Should I ED or RD Northwestern? (AKA chance this unfortunate soul)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

Trying to decide between ED Northwestern or Brown…help me.

Objective:
ACT (breakdown): 36C (36E 36R 36M 36S)
SAT II: 1560
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): No ranks or percentiles bc otherwise people at my school would actually murder each other
AP (place score in parenthesis): APUSH (5), Physics 1 (5), Bio (5), APCSP (5), AP Lang (5), Will have taken 11 ish APs by graduation
Senior Year Course Load: AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Stats, AP Gov, AP Micro, AP German
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): haha no

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
-Varsity Fencing (JV Team Captain), 4 yrs We usually win state.
-Varsity Quiz Bowl (JV Team Captain) My team is pretty good, top 10 in both PACE NSC and HSNCT nationals. 4 yrs
-Art no awards, but my work is displayed and printed in a few places
-HOSA 2 time state finalist, 2 yrs
-Manager of the East Asian Club 1 yr (just started the club)
-NHS
-Few minor awards from past piano/violin playing

  • Job/Work Experience:
  • Secretary in a spa (100 ish hrs)

Volunteer/Community service:(duplicated from above): around 300-400 hours total
-Art teacher at a studio and at Chinese school: 125 hrs
-Registration assistant at a hospital: 20 hrs so far, at the time I apply about 80 hrs
-Tutoring at School: Around 50 hours
-An assorted potluck of NHS activities: 50~ hours

Summer Activities:
-Summer school
-Taking some college courses at the local community college (getting As so far)
-School delegate to NSLC Health and Medicine Conference
-English teacher for kids in China with an exchange program

  • Helped rebuild a church in Germany
    -Cardiology Research internship at Case Western
    -Dermatology Research Internship at Northwestern

Applied for Financial Aid?: Nope
Intended Major: Either Biology or Anthropology
State: Illinois
School Type: Very large public, insanely competitive
Ethnicity: Chinese af
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: $$
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): The only thing I have is anti-hooks, like my overwhelming Asian-ness and a decently privileged life.

2

Do you want to go to Brown or Northwestern? Assume you are the one making the decision not the other way around. It is a binding decision and you have great stats and a good shot. Once you decide don’t look back.

3

If Northwestern University is your first choice school, then ED; if not, RD.

No guarantee of admission either way, but your odds of admission are significantly higher if you apply ED.

What is your intended major ? What other schools are you considering ?

4

If you love Northwestern, apply ED. The acceptance rate is much higher. Just be absolutely sure they are your #1. You should be a competitive applicant. Good luck!

5

My intended major is probably anthropology. As for schools, JHU, Case Western, UCLA, UIUC, and a smattering of other Ivies are on my list.

6

Would you consider Emory, Rice, Vanderbilt, or WashU given your grades/standardized scores?

Obviously everything is a reach but you have a foot in the door with your grades and test scores.

Unless your family wants to pay the OOS costs (and it looks like a possibility), UCLA isn’t worth it.

7

Apply to Northwestern ED if: 1) it is your absolute top choice school and 2) if your family has no need to compare financial offers from different colleges.

8

Agree with the above post, but I believe that Northwestern meets full need. Important to determine if NU is a no-loan school.

9

Strong academic stats and decent “extras”. IMO, you have a decent shot with NorthWestern ED. Other stats sensitive top schools are Vandy and WashU - could go for those with EDII if NorthWestern ED1 doesn’t work out. Brown ED “may” work, but it is less academic stats driven (like NU/Vdy/WashU) vs the fit (why Brown essay). If you are into med-school eventually, the med schools associated with NU/Vdy/WaU are TOP tier vs Brown’s/ Something to consider.

10

All of those schools are on my list! I’m planning to visit them sometime this summer to see if I like them, so maybe one of them will really catch my eye. Thanks!

11

Hey! I live in Rhode Island, but I go to school at Northwestern. I took classes at Brown and have lots of friends who go there, the atmospheres at both schools are really different. Obviously I love NU and would suggest it, but Brown is a better school if you’re interested in staying in the Northeast and if you like the older style of buildings/architecture. NU has a much more modern campus, and a very liberal mindset, while Brown is in the heart of Providence, NU is actually well to the north of Chicago, and even north of Evanston, so it’s not as much of a city school. To be honest, I think you have a good chance at both, and you have to decide which one you like more. My best friend got deffered ED at NU and another got deffered ED at Brown and then they both got in regular decision to those respective schools, so don’t even worry about not applying ED if you can’t commit.

12

@Whitefang1313: Brown has a more liberal student body than Northwestern.

An ED applicant to Northwestern has a much higher chance for admission than does a RD applicant.

Easy to get into Chicago from Northwestern’s Evanston campus.