<p>Does officially becoming a National Merit Finalist after being a Semifinalist matter in this case?</p>
<p>it might…</p>
<p>To those who didn’t get in, I wish you all the best. If you applied to Northwestern and your stats are in the ballpark, you’re probably competitive for our peer institutions. Just work on improving those apps because in the end, your presentation is whmatters more than the stats themselves (again if your stats are within the range of accepted students). Your teacher recs, essays, EC profile all have to tell a coherent, compelling narrative.</p>
<p>As some encouragement, D knows 2 people who were rejected by NU but accepted to Yale, and a 3rd Yale acceptance who was wait listed by NU (finally accepted to NU and goes there now), and a guy whose dream school was NU who is now happy at Princeton, so a “no” at Northwestern in no way rules out other fantastic "yes"s. Great things await you!</p>