Should my son apply ED to Medill (Northwestern)?

My son is trying to decide if it’s worth using his ED shot on Medill or if his chances are so low that he should use it elsewhere. His cumulative GPA is lower than the average Northwestern student (around 3.65 or 3.7) – but with an upward trend each year, so that by junior year he had all A’s. He has perfect or near-perfect scores on the verbal subparts of the ACT test, but is weaker in math/science. (Overall ACT score = 33). He’ll also have (what we’re told is) an unusually enthusiastic recommendation from his English/Journalism teacher. So – could he reasonably expect Medill to focus more on the strong journalism/English/verbal aspects of his application, or are they just so generally selective that his lower GPA would likely be a nonstarter?

What about his EC’s?