Some big schools such as Utexas admit students by the major so that you are competing against people in your major while schools like Harvard admit everyone as a whole, regardless of major. How does Northwestern do it?
Other than Bienen, it doesn’t matter what major/what school you apply to. They admit everybody as a whole just like Harvard.
That is not true. You either get into the college you applied for, or you do not get in at all. If you apply to McCormick for Engineering and you don’t get in, you do not get into the school.
Actually, it’s nuanced. Tech and CAS are definitely all within one pool. So yes, if you don’t get in to McCormick, you can’t get in to NU, but if you didn’t get in to McCormick, you wouldn’t have gotten in to Weinberg either and vice versa. That may not be true for the other schools. Definitely not true for Music, which definitely has its own pool. Medill, Communications, and SESP may as well. And a few special majors (but not most) also have their own special selection procedures. Specifically, I know that MMSS, ISP, and Theatre do (though you can get in to NU but not MMSS or ISP, but that is rare).
@PurpleTitan So if im applying for computer science, im gonna be in the admissions as a whole then right?
Yes. It won’t matter whether you choose Tech or CAS.
Someone mentioned music. If you apply to NU and are interested in music, can the music department select the students they want? Can a prof identify a student for admissions?
Yes. You have to audition to get into the music majors.
Agree most admissions decisions are independent of major (including CS) although individual schools still have general acceptance limits. Competition within a given school varies year to year, overall little difference in competitiveness from one to other. Majors in Music and Theater are probably biggest exceptions, tightly regulated acceptances, auditions as mentioned.
Hi. Current Northwestern student.
Here are the nuances.
Decisions to be accepted are independent by major, but specific by school.
You have to apply for certain programs. The reason why I include this is because most of these programs are majors. For instance, Mathematical Methods in Social Sciences MMSS you have to apply for in the same timeframe as your application to Northwestern.
You can be accepted to a school at Northwestern without being accepted to MMSS, in which case you will enter (same as everyone else) as a undecided major, which you will have to declare at end of sophomore year or something. But for the majority of majors, you do not apply for them, nor does it really matter outside of a “what are you interested in” perspective.