<p>My grandmother went to Northwestern for 3 years and my mom went to graduate school at northwestern. Neither donate any money, but does that still help?</p>
<p>of course it helps!</p>
<p>how much tho?</p>
<p>If you are a qualified candidate, then yes, it will help. However, if you are highly unlikely it won't get you in. It can't hurt, but it doesn't make up for subpar grades/scores/ecs/recs</p>
<p>It might be of limited help, but a legacy usually means a parent or grandparent graduated from the undergrad school. Having a family history with NU that does not fit this description is probably worth something, but not much. The main question will be whether you are highly qualified.</p>
<p>put it this way i have a 31 on the ACT's everything else is great. Grades are below northwestern average</p>
<p>i'm in a similar situation. good luck!</p>
<p>How far below the NU average are the grades?
And it's really not just the grades, but the rigor - what some schools call the "challenge level" - of your courses, whether you are uniformly strong across all academic subject areas, or whether you are a history or English student who is weak in math/science, etc.
For example, a good history student who never takes physics or calculus could have a problem. Also, they'd rather see a B in AP BC calculus than an A in a regular math course.</p>
<p>im talking about on a 14 point GPA scale im about .9 off of the northwestern average. So essentially I'm a B+ student and if i was an A- i'd be in the more typical range.</p>
<p>Not likely to help in my opinion and experience. I'm a Northwestern grad and my son applied year before as NMF and top 3% of his class, made state band, etc. He was rejected.</p>