***Official Northwestern 2022 ED Results ONLY Thread***

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

With less than 10 days left till ED results come out I thought it was time to make a thread specifically for results. Good luck to everyone!

Pick one:
Decision: Accepted
Decision: Deferred
Decision: Rejected

Pick one:
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
School of Communication
School of Education and Social Policy
Bienen School of Music
Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown):
ACT:
SAT II:
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0):
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):
AP (place score in parenthesis):
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load:
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.):

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Job/Work Experience:
Volunteer/Community service:
Summer Activities:
Essays:
Teacher Recommendation:
Counselor Rec:
Additional Rec:
Interview:

Other

State (if domestic applicant):
Country (if international applicant):
Intended major(s):
School Type:
Ethnicity:
Gender:
Income Bracket:
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

Reflection

Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected:

General Comments:

2

Lance is QUAKING

3

Good luck everyone. Can you please post stats (Accept, Denied, WL) for the benefit of the CC community. My nephew is applying ED next year, for instance. That would be appreciated.

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Guys! Decisions are out!

5

Decision: Accepted

Bienen School of Music

Objective:

SAT I 1550 (780 math, 770 EBRW)
ACT:35
SAT II: 750,750,770 history, chem,math II
Unweighted GPA 4.0
Rank 1/600
AP’s : 7 of them all 4’s and 5’s
Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP English, AP Gov, dance production, floral arranging! (Required practical art), TA for career center(when I practice violin)
Major Awards (AP scholar, Hispanic scholar (psat based)

Subjective: excellent violinist - in NYO USA last summer, lots of community service through scouts. Eagle Scout. Summer at Stanford humanities institute and others at intensive music programs.
Essay very focused on music and arts and cross discipline options at northwestern.
Great teacher Recs from English, Spanish, and conservatory music theory teachers as well as violin teacher.
Audition went well, and I had taken a lesson previously as a junior with both teachers on panel.

State: California
Intended major(s): double major in Bienen, violin performance and musicology
School Type: large public
Ethnicity: Hispanic mixed
Gender: male
Income Bracket: >200 k
Hooks: combination of very strong academics and very strong artistry. Hispanic background.

Reflection/strengths/weaknesses:Realize that if audition is not good enough the academics don’t matter for Bienen, but outstanding audition still needs solid academics to get in.
I think choosing ED in my case was smart as it can be a total nightmare, physically, emotionally and financially, to fly to 8 or 10 auditions all over the country and Canada.

If I had not been accepted I would still have had to do that. Already got one regular decision prescreen rejection so its a tough world out there for Music applicants.

General Comments:SO EXCITED!!! So glad I get to go to an amazing music program inside an amazing university. Relief!

6

Decision: Accepted

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): didn’t send
ACT (breakdown): 35 C (36, 36, 34, 35)
SAT II: Chemistry (800), Math IIC (800)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.98
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): n/a, but I know top 10%
AP (place score in parenthesis): Lang (5), APUSH (5), Chemistry (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP US Gov, AP Literature, AP Biology, AP Statistics, AP Calculus BC
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): n/a

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Honors Research Program, National Honor Society, Medical Club math tutor, writing tutor, special ed assistant teacher, camp counselor, book packing service, orphanage work in Shanghai, orthodontic sterilizer, track and field, first alto saxophonist in symphonic band
Job/Work Experience: Orthodontic sterilizer
Volunteer/Community service: Orphanage in Shanghai, camp counselor volunteer, book packing
Summer Activities: Orphanage work in Shanghai
Essays (rating 1-10, details): Common App (10/10, talked about EVERYTHING), why Northwestern? (10/10, super sarcastic and got my point across well)

Recommendations (rating 1-10, details):

Teacher Rec #1: Lang teacher (10/10, super super personal and beautiful)
Teacher Rec #2: AP Chem teacher (10/10, absolutely hilarious)
Counselor Rec: not sure, but probably really good
Additional Rec: n/a
Interview: n/a

Other:

Applied for Financial Aid?: No
Intended Major and College:
State (if domestic applicant): Illinois
Country (if international applicant): United States
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Multiracial
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: <200,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): n/a

Reflection:

Strengths: Test scores, GPA, recs, essays
Weaknesses: extracurriculars, no awards
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: who tf knows
Where else were you accepted/deferred/rejected: Nowhere

General Comments : WHAT. I’M SHAKING.

7

Have ED been posted/released?

8

Decision: Accepted

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Objective:

ACT: 35C, got a 5 on the essay tho lol
GPA: 3.89
Rank: school doesn’t rank
AP: stats 5, calc ab 4, physics c 4, Spanish 3, chem 2
Senior Year Course Load: ap calc bc, ap environmental, ap biology, other normal classes
Major Awards: some ap thing, national merit semifinalist

Subjective:

Extracurriculars: I have a cake decorating business, not very impressive but kind of unique, played violin since first grade, varsity softball 4 years, I did Italian dance lol
Job/Work Experience: worked at a concession stand one summer
Volunteer/Community service: maybe 80 hours at the humane society
Summer Activities: did CIEE trip to Chile-Spanish learning one summer
Essays: common app, not very good not horrible, 7/10, why northwestern, honestly pretty bad, 6/10
Teacher Recommendation: probably generic, 6/10
Counselor Rec: probably pretty good 8/10
Interview: no interview

Other

State: Wisconsin
Intended major(s): Biology
School Type: smallish public school
Ethnicity: white
Gender: female
Income Bracket: 60,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): uhh none

Reflection

Strengths: uhh act was pretty good, uniqueish EC, took lot of ap classes for someone at my school
Weaknesses: essays bad, not best recs idk
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: honestly surprised I got in, I spent maybe one hour on the why northwestern essay, I learned after applying that it was pretty important lol

General Comments: So excited!!

9

yes

10

Pick one:
Decision: Accepted

Pick one:

McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): 1540 (790M, 750R)
ACT: 36
SAT II: N/A
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.45
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top Quartile (Unweighted) Top 10% (Weighted)
AP (place score in parenthesis): Only 4’s and 5’s
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, AP BC Calc, AP English, AP Spanish, High Honors Computer Science, Theatre, Dance, TAing for Theatre,
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Nope!

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-Volleyball team (Team Captain)
-German Wheel Club (Club Head)
-All Saints Choir
-Metropolitan Community Project (Senior Member)
-Rock Climbing Club
Job/Work Experience: Interned in a Lab at NU, cancer research (Unpaid)
Volunteer/Community service: Lots and lots of it…
Summer Activities: Worked at Northwestern in the Department of Preventive Medicine doing Cancer Research.
Essays: I wrote 12 drafts…I’d like to think my final one was pretty good!
Teacher Recommendation: Both teachers know and really like me. I think they were good.
Counselor Rec: Pretty good!
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview: Absolutely wonderful!

Other

State (if domestic applicant): IL
Country (if international applicant): USA
Intended major(s): Biomedical Engineering
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Romanian-American (Citizen of Romania)
Gender: Female
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): None

Reflection

Strengths: Scores, Essays, Extracurriculars, Recommendations, Interview, Minority (woman in engineering), and
Weaknesses: GPA
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I didn’t have perfect grades…but I made sure that I had everything else!

General Comments:

I showed a lot of interest in the school…like I toured it three time (it helps that I’m in the same state so the drive is not that bad…)

I knew my grades weren’t the best…I was a pretty solid A/B student, so I wasn’t terrible, but I did everything possible to compensate for that! And it paid off.

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Pick one:
Decision: Accepted

Pick one:
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): did not submit
ACT: sent in a 28 and 29
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.4UW
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 20%
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Psychology (4), AP Biology (3)
Senior Year Course Load: AP World History, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics, AP Literature, AP Statistics, AP Calculus BC, AP Computer Science, AP Art History, AP Government, and a Spanish class
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP scholar

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): special interest groups, lots of community service programs
Job/Work Experience: zero
Volunteer/Community service: hospital intern, probably around 250/300 community service hours from clubs
Summer Activities: went to one summer camp that probably didn’t hold much value
Essays: Why Northwestern essay 9.5/10, Common App 9/10
Teacher Recommendation: 10/10 and 9/10 for the other one
Counselor Rec: liked me but a lot of students, maybe 7.5/10
Interview: interview was eh maybe 6/10

Other

Intended major(s): Biology
School Type: public
Ethnicity: black
Gender: female
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM

Reflection

Strengths: essay, good recs, URM, ECs, upward GPA trend and rigorous schedule
Weaknesses: grades, standardized test scores, basically everything was against me
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: demonstrated interest and essays

General Comments: not sure what miracle got me in… but I’m not complaining! I feel like I may have been a rare case considering there’s a lot of people with MUCH better stats, but I also showed demonstrated interest for maybe 2 years. To everyone applying RD: good luck and don’t give up!

12

Decision: Accepted
School of Education and Social Policy

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): did not submit
ACT: 34C (35W, 35R, 34S, 30M)
SAT II: did not submit
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.95
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5%
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP World History, AP Lang, APES, APUSH, AP Stat
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP Human Geo, AP Lit, AP Psych, AP French, Honors Journalism III, Health Education (I had an injury freshman year, so I have to take Health Ed this year)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Commended Scholar, AP Scholar w/ Distinction

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-Earned an A in a 200-level college course at UNC-Chapel Hill. The course was on the role of public opinion in policy
-Co-Editor-in-Chief of school newspaper. I co-led the transition to online, and I created social media pages in addition to my work writing, editing, and doing layout
-Steering Committee of Global Health Club. Co-led fundraisers, all of which have raised at least $10,000
-President of French Club
-National French Honors Society (VP at my school)

Job/Work Experience:
-Interned for seven months at global health nonprofit. I created my own internship to fill the needs of the organization, and I interviewed over 120 local students for research
-Part-time hostess at local restaurant

Volunteer/Community service:
-Volunteered at hospital daycare for roughly fifty hours total

Summer Activities:
-see extracurriculars and job/work experience

Essays:I honestly don’t know. I really liked my Common App essay, but I was more critical of my Why Northwestern essay
Teacher Recommendation: 10/10 (my teacher is wonderful and knows me pretty well)
Counselor Rec: Idk. He is also very new, so we didn’t know each other well
Additional Rec: One from the woman I interned for
Interview: Requested one, but they couldn’t accommodate my request

Other

State (if domestic applicant): North Carolina
Country (if international applicant):
Intended major(s): Social Policy
School Type: Smallish public high school
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $150k+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Dad went there

Reflection

Strengths: ACT, extracurriculars, teacher rec, lucky to be a legacy
Weaknesses: Why Northwestern maybe, UW GPA
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I think my extracurriculars aligned well with my academic areas of interest.

General Comments: Congrats to everyone who got in! I am beyond excited to meet y’all!

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Decision: Accepted

McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
SAT I: 1430
Unweighted GPA: 3.7
weighted GPA: 5.2
Rank: 29/352
AP (place score in parenthesis): human geography (5) biology (4) u.s. history (4)
Senior Year Course Load: Independent art, ap calc 1, ap lit, anatomy, Spanish, psychology, ap studio art
Major Awards: Illinois State Scholar

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Pre-health club (president/founder), JSA (president), Model UN (president, founder), NHS, ASL
Volunteer/Community service: Kidzeum of health and science (10 yrs) Mission outreach (2 yrs)
Summer Activities: NYLF on medicine summer 2014, 2015, Loyola Summer scholars for psychology (2016)
Essays: about interest in medical field and how it developed from a very personal experience/why NW was specific towards left/right brain focus in school of engineering

Teacher Recommendation: from AP bio teacher, AP art teacher, calc teacher.
Additional Rec: CEO of local hospital
I never read any of my recs so I have no idea how good they were

State: Illinois
Intended major(s): biomedical engineering
School Type: public
Ethnicity: white
Strengths: extracurriculars and drive
Weaknesses: test scores and GPA were low compared to other applicants
Why you think you were accepted: I really think I got accepted because of my passion for the field I want to enter. My application showed my hard work and dedication which outshined my below average (for NW) test scores. Even if you don’t have perfect grades and test scores you can still get accepted if you thrive in other areas!

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Decision: Accepted

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

SAT I (breakdown): 1550 (750 English, 800 Math, 22 Essay)
ACT: not taken
SAT II: 800 math 2, 740 physics
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighed GPA: 4.3
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): n/a
AP (place score in parenthesis): Spanish lang (3), Physics 1 (4), Calc AB (5), US History (3), English lang (4), CS Principles (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a
Senior Year Course Load: AP Statistics, AP Psychology, AP Gov/Econ, AP English Lit, AP Chemistry
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): none

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Soccer (JV captain 2 years), Golf, Debate club (founding member, president), Younglife (junior leader)
Job/Work Experience: STEAM Academy instructor for middle school students, soccer referee
Essays: CommonApp - 7/10, Slightly cringy/awkward in my opinion, but I feel like I showed a lot of my personality
Why NU - 9/10, Very personal and meaningful IMO
Teacher Recommendation: One of them was really good, probably 9/10, not sure about the other one but 6/10 or 7/10 if I had to guess
Counselor Rec: Again not sure, but probably decent at least, though I don’t know my counselor too well (5-7/10)
Additional Rec: none
Interview: none

State (if domestic applicant): California
Country (if international applicant): n/a
Intended major(s): Mathematics
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: ~60,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): none

Strengths: Academic record, expressed interest
Weaknesses: ec’s (might be made up for by rural location)
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: Probably my passion for the school and my academic interests, nothing else I can think might stand out.

15

Decision: Deferred

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Objective:

SAT I (breakdown): didn’t submit
ACT: 34
SAT II: didn’t submit
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.99 UW
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): not sure, i think it’s 20 out of a few hundred kids
AP (place score in parenthesis): I took 11 AP classes
Some of the scores I self reported were: Calc BC (5 and AB subscore 5), Calc AB (5), US History (5), Lang (5), Chem (3)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Stats, AP Lit, AP Psych, Enviro, Jazz 1 (our school’s top jazz band meets before school, and it counts as a class now haha), Honors Band, and TA (teaching assistant) for Calc BC and bookroom organizer in the library, which both count as credits
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): AP Scholar with Distinction I guess?

Subjective:

Extracurriculars:
Captain of Debate Team (debate is probably my most important EC, I debated varsity policy debate for 4 years, placed 10th in the country at CFLs, won a few local tournaments, went to two summer debate camps including the Northwestern one for 4 weeks)

Founder and Pres of Red Cross Club (first high school RCC in Wisconsin, we held fundraisers and did letter writing campaigns for veterans)

VP then Pres of Chinese American Club

Drum Major (for all bands)

Lead alto sax for top jazz band and section leader/1st chair alto sax in honors band

National Honor Society member

Job/Work Experience: Panera Bread for one summer (got the Heart of Service Award right before I quit lol)
Volunteer/Community service: Mostly Red Cross hours through the club and also the stuff I do for NHS
Summer Activities: Debate camp and work
Essays: Common app is probably a 7/10. I wrote about my struggles with accepting my identity as an Asian-American and how I incorporate these experiences into activities like debate
I thought my Why Northwestern essay was actually pretty solid, maybe 9/10. I’ve shown a bunch of interest in NU, and I really did fall in love with the campus at camp and during the tours I’ve taken afterwards, too. I did a lot of research on the programs that interested me and incorporated all of that in the essay. Sigh.

Teacher Recommendation:
History teacher liked me and she’s known for writing good recs: 8/10
I was a TA for my calc teacher in her ab and bc classes for two years while also having her for both calc ab and bc my sophomore and junior year. Her letter was awesome: 9/10
Counselor Rec: Was probably really average, we haven’t actually talked much 6/10
Additional Rec: My old debate coach!! It was awesome, I love him so much. We’ve built a good relationship throughout the years, 10/10

Interview: didn’t get one

Other

State (if domestic applicant): WI
Country (if international applicant): U.S.
Intended major(s): Global Health Studies and Bio
School Type: Large Public
Ethnicity: Asian
Gender: F

Reflection

Strengths: ECs. I am genuinely passionate about a lot of the activities I do, and I’m proud of them
Weaknesses: My scores
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: I think I just wasn’t impressive enough to stand out in a really talented pool of early applicants :frowning:

General Comments: Sad that I have to wait some more to get a definitive answer from NU, but congrats to everyone that got in!!!

16

Decision: Accepted
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Objective:

SAT I: 1540 (superscored) 760M 780R
ACT: 33C 35R 35W 34S 29M but I didn’t send in my ACT
SAT II: 770 US History–I also got a 730 in Bio-E but I didn’t send that in either
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.99
Rank: 12/554
AP: AP World (5), AP US History (5), AP Literature (5), AP Psychology (5), AP US Government (5), AP Chemistry (2 but I literally just did not put the score on my app and left it blank)
Senior Year Course Load: Honors Finite Pre-Calc, AP Micro & Macro Econ, AP Composition, AP Biology, AP Physics Mech, APES
Major Awards: DECA Internationals Qualifier, a few local honorable mentions in Scholastic, but honestly nothing else

Subjective:

Extracurriculars:
-Key Club President (senior year) and Secretary (junior year)
-NHS Vice President
-DECA (went to internationals too)
-JCL Editor
-Student Government
-Spell Bowl
-started my own feminism club at school

Job/Work Experience: part-time job at my parents’ restaurant
Volunteer/Community service: none other than what was required of me as Key Club President (50 hrs/year) and NHS VP (10hrs/year)
Summer Activities: NONE! SLEEPING IN BED

Essays:
-Common App: I’d say 8.7/10? My English teacher really really loved it, but my friends didn’t, actually. I wrote about me being in Anaheim, California for DECA Internationals and hiking up Hollywood Hills. During that hike I sort of talked about how my dad was a Trump supporter while I was a devout liberal–and eventually came to the conclusion that people are more than their political views, and that all people deserve respect
-Why Northwestern: 9.5/10 My English teacher also really loved this essay, and I personally thought I wrote it really beautifully, not to brag or anything. I remember I was really worried that I hadn’t talked enough about what I would do for Northwestern, but it all worked out in the end. I basically poured my heart out gushing why Northwestern is the BEST PLACE ON EARTH!!! I talked about me visiting twice, too, and how it was raining both times.

Teacher Recommendation:
-AP Lit Teacher 7/10? I didn’t see it but he’s really really smart and I think he likes me so I’m assuming it was good. I also work with him for NHS
-Science Teacher 6/10 she’s also the sponsor of Key Club so I’ve worked with her in my leadership position as well as having her as a junior year teacher . However, one of my friends also asked her for a rec and was able to get a hold of it and read it and said that it wasn’t that amazing/pretty generic. So I’m assuming mine was also somewhat generic
-English Teacher 7.5/10 me and her are really good friends

Counselor Rec:
-I come from a big public school so I think this basically only said stuff about the rigor of my classes I’d give it maybe a 7/10, I’m sure it didn’t hurt.

Additional Rec:
-Student Government Teacher Sponsor 9/10 I’ve done a lot of stuff through student government and outside of school that I know she really appreciated

Interview: they never offered me one

Other

State (if domestic applicant): Indiana
Country (if international applicant): USA
Intended major(s): biology w/ minor in polysci
School Type: public, fairly large 2400 kids in a pretty affluent area. it’s definitely a good school although not a magnet or anything
Ethnicity: ASIAN!!! I can’t believe I got in
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: 70k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): absolutely none. maybe you could count female in STEM but that’s pretty much cancelled out bc im asian

Reflection

Strengths: probably most definitely my essays
Weaknesses: no awards. My GPA isn’t the best (even though it says 3.9 I’m pretty sure that’s just cuz my school has a weird grading scale, I’ve gotten a few B+'s and I haven’t gotten an A+ in a class since freshman year). I also think my extracurriculars could have been better just because all my leadership positions are school-wide rather than city/state/nationwide
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: NO IDEA honestly i think it was a lot of luck. I really really demonstrated my passion and love for NU in my WhyNU supplement so that probably helped. I also showed lots of demonstrated interest by attending all the info sessions in my area and visiting the campus twice

General Comments:
I really thought it was going to be impossible to get in. I was 100% convinced I was getting rejected, honestly still am trying to digest all of this. I had no hooks and no awards and I’m Asian in STEM and I still got in!!! There is hope for everyone! I was pretty scared because last year no one in my school got in and the year before that it was a recruited athlete but…looks like that didn’t matter! :slight_smile:

17

Decision: Rejected

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Objective:

SAT I: 1530 (740 R/W, 790 M, 20 Essay)
ACT: 33C (36, 29, 33, 33, 11)
SAT II: 800 Math II, 700 Lit
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.85
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 29/652 (Top fifth percentile)
AP (place score in parenthesis): Lang(4), CSP(4), Stats (2), Physics 1(2), Micro, Macro, APUSH, Psych (14 total APs by the end of senior year, however I participated in PLTW all throughout HS (IED, POE), which limited APs taken)
Also participated in an Early College program, have 11 units total throughout HS (5 classes) from local CC, with 3.5 GPA

Senior Year Course Load:
-AP Literature
-AP Government (Comp. and US)
-AP French
-AP Computer Science A
-AP Calculus BC
-Teacher Aide (AP Chemistry)

Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):

-Established registered 501©(3) non-profit, retailing hand-designed clothing and funneling proceeds toward STEM literacy for the underserved.

-Co-established elementary debate league with friends, serve as judge/coach and participated in my school’s HSPDP team

-Nordstrom Fashion Ambassadorship

-FBLA (Web/media officer), small awards in entrepreneurship and e-commerce

-STEM Robotics/FTC (Web/media officer)

-French Club/NHS (President)

-Varsity Track

-Eagle Scout

-PLTW 4 years

Job/Work Experience:

-Worked at parents company for three years in manufacturing/marketing, as the company was declining and layoffs were made.

Volunteer/Community service:

-Hundreds of hours volunteering/tutoring at local library and as president of school service club

-Through elementary debate league, volunteered over 50 hours

Summer Activities:

-Participated in JHU Engineering Innovation. Placed first in final bridge breaking competition (had small news coverage)

Essays:

Common App: 9/10, Very good, talked about Nord. Ambassadorship and how it transcended my method of thinking and enabled my nonprofit.

Teacher Recommendation 1: Great, she was my English teacher and my FTC Robotics adviser. Showed me the letter and it was very good.

Teacher Recommendation 2: Decent, teacher was my PLTW adviser for 4 years

Counselor Rec: Generic? I attend a large public so we aren’t very close
Additional Rec: NA
Interview: NA (email went straight to spam)

Other

State (if domestic applicant): Southern California
Intended major(s): Economics
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: Asian (Chinese)
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 100-130k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First-generation

Reflection

Strengths: ECs were great and fit my narrative, along with my essays. Course rigor was really tough. First-gen.

Weaknesses: I had one D in AP Statistics (made up and got an A), but was the result of extenuating circumstances (father’s cancer). GPA and tests weren’t stellar. Recommendations potentially could have been better. Race/location. Few/poor AP scores. No major awards.

Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected:
I think I was rejected because there wasn’t something distinctly special about me, given location, race, etc. I though the whole fashion/non-profit/STEM narrative was unique and that I had a fair shot given first-gen and ED, but I guess it wasn’t enough seeing as I didn’t even get deferred.

I also was never able to visit, so my demonstrated interest might have been low.

If anyone could shed insight, that would be greatly appreciated.

General Comments:
The rejection hurt a lot at first, but I realized that there are plenty of other choices that I love equally.

18

Pick one:
Decision: Accepted
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Objective:

ACT: 33
SAT II: 780 World History (Self Study), 770 Math2
Unweighted GPA: Canadian school so its 100% scale. 93.7% G11 and 95 G12
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable):No rank but probably 20/160 (Tryhard school though)
AP (place score in parenthesis): All 5 Econ and Enviro Sci
Senior Year Course Load: All AP-stats,calc bc, lit, Spanish, jap, euro
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): legit nothing amazing.

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): leadership in 3 clubs, some volunteering. No insane padding. Very resonable high school ECs that demonstrate in everything i wanna study.
Job/Work Experience: Supermarket
Volunteer/Community service: Decent but not insane.
Summer Activities: Studied film at UC berkeley
Essays:About Film (passion). Pretty solid 9/10?
Teacher Recommendation:Guessing aronud 8-9/10
Counselor Rec:
Additional Rec:
Interview: Never got offered one even though people from other schools around my area have been

Other

Country (if international applicant): Boarding School in Canada, From Chile
Intended major(s):Economics and Environmental Science
School Type: Best school in my province basically. 160 ppl in the grade but a good portion are insanely tryhard.
Ethnicity:Chinese
Gender:Male
Income Bracket:>1,000,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.):

Reflection

Strengths: Very strong supplement imo, decent essay. Not very padded ECs but all relate directly to what I want to do in Northwestern, independent in the sense that I am a boarding student and entirely self-motivated
Weaknesses: ACT score, ECs are not padded, no awards
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: Maybe because im Chilean, decent grades and a very strong supplement essay (don’t think anyone else who applied ED will write on what I centered mine on)

General Comments: I feel like being Chilean and having my supplement being extremely unique helped a lot. Someone else in my same school got differed even though he had basically better everything

19

Pick one:
Decision: Accepted

Pick one:
School of Education and Social Policy

Objective: Human Development and Psychological Services

SAT I (breakdown): Didn’t take
ACT: 35 C
SAT II: 750 on Lit and Math II
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/450
AP (place score in parenthesis): Human Geography (5), APUSH (5), Biology (4), Comp (5), Psych (5), Calc BC (5)
IB (place score in parenthesis):
Senior Year Course Load: AP Micro, AP Lit, AP Stats, Physics, Band
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit commended, AP Scholar, nothing special

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Tech Crew (Assistant Technical Director) all 4 years. Led a crew of about 30 students in building and painting the sets for school plays, drafted the plans for what we built, made supply lists, fabricated props, basically did everything that happens behind the scenes.
Stage Manager of some shows junior and senior year at my high school (alternated leading the tech crew and stage managing)
Sound board operator during productions
Marching band (Alto Sax section leader)
Jazz band freshman and sophomore year
Writing Tutor at my high school

Job/Work Experience:
AV Technician at my school
Trader Joe’s-full time during the summer, obviously part time during school year

Volunteer/Community service:
Not a lot of hours (but some) cooking meals for people with terminal illnesses

Summer Activities:
Full time work in order to be able to basically pay for myself and sometimes help my family

Essays:
Common App 9/10
Why NU 9/10
I really wove a common thread through both essays about why I want to go into my major and my history and skills in helping others achieve.

Teacher Recommendation: 10/10 recommendations from 2 teachers-I was their favorite student in a few years
Counselor Rec: 7/10, didn’t know him well but he likes me
Additional Rec: 10/10 from my technical director who I’ve spent a ton of time with all of high school, loves me
Interview: 5/10, I thought I was kind of awkward and stumbled on some of my words

Other

State (if domestic applicant): MN
Country (if international applicant):
Intended major(s): Human Development and Psychological Services
School Type: Mid sized public, not competitive
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: <50k
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): maybe low income?

Reflection

Strengths: Scores, GPA, essays, recommendations
Weaknesses: Interview and no especially unique activities or accomplishments

Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected:
I think I did a really good job writing about how my extracurriculars lined up with my major. Also, I think it helps I have a really unique vision for my career and what I want to do with my major, which I wrote about in my Why NU.

General Comments:
I can’t believe I got in! I thought I wasn’t special enough or outstanding in any way that was unique. They must have liked my essays and understood the vision I was trying to convey. Go Wildcats!

20

@stagemanager1 - You are first in your class, have great ACT and lead a crew of 30 students. You are unique and special. This admissions process is sadly demoralizing.