Can Northwestern Be a Saftey for me??

poem
Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:35:02 +0000

GammaGrozza stated:
“No, anyone with a 3.7 UW GPA (honors/AP classes) or higher has gotten in the past three years. I think the lowest ACT scores for people with a 3.7 is high 20s or so. 3.7 seems to be the magic barrier.”

I don’t think GammaGrozza’s data and conclusion reflected what happened in my daughter’s high school last year.

We reside in the northeast. Not many kids in my daughter’s high school applied for NU because there are many ivies and good colleges in northeast and NU is not as well-known in our area as in mid-west. There was only one student besides my daughter applied for NU in her high school last year. The other student ranked the 4th out of a class of 600 kids, and my daughter ranked only at twenties. The student has 2330 SAT scores and my daughter’s has only 2290. They both took the most challenging AP classes. The student was rejected but my daughter was accepted. My daughter felt sorry for the student because she thought the student was incredibly smart and truly deserved a spot at NU.

The area that my daughter outshined the other student is her extra-curriculum activities. She was involved with diversified activities inside and outside of the school, including music, sports, culture, and community service. Most of the activities took years of commitment and to the level of excellence. These activities demonstrated her a well-rounded person with diversified interests, persistence, and commitment.

To be honest, when my daughter chose NU as the very top choice of her college applications last year. I was really surprised because I did not know much about NU at that time. She was not interested in applying any of the ivies in northeast (which upset me at that time). After I did my own research and gained a good understanding about NU, now I have to admit that she did an excellent job in her collage research and chose a college that best fit her and NU accepted her not just by the number, but a well-rounded student that best fit the university.

One positive impact from my daughter’s acceptance to the NU, more students in her high school knew about NU and quite a number of top students in lower classes are inspired to apply for NU.

NYerr stated it the best
“Northwestern is not just a ‘numbers-driven’ admissions decision…”