program,) Brown’s an amazing place given the level of flexibility that the Open Curriculum offers. When college is extremely expensive, it’s nice to know that every course you’re taking (or most, except for intro classes etc.) is one that you chose–not a course you’re forced to take due to general ed requirements etc.
Also, given your daughter’s interest in Philosophy and Politics, the Open Curriculum makes it much easier than other schools to double concentrate given the virtual lack of requirements, and Brown has undergraduate concentrations in both fields (https://bulletin.brown.edu/the-college/concentrations/ ) Students do create their own concentrations as well through the Independent Concentration program, and some examples are listed here: https://www.brown.edu/academics/college/advising/curricular-resource-center/independent-concentrations/current-independent-concentrators/current-independent-concentrators
Hope that helps! Good luck with the admissions process!
NU is a great school…but one cannot discount the stress factor. My D’s friend graduated third in her class and as I mentioned, she had to take a semester off. She was a history major.
Two things can be equally true. I’m sure there are many families that are pleased with Northwestern. And I’m sure homerdog’s and Mwfan1921’s thoughts on NU are true as well.
Disclaimer: I applied to Northwestern RD and was rejected, however, I know students who are going there.
During my Northwestern Alumni Interview, my interviewer (a physician,) flat out asked me what I like to do for fun, and said it’s important to have hobbies because Northwestern was stressful at times while my interviewer was there. Location-wise, Northwestern’s great, it has a gorgeous campus + the Deering library, and the academics are top-notch. However, the viewpoint that Northwestern is difficult is likely because unlike other similar ranked schools, it doesn’t have inflation, but rather a lack thereof, which can be difficult for students, especially coming from high schools where grade inflation ran rampant.
As I noted in my previous post, I’m biased because I’m going to Brown which has no +/- grades, but if a prospective student’s worried about grades, it’s would probably be more beneficial to apply to a school that is more undergraduate-friendly in terms of coursework/grading policies. However, the data shows that Northwestern is exceedingly successful at getting students into graduate school, so as long as you’re willing to work hard (which is true for college in-general,) the school will get you were you want to go.
TL; DR: Northwestern, and colleges like it, will all get you where you need to go if you work hard. For a student applying to college, the question more depends on the degree of difficulty/freedom you want from your prospective college in terms of academics and the time available to devote to other activities.
Just my two cents. 
Update:
D took two SAT tests last week. One at her school since Illinois reinstated its mandate that high school seniors need to take the SAT to graduate. The other she took this last Saturday. And she has a seat for this next Saturday as well. She didn’t go back and spend any time re-studying. The plan was to take a few practice tests and see how they go. She took one test about ten days before her first sitting and it went even better than usual and she left it at that. She’s not great at guessing how she did when she takes these tests for real scores but thought the first test had harder reading and last Sat’s test had a harder non-calc math section. We are pretty comfortable with going test optional at this point but, since I booked these seats months ago and the tests are happening, it seemed silly not to take them. She will have all three sets of scores by Oct 16th and then we need to decide if she submits scores at all or to which schools.
She dropped Tulane from the list after an incoherent info session for students in our region of the country. The AO couldn’t get the audio to work for ten minutes and then he was boring and seemingly reading off of a marketing piece. Then he handed it over to a professor who was sitting in her backyard and also couldn’t get audio to work and D spent another ten minutes with them saying things like “can you all hear me?” and “I wish I had figured this out earlier”. Just not a good look. She has a long enough list and Tulane was just starting to feel like they were unorganized yet also grubbing for as many ED candidates as they could get. We know two students who logged into their interviews with Tulane only to not have the AO show up or had an AO who was less than polite or helpful. There are plenty of schools out there and D just wasn’t feeling Tulane anymore.
She has only one more essay to write (one for Santa Clara) and then we just wait for scores and start sending apps.
Last week, we were considering flying down and seeing some schools because I’m getting a sinking feeling that admitted student days are going to be virtual. After a few days of figuring out an itinerary and calling the schools to find out if they are letting students on campus, we again bagged the idea. Only one school had tours and the rest were self-tours only. None of the tours allow prospective students to be inside buildings of course. I just cannot see her making a final decision without walking around campuses but we are back to just waiting until decisions come out. I’m particularly concerned about the CA schools since LMU and SCU don’t have their students on campus now and, if that’s the case in the spring, I don’t know if I can see us flying all the way out there to walk around a dead campus or her being able to fess out fit.
Just like it did when S19 was done with his list, it feels weird to look at her list and know she will be at one of these schools next year. Final list: SCU, LMU, Denver, Denison, Davidson, Wake, Richmond, Colgate, BC, Vanderbilt and Bates. Yes, Bates is an outlier but it’s close to S19 and we know what we get from NESCAC schools and feel good about the academics and support. Dance is a better program there than at Bowdoin and we really liked the kids we “met” when doing virtual events.
ps. Northwestern not on the list.
“We met” cough, cough, lol… You mean she met… Lol…
Looks like a nice list. Walking around my block a families kid goes to Colgate as I noticed a bumper sticker on their car and asked “how does she like the school” the mother said she loves the school… So there you go… Lol. Actually same with Santa Clara. A graduate was wearing her sweatshirt and she was with her parents so I asked about the school since a friend’s daughter is looking. She loves the school and the kids going their. Said everyone was friendly and willing to help each other. She just graduated in something business but had lots of friends in engineering… Nice to hear.
My friends daughter also took the Sat required by the state. She already has a Act 34 and 1520 Sat from Junior year. She was going to not send this in but take it then cancel it since cps just says you have to sit for the test. But without any studying for 5 months she said she felt really good about it so she is going to keep it and deal with it later. It was interesting to me that she felt this good just going on extremely relaxed.
Sure is crazy that you will be writing checks to one of those schools… Lol.
@Knowsstuff I really do mean "we’. We both watch these virtual events. Sometimes together and sometimes on our separate laptops in different parts of the house and text each other commentary as we watch. She wants me to watch. She has her own opinions, of course, but wants to know what I think as well.
If I recall correctly, your D had a pretty good ACT before she switched to the SAT. I would think you would submit that to LMU, SCU, Denison. Of course if her SAT correlates to a higher score, than use that.
@wisteria100 her ACT superscore is just below the 75th percentile for LMU and SCU and Denison. I expect her SAT should be above the 75th percentile and if it is we will send that. Fingers crossed.
Nothing of value to say today except that I was excited to see an update here this afternoon. Congrats to your D on having a final list!
Aw thanks @CTCape!