My son is applying ED to Northwestern. He earned a 32 on the September ACT. We signed him up for the October ACT just in case he did not get the results he wanted. His goal was a 33, so now he thinks he should take it again. With his course load and activities, he hasn’t had a lot of time to study.
My husband and I think he should just go with the 32 and be done.
The rest of his application is strong.
4.48 W GPA
3.82 UW GPA
Excellent references
Strong volunteer experience in his field of study
Good ECs throughout high school, with a demonstrated commitment to several activities throughout his time in high school
I am not posting this as a chance thread, more of a should we be happy with a 32 thread. If he improved to a 33, would it make much of a difference?
The 2015-16 Common Data Set for Northwestern indicated that 75% of Freshman had between a 30-36 ACT, with the middle 50% being a 32-33.
Would love any opinions.
Thanks
ETA: With the exception of AP World History (4), he has earned scores of 5 on his other 4 AP Exams (Government, Lang & Comp, Calc AB, and US History). Since they ask for the information on the Common App, I thought I would include the information here as well.
My son was in similar predicament last year with an ACT of 30 looking at Cornell and Brown. He basically didn’t care about retaking it saying that he didn’t study the first time and wouldn’t study for the retake. But he did study for the SATII test for the subject he was interested (his major) in and got high 700s. He felt this showed more about him. I agree with you and husband, if he is only hoping for 1 more point, I wouldn’t do it. Looking at the stats you provided from the school website, 1 more point won’t make or break. Has he taken the SATII tests? It might be another place he can shine.
@BUalum93 Thank you for sharing your experience. He hasn’t taken any SATII tests. I don’t know if there is enough time before the ED app deadline.
ETA: I just checked and the deadline for the November test is today.
ED app deadline, I doubt it. I think in our area it was last Sat. for the ED deadline. Have him take in Nov just in case - as a plan B. S2 is doing that for a second round of the SAT. He could only do one of the SATs for Oct to meet ED deadline and chose a subject test aligned with his major rather than the full SAT.
He will take the SAT again in Nov. just in case his ED doesn’t pan out and he needs to apply to all the others.
Do you know what percentage of ED applicants are accepted, deferred and denied? Basically do they defer many of them or just flat out say No at ED?
I couldn’t find any hard data. There is waitlist data in the CDS, but the numbers are not broken down by ED and RD.
I found some information that said maybe 1% are referred. However, I don’t know if the information is accurate.
At NU, ED acceptance rate is roughly 33%
In my post above, I meant to write “deferred” not “referred”.
@tigerman333 Thank you for the stat.
Has he taken SAT or ACT before? I can’t believe he took the first test as a senior…My question is how good is he in general? I am thinking more like a 34 if he can…