Madmag

I'm a junior in h.s. and was curious how people are enjoying Medill and Northwestern. And of course, what were some ECs you did that you believe got you accepted into Medill?

CCCollegiate

I'm going to be a freshman in Medill starting next month, so I can't tell you how I'm enjoying the campus and/or classes.

I can tell you about my ECs and scores, if that helps.

In high school, I was the president of the senior class (student government for 4 years), president of Mu Alpha Theta (3-year member, previously secretary), president of National Spanish Honors Society (3-year member), 2-year president of Beta Club (3-year member), editor of the yearbook (2-year member), captain of the speech and debate team (4-year member), and involved in various community leadership initiatives.

I took the SAT three times (it's recommended you not take it any more than that; it tends to look excessive if you do) and did very well my third go-round. I had good grades, but I certainly wasn't the best student. The positive were that my lowest scores were in math and science, neither of which I planned to pursue at Northwestern. I think essays were definitely a big help; make sure to answer the Medill-specific question with a lot of enthusiasm and detail.

Hope this helps! Feel free to pm me if you have any more questions.

Madmag

Thank you so much!!

atardecer0

I was in Medill for two years before transferring to Weinberg in Spring '08... so I can tell you a bit about how Medillians are "enjoying" Medill and Northwestern, as well as EC's...

Not to blow things out of proportion, but a lot of my friends in Medill share my frustration and discontent with the curricula. That being said, I can't think of any instance where the professors/instructors were blamed. Medill will really test your skills as a journalist as well as your passion to become one. Luckily if you end up finding out that journalism isn't your passion--it wasn't for me--, there are so many other amazing departments and majors. I really couldn't see myself anywhere else.

As for ECs... In high school I was a two-sport athlete, varsity for a total of 6 seasons; editor in chief of newspaper for 2 years, staff member and editor for the other two; president of both spanish and german honors societies; staff writer for my local daily with one article a week in the off-season and biweekly during sports. My best grades were in math and science with overall good grades, and my writing was what I was most known for. I had several awards for athletics, writing competitions and community service... Oh how I miss high school.

Also, feel free to PM me if you have any questions

I1uRveC0ke

I'm also an entering freshman Medillean. My credentials were much worse than CCCollegiate--or pretty much any other person I saw get in. I hate helping people so I think I had less than 50 hours of community for my ENTIRE high school career. I dont think I even listed it on my app. I was only really involved in two clubs, Mock Trial and Newspaper (Associate Editor one year) in 11th and 12th grades. I put some other bs clubs like Latin Club as well. I got a decent score on my standarized tests (33/2100) and nearly a 4.0 (although there was mass grade inflation), so that's probably what got me in. So I didn't have many journalism related activities.

jkaufman

Is Medill probably the hardest/most competitive school to get into at NU?

cmere

Is anyone in Graduate School in Medill?
I applied and the admissions people said I had a good shot....but they might say that to everybody.