How to get into Medill School (Northwestern University)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
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Hello, guys!

My name is Augusta, I’m a junior student from a technical school here in Brazil. Since I remember, I’ve always wanted to be a Journalist, and NU has been my dream school for a long time. This year, I applied for Medill Cherubs and I got rejected because I didn’t have too much Journalism activities in my CV. Now, things are becoming different. I became the editor-in-chief of my school’s newspaper, the Communication Director of Student’s Body (since last year, actually), etc. After the rejection, I kinda lost my hope about becoming a Northwestern Wildcat someday. So, as an International Student, after a lot of researches I still don

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I had a problem writing my post, so here it goes (again - I’m sorry for that!):

Hello, guys!

My name is Augusta, I’m a junior student from a technical school here in Brazil. Since I remember, I’ve always wanted to be a Journalist, and NU has been my dream school for a long time. This year, I applied for Medill Cherubs and I got rejected because I didn’t have too much Journalism activities in my CV. Now, things are becoming different, and I’ve improved my EC activities. I became the editor-in-chief of my school’s newspaper, the Communication Director of Student Body (since last year, actually), etc. After the rejection, I kinda lost my hope about becoming a Northwestern Wildcat someday. So, as an International Student, after a lot of researches I still don’t know how to “calculate” my chances. Could you please help me?

High School Graduation: Dec/2016
GPA: 3.89/4

I haven’t taken SAT neither TOEFL yet. But I’m planning to take it in December. I took some Simulation tests and I got at least 2150/2400 in SAT and 108/120 in TOEFL.

I speak English, Portuguese (duh, mother tongue) and a bit of Spanish.

EC: Main-Secretary of the Student Body (2013 - Dec/2014);
Communication Director of the Student Body (Dec/2014 - now);
Editor-in-chief of school’s newspaper (Mar/2015 - now);
Volunteer at Human’s of Rio Grande project (based on Humans of NYC);
I have a personal blog, where I teach English to Brazilians (Jul/2010 - now);
Captain of my school’s volleyball team (2013 - now).

Nowadays I’m an Intern at the Federal Court, in the computer science area.

Prizes: 3 Bronze Medals at the Brazilian’s Mathematics Olympiad;
2 Gold Medals at Essays Contests;
6 Volleyball Medals;
1 Gold Medal at my city’s Mathematics Olympiad (1st in general).

I also participated this July of the Advanced School of Mechatronics Engineer, that happened in USP (it’s located in São Paulo, Brazil, and it’s considered the best university in Latin America by TopUniversities.com).

So, what do you guys think? What are my chances? What should I do to improve even more my CV? And I’ve been doing a lot of researches about schools who offer Journalism Major’s, and I have NYU, Northeastern University and Northern Colorado University in my list, but do you have more Journalism schools to indicate me?

P.S.: I’m so sorry if I committed any English mistakes. I’ve been doing my best to improve it.

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Bom Dia Augusta! Your English is better than some native speakers BTW - so don’t apologize!
Don’t worry about Cherubs - I had 2 kids get into NU without Cherubs. However, NU is not known for giving a lot of money to Internationals, so that might be a concern. I know that I would not want to pay 100% tuition, room and board - but if your family finances are such that you can - excellent!

FYI - Other US schools known for Journalism - University of Missouri (aka Mizzou), and Syracuse University in New York State. Mizzou would be the “safety school” and considered easier to get into than NU or Syracuse.

Boa Sorte!

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Thank you so much, sir! (Aka, “muito obrigada!”)

I know the financial aid is the biggest problem (after the chances to get in, of course), but if I were accepted, I could look for some scholarships here in Brazil (it’s almost impossible for a Brazilian to have enough money, but there are such great programs, that help a lot of people). How just a few people go study abroad, when they do, people are very helpful - and I’m so thankful for that.

By the way, I’m gonna look for those schools you told me! Thank you for helping!

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UP!