Sorry it took long to respond. A couple of clarifying points: my dad believes schools use an algorithm to accept different students based on geography, so not all the top applicants are admitted to the same place. We know TX has no advantage. I choose the three schools because of their combination of rigorous academics, social lives, and sports. UT is my safety school. I am an unhooked full pay. My parents are sounding much harsher than in actuality, they just want me to get the best education I can and since my scores are average, ED will help a lot.
Thanks for all the feedback!
If you’re really not into these schools, apply to the one you are least likely to get into.
Imo, your Dad is more wrong than right on the amount of bump ED brings at those schools, the algorithm & that you are lazy 
but - Sonia the person who suggested applying to the one you are least likely to get into: it’s a bad approach to like and could backfire badly. Visit Vandy, review the 3 options & ask yourself which- if any! - would be most likely to be a happy place for you.
If sports is important, NU doesn’t cut it. While they play in a great division, the school spirit around sports is lackluster. The running joke in Evanston is the football team plays all their games “away” because generally the opposing team’s fans out number the NU fans. It was a sea of OSU fans here last night.
That’s so harsh momofsenior! I actually think school spirit is fine at Northwestern, but yes, especially at football games there can be many more fans from the opposing teams…NU has about 8K undergrads, OSU 55K…kind of crazy to be in the same conference with such a size difference, yet in some sports in some years NU is actually competitive.
@Mwfan1921 agreed that it makes no sense that NU plays against OSU, Iowa, Nebraska, etc…
They had a decent run last year in football but attendance still wasn’t good.
I find the students here to be more passionate about the arts. They come out in droves to support their friends in master classes and recitals. That’s where you hear the cheering. I love that!
Very Helpful, I love all sports and want school spirit!
Northwestern students definitely support their basketball team. Football, lacrosse, wrestling & soccer receive attention & experience success. No track & field team.
Information provided by you:
You live in TX, love sports schools with good social life, size doesn’t matter, UT auto-admit, high income family, parents willing to pay for T20 advantages/prestige, unhooked, bad SAT scores but good grades/rank, not too keen on harsh winters, strong ECs and essays, school counselors suck, intended major IR, intended track pre-Law.
Information needed:
What’s your race? What are your PSAT, AP and SAT subject test scores? Do you have good LORs?
For comparison, Stanford has about 7,000 undergrads and finished #1 in the Director’s Cup standings. #1 in the Pac 12. NU finished 45th, but not last in the B1G. MSU and Rutgers were at the bottom.
School spirit will depend a lot on winning. I’m sure the year NU went to the B1G title game (2018), NU school spirit was high. And I remember an NU alumnus paid for lots of buses to send NU students to that B1G title game.
If you don’t get in Duke as ED, take a bus to Rice and visit again for RD, they admit lots of Texans so your odds are fair there, don’t reject whole school based on couple of “rude tour registration ladies“.
Yeah, that whole situation surprises me. I am a bit biased (I have student there) but we did LOTS of tours at lots of schools and never experienced anything but friendliness from staff and students. But, I know it’s easy for one person to impact your feelings about a school, especially when you’re having a hard time making decisions and looking to differentiate schools. We had a bad tours at both Vandy and NW. Vandy was my daughter’s top choice prior to the tour and had we left right after I’m not sure if she would have applied. But we spent a lot of time walking around campus and around the area after the tour and she started feeling more positive about it again.
Did you say somewhere you don’t like harsh winters? Have you ever been on the Chicago lakefront in winter? Yikes!
“The running joke in Evanston is the football team plays all their games “away” because generally the opposing team’s fans out number the NU fans.”
This is true for all of N, V and D football. They are all mid-sized elite privates in Power 5 conferences whose other members are big state schools. The only other schools with that combo in the USA are ND, Stanford and perhaps USC.
Chicago/NU is the favorite road trip for fans of other B10 schools. Nashville/VU is the favorite road trip for fans of other SEC schools. Duke football is decidedly meh in the ACC.
But all three have a lot of fun around sports – football gamedays are lots of fun regardless of whether you go to the game or the team wins. My Vandy kid rarely attends a football game, but never misses a tailgate. And there’s plenty of other sports the kids get into – hoops, baseball, lax, etc. Lots of kids wearing spirit gear on all three campuses.
Too bad you couldn’t get to Nashville this weekend, as Vandy had a great upset win against Missouri. My freshman son is very happy so far at Vanderbilt. He was accepted RD as an unhooked applicant and has been surprised that almost all of his friends (fairly large group) applied ED.
“For comparison, Stanford has about 7,000 undergrads and finished #1 in the Director’s Cup standings. #1 in the Pac 12. NU finished 45th, but not last in the B1G. MSU and Rutgers were at the bottom.”
That’s a little misleading, Stanford finished first, as it usually does on sports that don’t really have many people watching it - water polo, tennis, rowing, golf, track & field, lacrosse, softball, baseball, among others.
“But all three have a lot of fun around sports – football gamedays are lots of fun regardless of whether you go to the game or the team wins.”
Exactly, well said.
“If sports is important, NU doesn’t cut it.”
Sports is not that important as the OP’s ED choices are Vandy, Duke, NU, so it looks like academics, rigorous course load, may be more important. Why not apply to OSU or Alabama then? The OP said he wanted to work hard, play hard in a good social environment. The work hard part is missing in a lot rah rah schools.
Not misleading at all. Actually a lot of those sports, including soccer, water polo, baseball, softball, volleyball, track & field, tennis, etc. are extremely well attended at Stanford by locals including me. I’ve taken my kids to almost all those sports plus gymnastics since they were very little as do many parents here locally. Why? Stanford is quite successful across lot of sports. And a winning sports program brings out fans.
But Stanford is off topic.
[quote=“PrdMomto1, post:53, topic:2069791”]
I dont know if I like them as I am a native Californian moved to Texas
White, no PSAT recognition, 1490 SAT, 800 US History, 710 Math II. Stats are not great. LOR (US History and Calculus teacher, have had both two years and am very close with them) and Common App essay( nice metaphor, good points) are very good. Writing will have to set me apart.
I can see why Northwestern and Vandy could be appealing (Duke isn’t on the list, so we’ve never visited). My S20 has visited both and they are both pretty neck and neck on his “list.” Even though for his major, Northwestern seems to have a little bit better ranking than Vandy, they’re still neck and neck just because of the great feel he got for the Vandy campus and atmosphere. I’m not sure if this has been mentioned, but Vandy also has ED II. You could apply at Northwestern EDI if this is something you feel strongly about doing and have your Vandy app in as RD. You can see what happens and if you don’t get into Northwestern, you can email your Vandy admissions counselor right away and switch it to ED II to have that option before 1/1. Of course, the weather is quite different between the 2. I know my son could hack the winters at NU, so that isn’t as big of a concern for him.