<p>True story: a good friend of mine and his good friend, let's call them friends A and B, respectively, both applied to Northwestern back in 2007 with the same ACT scores but friend B had a higher GPA. Both friends went to the same high school, but friend A got in and friend B didn't. Could it be because friend A is Hispanic, while friend B is Caucasian?</p>
<p>Even some undergrads I talked to at NU's campus said that NU strives to be as diverse as possible, so they're more likely to admit underrepresented minorities. Anyone know for sure?</p>
<p>Thank you arbiter, but I wasn’t sure if ->Northwestern <- integrated affirmative-action within their admissions process or if it just happens to be a coincidence.</p>
<p>Only if you think that NU makes admissions decisions solely on ACT scores and GPA - which they don’t. And NU has said many times that they don’t have quotas from a high school, so they didn’t look at these two candidates and say, “We only have room for one from this high school, so let’s pick A over B.” </p>
<p>NU, like any elite school, has an embarrassment of riches - so many qualified kids for so few spots. So they have the luxury of not having to focus on ACT/GPA (once they are assured the kid can do the work). You only know a very small piece of the app if you know ACT/GPA. You don’t know teacher recs, you don’t know everyone’s EC’s, you don’t know the content of their essays, either commonapp or “why NU” supplements. You are incorrect if you think that their decision process is to reach a decision, then learn what race someone is, and adjust accordingly (“he’s not qualified - but oh, he’s Hispanic, so therefore now he is”). It is holistic. Stop trying to find reasons, as if there was some magic number of points that needed to be scored to get admitted. There isn’t.</p>
<p>If NU feels that ethnic diversity is important, and that Hispanic students are an underrepresented minority, then Person A brings something to the school that Person B doesn’t.</p>