it’s really an unpredictable process for everyone. i used to think it would get better and it kinda did but not to some huge level. i made some changes i think would help somehow, but nothing fascinating has come of it yet.
I can’t say whether you apply or not but I would advice you to get better and find or develop some spike and outstanding points in your application. and if you possibly can, take some standardized tests and excell in them
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What you said about you son is true for so many of the thousands and thousands of qualified applicants to NU. As with my qualified daughter who was deferred from ED and ultimately didn’t make the cut, it just wasn’t meant to be. Good luck to him in the future.
If you are wait listed, when we can expect to hear back from them about acceptance/rejection?
I was accepted for Psychology
ACT: 34 (one sitting, the only one I was able to take)
GPA: 99.08 UW, 103.52 W
Classes: all honors classes throughout all of HS except for 8 APs
ECs: pretty mediocre, I’ll list them if anyone wants to know
I just want to remind everyone that this year specifically has been absolutely insane for admissions. Schools have had more applications than ever and have also had spots filled by students that deferred from last year. It has been especially hard for students to get admitted to top schools.
(for example: my school has connections with Notre Dame. Usually about 6 students apply and 2 are accepted. This year 10 students applied and not a single one was accepted. I personally know all the students that applied and about half of them were very well qualified for ND and probably would’ve gotten in during a normal year)
Please remember that this is in no way, shape, or a form a reflection on your accomplishments or your worth if you did not make it in. I know it hurts, but it does not take away from how talented or amazing you all are!! < 3
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hey all! is anyone else who was accepted into northwestern NOT able to view their fin aid? The acceptance letter said I’d be able to see it after making my ID and logging on to caesar, but when I click “view fin aid” I see “inquiry access denied.” I submitted all my fin aid documents on time as well, and my fin aid checklist is complete. do i just have to wait a few more days? thanks!
You are so right but what about those whose applications were sent for the second time? I have received the same rejections last year too, and this year, i altered some details on my app hoping to get accepted somewhere. I’m 22 and am truly done having everything held against me for the second round 
I think a lot of kids are in similar situations and covid has just really turned the whole process upside down. Schools some of these kids would’ve gotten in during normal times now are much harder and applications are way up everywhere so getting a waitlist spot this year is not necessarily a bad thing although it is just more frustration especially if it is your top choice.
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yes, and my friend that also got accepted has the same issue too
Honestly, it could be you’re targeting the wrong schools. Changing just a few details on your application isn’t going to make much of a difference if you were already rejected from the same schools last year. You would need to show something substantially different like a big increase in a test score, substantial outside activities, honors, and awards, etc. Usually though they say if you were rejected from a school, you shouldn’t even try to transfer to that school, so this is probably the same thing. If you were rejected from a school, it’s probably not a good thing to re-apply to the same school the following year since you can’t really improve on your coursework or grades so probably time to look elsewhere and see if you’re reaching too high perhaps.
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Tons of private schools including some of those that regular send kids to the Ivies no longer offer APS and there are top public schools that massively inflate GPAs and the colleges are aware of both. So yes that GPA is possibly and congrats to this great student! But admissions compares your GPA to others at your own school and not necessarily to the entire applicant pool.
I am going to strenuously disagree with you. This is big, cutthroat business for these schools. They are absolutely yield protecting. Tulane is a great example. A few years back they were way lower on the list of competitive schools. It was actually fairly easy to get in and somewhat less respected than, say, Emory. Tulane essentially did two things. They made applications free and they put a laser focus on demonstrated interest. Hence, a flood of applicants and only those who showed they were committed to attend were accepted. This was all about yield. And behold, Tulane is now super competitive and a high reach for most. They can charge $70k just like the big dogs. That is the effect of a high yield. No one at the T10 level is going to let their yield - and by extension their US News ranking - slip. WPI, where my daughter currently attends, is right now following this playbook.
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Great example!! I would also add that with Tulane they also love kids who apply ED even if they don’t have the same stats as most others and will often accept lower stats kids only at that time, so if you’re serious and really want to attend Tulane, that is your one chance to apply, however, the catch is if you need $ then you can’t really apply ED and they know it, so they get full pay people to apply ED and kids that more or less have no chance at getting in during any other cycle of theirs will get in. This happens with kids from our high school every cycle. A whole bunch got in this year ED and then for EA a bunch that had great stats, were deferred. Crazy really but makes sense.
Another bizarre example there I have a kid at an Ivy League who has a friend that didn’t even get into Tulane! Total yield protection…or just messed up because Tulane is not at all comparable to the Ivies. Northwestern on the other hand is and a lot of the kids at that Ivy were waitlisted from NU. Some ultimately did get off the waitlist and some didn’t. That’s another example of NU and their yield protection because these kids are high quality candidates and can go to the Ivies. The problem is NU can’t just off the bat accept every top student. They need to mix it up just as all schools do.
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Exactly. My current senior daughter had the exact same decision re Tulane ED. No way were we going to commit to full pay, which we likely would be. So she is taking her chances RD. But happily she is already in at the big 3 Canadians and as dual citizen she gets in-country tuition. This year is just a mess for US students!
What Tulane has done is pretty well known and I’m not gonna disagree with you there. I will say tho there is a big jump from NU to Tulane and WPI. One thing is that NU does consider demonstrated interest more than most of the other T10s. I think that’s probably where we’re getting hung up on if it’s yield protection or not. I personally don’t think considering demonstrated interest would be considered yield protection. I would only considering it yield protection if they are accepting less qualified applicants in favor of more qualified ones. I personally don’t think NU considers anyone over qualified for their university. I believe that demonstrated interest factor may come into play to make the call for a lot of borderline applicants, but I certainly don’t believe anyone would be considered overqualified for a T10 school and get waitlisted because of it.
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I think we need to align on what yield protection means. Simply, I believe it is keeping your acceptance rate as close to a 1:1 ratio with your admit offer rate as possible. I believe these schools do whatever they need to do to make that happen. Up to and including admitting people with slightly lesser stats who are full pay with a strong LOCI for example. Emphasis on slightly because there is no chance NU is admitting anyone who is not qualified to be there.
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You keep using the word “overqualified”. That’s really not what either Rominn or I are talking about. It’s not that people are overqualified and they didn’t take them. It’s that they are protecting yield by not taking a lot of high stats candidates and putting them on the waitlist so that they can see if these candidates take spots at an Ivy or elsewhere. It’s a guessing game for them obviously because they may have picked candidate A when it’s B that would have been the one who would have converted to Northwestern. A lot of them are probably equal candidates and a lot of them are not.
Like other schools they also do not rank their list and will have something like buckets for their waitlists so that they keep their class balanced. It’s as simple as that. For instance, if the class size goal is 10,000 (making that number up) they certainly don’t want 10000 type A personalitities. So if 10 spots open up for a Type A they will then take 10 Type A off the waitlist. If they’re looking to balance it by diversity they may take the next 10 diverse candidates as opposed to non diverse candidates.
Someone else commented earlier how a school usually takes a certain number of candidates from their hs. I can’t remember if it was NU or not. I don’t think so. Our hs feeds into NU and they didn’t accept anyone this round but they waitlisted a lot. All of my son’s friends that applied were waitlisted. That doesn’t usually happen. Usually it’s an accept or reject in RD. Not waitlist. These are all high stats kids in a top high school in IL, Northwestern is well familiar with it, highest rigor of courses, etc. but they need to leave room to take 1 or more of these kids later because they also know historically where kids from our school go and kids with those stats often go to the Ivies from our school. So, it’s just a waiting game. Northwestern isn’t my son’s first choice but if he doesn’t get into his first choice, he has some great updates to include and he may decide to push for them over another school he is accepted to even though the other school has the better program for what he wants, he just isn’t sure he wants a school of that size. He also doesn’t think he wants to go to school only 20 mins from our house at NU. But they definitely were conservative. You don’t want to call it yield protection, fine, but it’s the closest thing to it. Schools are starting to let kids in off their waitlists so the next few weeks will be very telling.
Haha we said basically the same thing with the qualification since @FakeCardealer68 is fixated on the “overqualified” issue when neither of us have ever said that.
Were you admitted, waitlisted or rejected to NU? It doesn’t look like you even acknowledged anywhere what your notification was, or did you not even apply there?
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Got rejected gonna rope inferior scum I am no point harvard Stanford Columbia duke penn are impossible now I got deferred from Wharton but northwestern rejecfed me I got into 16 schools already + uchicago but it’s okay maybe when I rope I’ll feel better. being a black fgli who couldn’t get into northwestern really shows me I’m inferior
I’m not great with CC but I’m gonna @Rominn so he hopefully gets this notification as well. I applied to NU, and was rejected. I simply believe that claiming you were yield protected from a T10 school like NU is just coping. I do think we probably are differing on our definitions of yield protection. Every school has to manage their yield, that’s something we are all gonna agree on. Harvard need only accept 120% ish of their incoming class size, because they have such a high yield. Mid-range state schools probably have 30% ish yield, so they need to accept 3x of their freshman class size. This app cycle is probably the most bizarre ever and schools can’t predict yield well and being test optional, have to focus on more qualitative and subjective factors (ie. ECs to an extent, essays, and demonstrated interest) . Everything said above is what we likely 100% agree on.
I believe we are differing on what is yield protection, and what is simply managing yield. I associate yield protection with schools like Tulane or possibly Northeastern that are trying to boost their rankings. NU is a T10 school, they are not attempting to game their ranking. I would expect that schools will be pulling more from their waitlists as COVID and everything surrounding it is making it difficult to predict yield. I think you also bring up a good point that NU doesn’t want all Type A students, they want to build a diverse class. This means accepting kids who may have lower stats but better intangibles/qualitative stats in their eyes, while putting the Type A kids on waitlist. I wouldn’t consider that yield protection, I would just consider it building a class. Also, I should probably use the term more qualified instead of over qualified. I don’t think NU as is putting students who are more qualified on the wait list or rejection in favor or students who are less qualified, which is what I would consider yield protection.
Ultimately, our definitions will probably still differ, but I hope I could clarify what I was trying to say.
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