Northwestern Waitlist 2025

Only engineering got the good news?

BlockquoteI just found it unlikely there are many schools sending 10+ kids to NU

Just because you find it unlikely, does not make it true. I guess what you’re saying is that the stats of the high achieving school my kids go to are wrong even though that’s what Naviance says by way of our college counselor’s office (so I guess they’re the liars) and that where I work they’re also liars?

Re UIUC - read up on the Engineering program. There are many that are not impacted programs and easy to switch between. Many students are admitted to undecided Engineering as well as Engineering Prep that if they take certain courses and meet certain requirements they can pick any number of Engineering majors, the few exceptions being the Computer related ones and ME. There is a big difference attending a school as UGS vs Undecided Engineering. UIUC accepts students into Engineering Undecided. I think you’re confusing Undecided Engineering with UGS at Illinois which are two completely different programs/schools.

One nice thing about NU is you can change majors anytime between any schools. Many schools do not have that, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible to do so elsewhere. A student in Engineering at another school will be able to transfer into just about any other program they want at that school.

I never said it’s easy to switch to Computer Science. So not sure what you’re talking about. Depending on the university, Computer Science falls under 3 categories - Engineering, Liberal Arts, or it’s own school. That it what I was clarifying. In most cases if one is in Computer Science in Engineering or in their own school, it is very difficult to transfer into that major. Purdue has already over-enrolled in CS for next year and said they will not take inter-school transfers. But you can transfer into Engineering. I respectfully disagree that schools that have CS in Engineering or Liberal Arts or even in their own don’t come close to Northwestern’s programs. Anyone in those field’s will tell you that there are many schools that far exceed Northwestern’s Engineering programs and CS programs.

My kids have a lot of friends that go to Illinois and not one was miserable, none had covid and all had in person classes. One of my kids goes to a top ranked program, was in person and/or hybrid all year, never in quarantine, never had covid and had as normal of an experience as possible. So what? That has nothing to do with the question that the person asked why kids are not choosing to go to NU, so I don’t get the point you’re trying to make. Bottom line, not everyone wants to go to Northwestern. It is not #1 in Engineering. A certificate in Business, is not the same as a degree from a top business school. If you want a top journalism school you got to NU. If you want to go to medical school later, you go to NU. If you want to act, NU is it. But for many other programs, it doesn’t mean NU is necessarily the best or only option for people.

My family is in the VC business, and NO there is not plenty of startup capital in Chicago. This is not where they want to be. Google’s office is a marketing office only. The mart has the incubator hub but generally speaking, and yes, if people want to be in Chicago they can get a job, but for those true innovators and tech geniuses, Chicago is not the place to be. LOL Midwest cost of living? What planet are you on? It is not cheap to live in Chicago or surrouding areas. We have the highest property taxes in the country, one of the highest sales tax rates and add that in to an income tax as well and people are hit big before they are even out the door. Considering you don’t even believe that schools are sending 10 or more kids to NU a year, god only knows what areas in Chicago you are even familiar with if you think there is a low Midwest COL. Yes, it’s not Mountainview, but it’s certainly not cheap. That is pretty funny though. Many of the tech companies and jobs are running to Texas where there is no income tax, lowish property tax, and lower sales tax that NY, here and CA.

I am not familiar with Questbridge nor do I live in Evanston. I cannot comment on EHS other than it’s extreme diversity which is good for NU if they’re also looking to cultivate diverse candidates like many other colleges are doing. Evanston has a huge income gap so it would probably be a good thing if NU helped with that. I can’t stand going to Evanston because you can never find parking, it’s hard to get to and I don’t find anything worth going there for except to see my best friend. Many kids in the past used to get into Palo Alto as I sat next to one on a plane a few years ago when coming home from visiting my son there. She said they send a lot of kids there from their school but she didn’t want to go there. I get it. I have 4 kids all either living in or going to college OOS.

My kids are double legacies at each NU and U-Chicago graduate schools so maybe if they decide they want to go to grad school here, they have some great options to consider and a legacy to boot.

Congrats to your student. I’m sure they will do great.

I’ve noticed you pop up occasionally on CC to disparage NU a bit and/or the Evanston area. I’m sorry you can’t find parking in Evanston and “can’t find anything worth going there for.” I happen to love the area.

This started because you erroneously stated NU Engr “has a lot to do to get up to par with other schools” and “if you’re from the midwest, NU doesn’t have the same star power.” I respectfully disagreed with both those statements, even providing examples on why NU Engr is indeed on par with those other schools.

Because I stated it is “unlikely there are many schools sending 10+ kids to NU” you then go down the Pacino “you calling me a liar
” path. There are lots of high-achieving schools, but there cannot be MANY that send 10+ kids to NU. You give me your one sample of your kid’s one school that sent nine kids to NU. Can you list the MANY other schools currently sending 10+ kids to NU?

You also tried to attribute some false argument to me with your statement: “I respectfully disagree that schools that have CS in Engineering or Liberal Arts or even in their own don’t come close to Northwestern’s programs.” Um
 I never insinuated that.

Your go-to “I respectfully disagree” followed by your above fabrication is like putting lipstick on a pig. I guess you were misrepresenting my statement of those schools “not coming anywhere close to the major choice flexibility of NU.” We were only talking about ability to switch majors. We were not comparing CS programs.

I’ve previously stated that some students pick UIUC over NU (and lots of other schools) because of their CS or CompEngr or whatever computer major. I have a limited grasp on college CS programs. All I know is UIUC is known to be superior in this area.

My family/kids are heavily involved in other non-computer Engr fields. We are confident we can accurately evaluate the merits of an Engr program and we are impressed with what is offered at NU McCormick.

I’m not sure what you mean by not #1 in Engineering. Are you just basing this on the U.S. News ranking? Ok, I’ll play along
 My kid is considering 2 NU Engr majors that are ranked #2 and #5 on U.S. News. So, to you, that means “NU has a lot to do to get up to par?” You think NU is only tops for journalism and acting?

My child considered applying to the #1 ranked program for her major (MIT) but that was not the right fit for her undergrad. Fit, not ranking, is what is important to us.

And my kid did not choose a school for the opportunity to get VC start-up capital or someday work in a SV incubator. Since you are in VC, you know that start up capital comes from many different sources and locations, incl entities and investors located in Chicago or CA. And innovation comes from within lots of different environments. And even crowdfunding, bank funding, self funding is possible - crazy huh? It certainly can be nice to own all the shares/full direction of what you’ve created.

But if you MUST study in northern CA to hook up with the VC crowd, NU does happen to have a Bay Area campus that offers an innovation/entrepreneurship program specifically for McCormick undergrads. And this NU CA campus also offers a Kellogg entrepreneurship/tech/venture capital program that matches start-ups with students.

https://www.northwestern.edu/san-francisco/programs/index.html

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You’re really ALL over the place with your comments, but all I’m going to say is look back at my original reply to Carnegie Dad who only asked why people weren’t going to NU. You’re the one who went nuts trying to debate me for no reason other than to just be argumentative. He asked why people don’t go, and that’s why they don’t go. Plenty of people get into Stanford or Harvard every year and don’t go. But there are certain reasons, and majors.

But having said that, you also put words in my mouth and I have a right to defend myself. NOT once, did I ever say “Many” schools are sending 10+ kids to NU here. You said that, not me. What I said is “We normally have at least 10 kids go to NU from our school including many who apply ED”. Then when you claimed that wasn’t true, I gave you the stats that 45 students have been accepted over 5 years and corrected myself in saying that it was an avg of 9 per year, not 10. Not 9 only 1 year as you again implied in your most recent post. I also stated that the high achieving high school I work at has more than 10 going to NU in a normal year. But again, I never said “many”. Those were your words. You at there then trying to guess where I live and work and then just assumed it was Evanston. Even if it were any of those places, it’s none of your business. I don’t know if those schools accept more than 10 to NU but I can certainly find out and would not be surprised if all of them do but I don’t really care. This isn’t a contest. Again, it was him asking why kids don’t go, simple as that.

I also don’t know why you would make the assumption of how I feel about NU when you don’t know me at all. I also said in posts in this thread I would have loved one of my kids to go to NU. My kids are double legacies there. We loved NU, but they all chose to go elsewhere that had programs that were a better fit for what they are/were looking for. Simple as that. What I said I don’t like is coming to Evanston. Not liking going to Evanston doesn’t mean I hate NU. It’s like saying because I hate driving into the city I also hate downtown. Uh no!

Now, I tried before when I said good luck to your student, I’m going to try again and end this ridiculous thread. Time to move on dude.

@Scubaski1 @srparent15 To clarify, our north shore high school sends way more than 10
 last couple years it was ~25 (up to 40 a few years ago). Not that it really matters to your argument. You both make interesting points.

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From knowing the area well, I totally believe that, especially when some of the high schools on the North Shore graduate classes of well over 1,200! :wink:

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FWIW, there’s an NYC private school that’s sending at least 7 to NU from a class of about 150, probably more since they usually send 8-10 students a year. Is NU need-aware?

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Hi @gotham_mom, NU is need blind.

Btw, I wonder if you were referring to Horace Mann. 7+ kids out of 150 is a very high number, although I am sure they send way more to Columbia and maybe a few other Ivies.

Not HM, think the polar opposite Hill school. I don’t know about HM. I’m not a private school parent; I have several friends who are. I think HM tends to send more to UChicago than to NU, which makes sense to me.

Hi, could you have meant Hill School which is outside Philly, instead of NYC? That school does have a decent rep, a graduating class of ~150, and strong college matriculations - a good friend of mine went there and got into Princeton.

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No, sorry I was being NYC provincial. The Hill schools refer to the three private schools located in the Fieldston section of the Bronx, which is hilly.

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Hmm - discussions about how many kids get into NU from private schools may be a little off-putting for many students that are “mere” public school students and don’t have the privilege afforded to them by private schools and rarely have a kid from their school attend NU. While everyone knows private school kids have an advantage over public school kids, on a waitlist forum (or maybe any college admissions forum) it’s not a feel-good discussion for many of us.

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@srparent15 I appreciate your effort trying to explain why certain kids choose other schools over NU. I perfectly understand and respect everyone’s choice, and my whole purpose was to understand the rationale behind the decisions so that I (and hopefully other applicants and their parents) could be more apprized of certain factors that they might not have considered.

I have always enjoyed learning about decisions when students are cross admitted to NU and other top schools: For example, when students are cross admitted to NU and HYPMS schools, there is about a 70% chance that they would attend an HYPMS. However, when student is admitted to both NU and UIUC, there is a 73% chance that he/she would choose NU. Such info can be found on a website called Parchment. I am not sure how large the database is, but it was sure a lot of fun to compare between some schools:

Cost is also often a concern for in-state applicants, especially students from CA, NC, MI, TX, VA, etc., where the state flagships offer outstanding education opportunities. Those kids, however, have to live with the size of freshmen classes - I heard that some classes at Berkeley have 1000+ students, and you’d have to learn from one of the monitors in an oversized auditorium.

While NU is definitely one of the greatest comprehensive universities in America, it certainly is not for everyone. IMHO, it only suits self-starters who clearly know what they want, those who are aware of the resources available to them and make good use of those resources.

In terms of engineering, NU is well regarded in many disciplines, particularly materials science, industrial engineering and mechanical engineering. I have also been extremely impressed with the recent strides that NU has made, e.g. combining cutting-edge biomed/nanotech/microelectronic engineering (MEMS)/regenerative medicine in a new program sponsored by Lou and Kim Simpson, as well as generous contributions from Warren Buffett’s family.

@Scubaski1 has made many excellent points in his previous responses regarding the strength of the McCormick and Weinberg Schools. The Kellogg certificate also comes in handy for recruiting purposes - my friends and I have hired candidates with such profiles, and with great success.

As usual, these are just my two cents. Thanks again to both of you!

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In terms of engineering, NU is well regarded in many disciplines, particularly materials science, industrial engineering and mechanical engineering, not to mention the recent strides the school has made, combining cutting-edge biomed/nanotech/microelectronic engineering/regenerative medicine in a new program sponsored by members of Warren Buffett’s family.>

Yes, some exciting things happening at NU McCormick and in Chicago area. The biggest U.S. hydrogen fuel cell production facility is also being built now in Chicago area. That, along with IL Argonne R&D in hydrogen & alternative energy sources, and new IL electric vehicle/hydrogen fleet manufacturing, will provide great opportunities for NU students in Materials Science, ChemE, Industrial MechE, MechE, etc.

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Got off the Engineering Waitlist last Thursday by phone, still didn’t get the official portal update. AO said it should come around early this week. For those who got in, how long did it take for u guys?

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how long does it take to get through engineering :sob::sob::sob: my gosh

Anyone hear of non-engineering kids get off? I have only heard of a couple

I’ve also heard of a couple non-engineering
 I’ve heard of one journalism and two premed I think. I can’t decide what they’re doing: starting with engineers, giving all the spots to engineers, or only having spots open for engineers.

2 days ago a computer science mccormick student from reddit got off the list
 still mccormick but not engineering! haha

Somebody from SESP (business admin major) got off a few days ago and turned it down!!
Also, my guidance counselor called earlier this week and they told him they’re calling throughout June as well.
There’s still hope! And it’ll be well worth the wait I’m sure. The harder you have to work for something, the better it feels when you get it!

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