<p>2030 SAT is at or above the 25th percentile for accepted students last year while 31+ACT
is in the range where 73% of applicants were accepted. I would submit that these
scores are pretty reasonable for an applicant plus plenty of students walking around
campus represent these scores. Scores look like a decent start for an applicant!</p>
<p>.02 David</p>
<p>NU '71,'72,'74</p>
<p>^ Thanks! That’s very comforting. So the ACT score is better than the SAT one?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Liv, It’s been so long that I don’t remember any more. The unweighted was somewhere between 3.5 and 4 and the weighted times 1.1 for honors and 1.2 for AP was above 4 but well below 4.5.</p>
<p>If your strength is math and your weakness is English, do a dry run on the ACT. My son’s reading score never hit 700, and his writing wasn’t in the stratosphere either. So his total single score was below 2100, but he had an 800 in math before entering HS. He tried the ACT which had, in his opinion, simpler and less emphasis on Engl, and ended with a 35, and that may be what got him into his dream school.</p>
<p>The other thing someone told us about NU, and I have no way of knowing how true this is, was that they pay attention to “demonstrated interest”. So we were told that if DD was really serious about going there, as out of staters, the first thing we should have done was a visit where we let the NU Adcoms know we were serious enough to travel mid-week and it wasn’t just another $25-50 check mark on which OOS school she should send her application to.</p>
<p>Good luck with McCormick; DD’s first roommate was in the school of Engineering and in her very first term, she was placed in some sort of program where she worked with a local business in some Engineering-oriented job or training. Another one of her friends spent several months at Intel, got an offer from them, and started at a position higher than the other new recruits. Clearly that school is very well connected with industry.</p>
<p>liv4physicz-- I suggest you web up “**************” for those schools you are
gunning for. I provided you the data from the Northwestern report off this site.</p>
<p>My daughter is completing her Junior year and is in the process of looking at
colleges. Therefore, I am pretty involved at this point in various colleges of
interest to her. She is a superb student.</p>
<p>I will relay to you the ONE rule, non rule I have noted thus far. We just completed
in the last week, the point where strong private academic institutions notify students
as to Accept, Wait List, Reject. Northwestern is one of those institutions as well
as the Ivies, Sisters, plus the other usual suspects, e.g. U of Chicago, Duke etc.</p>
<p>Rule- The competition to be accepted is so fierce that kids with fabulous scores,
class rank etc are getting rejections as well as accepts. 2030 SAT sometimes is
accepted at an Ivy while 2300+ sometimes results in a reject letter from Duke or
a Sister. I guess I am providing you with a NON RULE!</p>
<p>Good luck, and just do as well as you can do-- obtain fine letters, write fine essays,
and be really interested in being accepted at the school as you apply to it.</p>
<p>.02 David</p>
<p>Go Cats!!</p>
<p>Dad: actually, English in general is not a weakness; I got a 34 ACT subscore (690 SAT, only 'cause I hadn’t brushed up on vocabulary). It’s the rushed time, and on top of that, subjectivity, of critical reading that gets me (29 ACT, 580 SAT). I really hope I can find a strategy that works for me so I can improve these scores! And I heard that too about demonstrated interest; I visited in November over Thanksgiving break, and I’m gonna sit in on a class in a couple weeks (taking off school). Also, I’ve emailed them once asking them a question, haha</p>
<p>bn: so you’re an alum? How awesome! I love NU! And I know, I promise I’m really gonna get these scores up so I can be as competitive as possible! One thing I’ve got going for me is I’m a girl, applying to McCormick. I’m not sure if it’s quite the equivalent of being a URM, but it should help at least a little. Also, I get near perfect on the math sections of standardized tests. I’m taking the SAT in April, and hopefully I can raise that overall subscore!</p>