One of my D21’s best friends will be attending Northwestern beginning this fall. Both of the BF’s older sisters went to Northwestern. And their mother attended Northwestern.
I don’t know much about NU, but from my sample of one family, it sounds like NU has a strong legacy “program.”
How strange. When my D was a freshman she went to a session with the McDaniel College rep at her high school because no one signed up and she felt bad for them. Today they called her to ask if they were “still one of her top choices.” Doubt she’s applying there. They must need students badly to make these calls.
Yes, a son of a friend and fellow NU alum is starting his sophomore year there now (her other son is at U. of Chicago). Thanks to you and everyone else for the advice. I’ll talk with him about applying, but I think he’s set on going for ED at NYU.
I’m hoping to get progress made this weekend. I hear the counselors will start sending out requested transcripts over the next 2 weeks. Colleges know that’s not in our control right? It feels weird for him to have applied in early August and they are still waiting for transcripts (Alabama).
Ugh. Evacuated from New Orleans due to Hurricane Ida. S22 is supposed to take the ACT this Saturday, but power is still out in NOLA so he switched the test site OOS. But all they could do was put him on the waiting list. Not conducive to a stress free test. At least while evacuated he was able tour Texas A&M and Rice. Liked A&M better than I’d thought. It’s so big, but he could see the value. Loved Rice though.
Hope your son was able to take ACT today. The evacuation must be very stressful for everyone, I cannot imagine dealing with ACT and college applications on top of that.
There was a brief moment, of “OMG! She missed it!” on our end. I hope your S22 can find a seat somewhere, but from your posts, he looks to be in a great place already.
I think S22 is probably going to apply to Northwestern. His main hesitation was whether they use the Common App, and they do. Georgetown, DW’s alma mater, doesn’t use the Common App, so S22 doesn’t feel like it’s worth the trouble to apply.
As it is, he’s completely rewriting his Common App essay now, because when we started going over his initial draft last night, we mutually decided it needs a complete overhaul. On someone’s advice, he had centered the essay on his experience playing in the European qualifier tournament for the Little League World Series — his London all-star team won the U.K. championship two years in a row. He wrote about how he traded pins with a Romanian kid and still thinks about him when he looks at his pin collection in his room, but when I tried to get him to be more detailed and specific about that, it turned out it’s not true. I mean, he did trade pins, but he doesn’t really remember that specific kid and doesn’t think about him often. We have to find a topic for him that illuminates the real him and isn’t just what he thinks a college essay should say.
So after the DC trip, given Georgetown’s arduous application process, all of the DC schools fell off the list. American, as a professor friend had warned us, felt disorganized and poorly run, and DW and S22 both felt like its location was weirdly remote for still being within the city limits. They liked George Washington a bit better but weren’t wowed. Having decided he wasn’t really feeling Villanova after all, his list is now down to NYU, Fordham and Northwestern. He’s treating Fordham as a safety, given that he has legacy status there as well (DW got her MBA there), but I’d still feel more comfortable if he comes up with an option or two more. Aside from NU, he’s pretty set on being in NYC, so maybe Pace for a true safety. We’ll see.
We are touring Villanova Business School next week. Saw a cousin alum yesterday. She liked it but said the school had “one type of person” and they all looked like a J. Crew catalog. If you visit Fordham, be sure to eat at the Italian restaurants on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx. My son ‘20 was rejected from Georgetown which I was surprised by because he had high stats, including an 800 on US History SAT 2. They were the only college that required 3 SAT 2 tests. But Georgetown loves legacies.
My D ‘22 has an excellent personal essay but for a very sad reason. A friend of hers was shot and killed on our high school athletic field where they spent a lot of time together. The essay is about how he inspired her in sports and other areas of her life.