Given NU’s recent NCAA boost and massive campus improvements (eg. new Kellogg building and Kresge), what are your predictions for NU’s outcomes for next year? Will the overall acceptance rate decrease again for next year, and if so how much harder will it be to get accepted? Also, does applying ED increase your chances than applying RD to NU? Does coming from a high income family from in-state hurt your chances? Any tips would be gladly appreciated.
ED increases your chances because current president is focused on getting more students to apply to NU who have Northwestern as their top choice
My reading of NU results threads (both RD and ED) for the last couple of years shows me the following. Now, I realize that this is a small sample size because only a fraction of applicants share their information here … But within this caveat, If you have the stats – probably 3.85+ unweighted GPA, 34+ ACT, good course rigor, and some extra-curriculars – you have a pretty good chance of getting in ED.
RD is a completely different story. You probably have to be filling a need in the class (adding diversity along some dimension) and appear highly interested in NU. It is very common for a high stat applicant to be rejected otherwise. Surely, NU cares about getting more minority students, more low income students, more from under-represented geographical areas such as the south, more women in engineering (like all schools), and so on. Yield protection is also important.
It seems like Northwestern is really pushing to have a low acceptance rate for no apparent reason.
@CaliCash: All schools are incented to because HS kids and their parents put too much weight on USNews rankings.
You’ve seen the crazy stuff UChicago started this year, right? It’s led to a 2% RD acceptance rate there (though a drop in apps).
There are more improvements coming other than Kellogg:
http://chicago.curbed.com/2017/4/4/15180218/chicago-architecture-northwestern-university-kellogg-global-hub
New university commons:
https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2016/08/university-commons/
New engineering library and physics labs:
http://www.northwestern.edu/fm/projects/our_projects/evanston/mudd-hall-renovation-and-expansion.html
https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2015/11/physicist-gerald-gabrielse-to-join-northwestern-/
New athletic fieldhouse:
http://www.nusports.com/news/2015/11/6/FB_1106153623.aspx?hq_e=el&hq_m=996455&hq_l=13&hq_v=a2bc5b9b60
And NU’s current largest project (expanding medical research faculty by 2x+):
http://www.northwestern.edu/fm/projects/our_projects/chicago/simpson-querrey-biomedical-research.html
Last but not least, NU recruiting going very well:
http://www.insidenu.com/2017/4/4/15164044/northwestern-football-recruiting-illinois-dominant-month-recruiting-in-state-devin-o-rourke
@purpletitan any chance that backfires and people start thinking that applying is pointless?
@CaliCash: Well, UChicago has already seen a drop in number of apps, as I mentioned.
It’ll be interesting to see where we go from here.
I certainly can see a greater percentage of kids opting out of playing this game, looking at terrific unis overseas more, etc.
I don’t know. I feel that schools like UChicago, Stanford, Harvard are now seeing a much slower decrease in acceptance rates, and a slower increase in applications than they had previously seen. In the case of UChicago, their administration and current president have really scraped the barrel in terms of grinding down their acceptance rate through aggressive measures this past decade. Recently, Northwestern seems to be following the path UChicago took, which took UChicago’s USNR from 15 to 3 between 2006 to 2017 (really feel that acceptance rates shouldn’t play a factor in rankings). That is, Northwestern has been taking measures to increase application numbers (brand new facilities, increasingly better sports, winning over highly sought out individuals to teach and research, promoting a new brand image, increasing national and international outreach) to the university and formulate a way to increase its yield rate, which, in turn, means accepting less applicants needed to fill in matriculating classes. With the current culture now, a university’s prestige is tied with its acceptance rate. You can’t really blame the administration for doing this though. Lower acceptance rates, thus more prestige, lead to increased competition by students the following year to apply in hopes they’ll get in. This may mean more qualified students available to the university, which leads to a cycle of better research, better alumni network, more money, more prestige, more quality students, and so forth. Two decades ago, being a college graduate alone was an amazing feat. Nowadays, since there are so many college graduates, only going to the top ones is impressive to family, friends, and members of society. In addition, going to the top universities nowadays actually matters, contrary to popular thought that it doesn’t. Going to a top university grants you more accessibility to more resources, more generous financial aid, stronger alumni network, recruitment from top companies, higher chances at getting accepted to graduate school etc. Anyways, I’m rambling. Unless the college application process remains the same and the culture of chasing prestigious universities remains the same, in the long run these acceptance rates will continue to drop with exponentially increasing numbers of students having more accessibility to pursue higher education. In regards to Northwestern, due to hundreds of millions of free national advertising by the NCAA this year, the flutie factor in combination with the factors I mentioned above will likely lead to a significant drop in Northwestern’s admissions rate next year… that is, unless they re-open their residential halls under rennovation or increase capacity by some other way. I think what’s driving and contributing to this is is a cancerous culture of people correlating extreme exclusivity with world class prestige and power.
@Northwestern777 I agree with the unfortunate fact that many qualified applicants are being turned down, but I genuinely believe NU is making significant strides in improving its intrinsic product. NU is making leaps in recruiting on all fronts as a result.
For example, football recruiting is heating up, with the latest recruit Ethan Bonner picking NU over Yale, Princeton and Dartmouth:
http://www.insidenu.com/2017/4/8/15231802/2018-football-recruiting-cornerback-ethan-bonner-commits-northwestern-woodlands-texas
Also, economics recruiting did very well this cycle, picking up 3 of the “top 8” Restud junior market economists:
https://www.econjobrumors.com/topic/restud-tour-3
In the case of Dworczak, he picked NU over Harvard, Princeton and Yale.
I think Shapiro and his administration are doing a great job improving the school, and its results are showing up in a lot of areas.
NCAA marketing was big, but so is Trevor Siemian in the Rockies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxjZKLCLOTE
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/enterprise-siemian161109/how-denver-broncos-qb-trevor-siemian-got-job
FYI T$ picked NU over Harvard.
@Boothie007
I definitely agree. During the recent years, I’ve been noticing increasing numbers of people matriculating to Northwestern turning down offers from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton because of spectacular programs (eg HPME or material science), a more attractive campus, greater and more generous financial aid boosts replacing loans with grants (current loans for NU grads are now capped at $20K), better sports, better quality faculty, etc. There’s also much more alumni and local involvement, interest, and donations towards the university endowment fund. I truly applaud President Morton Schapiro, along with the entire Northwestern administration and board of trustees, for smart investments and for the continued, accelerated improvements to the school. It’s quite an impressive feat that I am actually very surprised with.
I don’t want to glee over other’s pains, but it makes me really appreciative over our current leadership when I see developments like below:
http://www.dartblog.com/data/2017/04/013199.php
@Boothie007
Ouch. Though, I did sort of suspect Dartmouth was heading downhill even before reading that, so I’m not too surprised. Seems like they’re overstretching themselves to create a traditional template for a ‘university’ rather than a college? Anyways, I’m truly happy about the direction of Northwestern and with our current administration. It’s a bright future for Northwestern.
Shout outs from our media alums!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1_hJ2wvO8Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnBpSindZIY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBou1uIhLYs
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-julia-louis-dreyfus-george-r-r-martin-northwestern-20151109-htmlstory.html
It’s not just about acceptance rate. It’s at least as much about yield. If you factor in highly paying international students, every type of diversity, and other class building considerations, this has become an insane process. Best advice is to focus on a group of schools in a range and not to fixate on one as opposed to any other school. Remember that within a reasonable swath of schools, how well you do is a lot more important than where you go.
Exciting times for NU nanotechnology!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNmRzfd2n1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PhkTh-fKr8
Also, great news on NU athletics:
http://chicago.suntimes.com/sports/extensions-of-reality-northwestern-athletics-is-better-than-ever/
Another enormous win for NU recruiting in development economics:
http://www.poverty-action.org/blog/ipa-congratulates-dean-karlan-his-move-northwestern
https://www.econjobrumors.com/topic/udry-to-northwestern/page/13
Acceptance rate is only one of numerous factors. Yield is as important. If yield goes up and acceptance rate stays the same, that good.