Brutally honest chance me for Northwestern and WashU ED + other RD [3.9, 34 ACT, bus/econ]

Chance Me / Match Me
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Demographics

  • US citizen
  • Small uncompetitive state
  • Type of high school: Large Public (sends 20~/600 to t20 each year)
  • Income: Mid class seeking aid

Intended Major(s) Business/Econ + Sociology

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 3.98
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 34

Can’t take APs in 9th
10th: APUSH (5) APCSP (4)
11th: AP Calc AB (didn’t take) AP Gov (didn’t take) AP Lang (4) AP Bio (5)
12th: AP Lit, AP Stats, AP Econ, AP World

Awards (all earned junior year)

  • DECA ICDC 4th place prelim roleplay score
    (technically figured out by calculating based on my score percentile and number of ppl in my event from the ICDC competition report, not an official award title so not sure if I’m allowed to put this down)
  • DECA ICDC Finalist
  • DECA SCDC 2nd place exam score
  • DECA SCDC 5th place overall
  • 2nd place regional science fair

Extracurriculars

1. NPO co-founder - focused on giving back to Viet community in US and VN (9-12)

  • Raised $5000+ providing food and school supplies for Viet communities
  • Raised $100+ through bottle drive for victims of natural disaster targetting SEA
  • Worked with 70+ youth at summer camp initiative in rural Vietnam; ran game booths and prizes, prepared meals

2. Project centered on Vietnamese American youth political action (11-12)

  • Conducted independent research on source of radical conservatism and low political efficacy in Vietnamese American refugees
  • Interviewed Vietnam War refugees and immigrants on lived experiences
  • Created informative posts on history of Vietnam war refugees
  • Developing lessons teaching Asian American youth how to approach conversations with immigrant families on polarizing issues

3. Nonprofit co founder - teaching pfl to older immigrants in local community (12)
Worked with business professionals to develop curriculum teaching esl immigrants in local community on important pfl topics in native language (60+ impacted)

4. Student ambassador and chapter cofounder for local health nonprofit (11)

  • Developed presentations in hs and ms health classes (50+ students)
  • Presented on effective youth advocacy strategies at conference in state university to healthcare policy workers and students

5. Key Club Treasurer (member 9-12) Worked with restaurants to raise $300+ for club activities

6. Paid Internship on political action at state level NPO (12) Developing social justice advocacy and community organizing strategies w/ other students

7. Vietnamese school TA (10-11)

8. Kumon tutor job (12)

9. Drums for church worship team (7-12)

10. Drummer for school club that plays in nursing homes (11-12)

Essays/LORs/Other: Subjective so just assume as average for an applicant

Schools
Safety

  • My 2 state schools
  • IU Kelley (auto admit)

Target

  • Purdue
  • UTD

Reaches

  • Possible ED Northwestern (econ+asian american studies so more tailored to my ecs)
  • Possible ED WashU
  • Georgetown
  • Rice
  • Notre Dame
  • Vanderbilt
  • Claremont Mckenna
  • Cornell ILR
  • Columbia
  • Duke

A big thing im considering is whether I should ED to WashU or NU. I want to do consulting, possibly finance, and both are good for this (WashU not good for finance though) and give large boosts to ED applicants. I would choose NU over WashU but not sure if im good enough for NU.

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Just want to say that I would only recommend an ED application to a college that appears affordable and is your absolute top choice. Otherwise you will always wonder “what if.”

I believe Wash U has ED2 as an option.

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The what if is what gets me for sure. Northwestern is better than WashU for consulting and miles better for finance but even if i get in cost is unfortunately a factor. out of this list WashU gives the best aid and is predicted at 10k cheaper than NU. My family has a lot of $$ saved up but this is still something I’m considering.

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You are already in a very good position if you have Kelley in the bag –– many consulting firms and financial institutions recruit there. Now, in terms of your ED strategy, first make sure you get good rec letters from your GC and teachers. This is not easy for a big public school, so make sure you engage them early and ensure that their comments will make you glow. The other priority is to improve your ACT score. A 34 is solid, but a 35 would place you very well anong your peers. Finally, in your essays, make sure you address the ‘Why NU’ or ‘Why WashU’ question well. Be original, personal and passionate when you write them.

Since you already have Kelley on hand, you should aim higher for your ED (go for NU, and save WashU or Vanderbilt for ED2).

NU is phenomenal for consulting recruiting, because they have a huge installed base of alums (both Kellogg and undergrad) within all top firms. Vanderbilt and Rice both offer ED2, and generally have better reps than WashU in consulting. For a career in finance, the Ivies still place very well, while Duke, ND and NU are not far behind. Good luck.

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Thanks for the response and insight into consulting recruiting. At this point I’m leaning pretty heavily towards ED to Northwestern but I’d also like to know: is the advantage Northwestern have over WashU for consulting and finance recruiting worth the $10k/yr NU costs over WashU?

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Only you and your parents can answer this question considering your savings and any other relevant factors. For example, would you have to take out loans for the extra $10K? If so, that would probably be a no for me.

But if the $10K is affordable, again to me, NU would be worth the extra dollars if I were looking at a consulting or finance career. But your pros and cons and final decision could be different than mine, or someone else’s.

Have you visited both NU and WashU?

Also, IU Kelley direct admit criteria are going to change, but the details haven’t been released yet. I expect your stats will still qualify for direct admit (assuming your GPA is on your transcript and you’ve only attended one HS.) Also, I’m not sure your actual budget, but you may not get any aid at Kelley. Is it affordable (about $60K COA in direct costs this year) without any aid? If not, it’s not a safety.

Can you clarify what your budget is/how much aid you need?

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So I do not believe universities give out generic ED “boosts”. I think in certain specific cases, they may waitlist or reject some applicants in RD that they would have accepted ED. But if you do not fall into one of those specific cases, I don’t think applying ED will do anything for you.

Given this, I am personally not sure you should ED to Northwestern. It is not actually clear to me Northwestern is your favorite to begin with. Even assuming it was, it sounds like you might want to compare financial aid offers before deciding. Under those circumstances, I think it is fine not to ED anywhere, and I really don’t think you are giving up much unless you know those special circumstances would apply to you–and I suspect they would not at Northwestern.

You didn’t ask about this, but I will throw in one more observation. Your Reaches are mostly midsize privates, and one LAC. Your Likelies and Targets are then all large publics. This strikes me as an inconsistency.

Of course Kelley is a special case, and if you are auto admit there, I can see it knocking out more Likelies and Targets than usual. Indeed, I know people who are high enough on Kelley they just apply there and a few Reaches, which makes sense for them.

But if you have any other Likelies or Targets at all, I would think you would want to consider ones that are more consistent with your Reaches in basic nature. And in fact, some might offer you merit, which could lead to very interesting offers to consider.

So if you are interested, people here could give you some suggestions along those lines.

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My financial situation is a little strange.

My family’s net income is 150k for this year and we also own an additional home worth 450k (bought like 25 years ago by pooling money from my parents and 2 other families combined but we retained the house after they moved to diff state) and I also have a twin that will attend college, so i’m very privileged to have minimum 225k to freely spend on college/post grad. In this case, the extra 10k is something I would be willing to take.

Unfortunately my dad is planning to retire after my senior year so our net income will be at 70k~ and i’m not sure whether schools will change my aid favorably. I’ve seen lots of students get dramatically reduced aid after their first year for no reason which does scare me. I guess this would depend on how flexible the financial aid office of each school is, which seems pretty anecdotal and unpredictable. Which is why I’m not super clear what to do in this situation.

And Kelley oos cost slipped my mind somehow thanks. Saw 5+ seniors at my school commit this year but forgot I live in an area where a lot of students are upper mid class. Though i can most likely guarantee getting in, I also most likely can’t commit which defeats the purpose of a safety.

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I don’t know either. Run the NPCs with this income. But you have to include all the assets, including the 2nd home. If an NPC doesn’t ask for info on a second home, you will not get accurate results so can not rely on the NPC estimates.

Let’s play out the timing too. Financial aid forms use prior prior year for income. You are graduating in 2026, so will complete FAFSA 2026-27 (which opens this Oct 1.) FAFSA 2026-27 will use income from 2024. Then, your soph year of college on FAFSA 2027-28, you will use income from 2025, junior year 2026, and senior year 2027.

So, if your dad retires in 2027, that year of lower income won’t impact your financial aid until your senior year. Note you can ask for professional judgment before then, but it may not be granted. Depending on your asset situation though, his lower income might not significantly change your aid package. So do some scenario running on the NPCs and of course talk all this over with your parents.

For schools like NU and WashU you will have to also complete CSS Profile in addition to FAFSA.

Would you like us to help you find a highly likely/safety that will be affordable? I know you said your two in-state schools are safeties…are they affordable? Do you like those enough to attend?

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Do you mean that your family is planning to sell the additional home to pay for college for you and your twin?

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Sorry if Im uneducated but while I do think your ED reasoning applies to lots of schools that have slightly higher ed acceptance rates than rd, from my research NU and WSTL specifically (along with a handful of other schools like uchicago, cmc) have significantly higher ED acceptances than RD (Northwestern is 20% ED, 5% RD) and are noted to reserve about half their class for ED students. But the financial aid is definitely my biggest pain point for sure. From running NPC I would be able to afford the difference but with federal budget cuts i’m not sure what to expect anymore.

My safeties are large public’s because I prefer large to midsized publics and the ones I chose are relatively lower cost + I have family there, but I’m aware privates give more aid. With that being said, could I get some recommendations for midsized to larger privates that could be considered a target?

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Not for college specifically, just for use after graduating college (house/apartment, car, investing.) I don’t think it would be wise to blow it all on an undergraduate degree though.

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So where is the money coming from to pay for college?

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The funds from selling the house will be used for college but I would prefer not to spend it ALL on college.

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Yes that would be helpful thanks

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You have to tell us a budget. For example, do you want it to be under $50K? $40K?

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For sure under 50k. Since it’s a target/safety and not reach (so paying for prestige prob won’t net much roi) and my state school is around 30k total, I would prefer under 40k as well. For reference WashU was mid 30k when I ran NPC.

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If the plan is to sell the other home and put all the money into a savings account to fund college for you and your twin, I would also test run NPCs assuming this amount of assets in a savings account.

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