Northwestern Early Decision for Fall 2022 Admission

Colleges & Universities Northwestern University
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It is very true that NU admission folks don’t like to give deferrals. They either like you or they don’t, which eliminates the suspense for most people and makes their life somewhat simpler.

A bird tells me that the ED admit rate dropped from something like 24% last year to around 20% this year, so I can imagine the RD rate dropping to 3-3.5%. Let’s wait till they release the stats, hopefully soon enough.

Congrats to those who were accepted, and best of luck to those who were not. Maybe something better is in the cards. Have faith!

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I did!

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Did the bird give any other stats on number of applicants in ED, recruits & accepted?

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The bird only chirped a little today, so I had to read between the lines. It was implied that # of ED apps went up to 5K this year. My guess is that the # of acceptances remains largely unchanged, around 1100. Sorry I do not have a read on recruits.

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CarnegieDad - Any additional info from the bird who chirped about Northwestern’s ED stats? I have a very heartbroken deferred daughter, and I think seeing those updated stats from this year might help her put things in perspective. She is submitting a LOCI and applying RD to her other schools. We have not seen anything released from them yet. Thanks so much!

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Hi there. I am sorry to hear about your D’s deferral, but I do not have any updates. All I know is that NU received roughly 5,500 this year, up from about 4,411 last year. I assume that the # they accepted would be similar, at 1,100.

The 1,100 include athletic recruits and legacy/faculty/major donor kids. Then enter the kids matched through Questbridge and other inclusion programs. All told, I believe only 500-550 spots were left for unhooked applicants. If you do the simple math, the real ED admit rate is less than 10%, much lower than the 20-25% some people had in mind.

I am sorry the numbers are not encouraging. However, your DD has done the right thing by submitting an LOCI and looking at RD schools. I honestly think that LOCIs are great, as there is no standard format, and the student can use this opportunity to express once again her strong affections for NU and petition her case. Before sending it, make sure it is addressed to the right AO and well written with convincing bullets.

Best of luck!

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I wonder what percentage of the pool was deferred this year? Seems like they deferred more than in the past?

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I was accepted as a CompLit major to Weinberg! Go Wildcats!!!

Stats:
ACT: 35 (36 English, 36 Reading, 35 Science, 32 math)
GPA: 3.95/4.0 UW (will be closer to 3.97 by the end of senior year)
Course rigor: rigorous/well-known college prep school
• APUSH, AP Lit, AP French Lang, + AP Euro exam (taken independently)
• Honors English 11, Honors Senior English (10-person seminar), Honors Art History, Honors French 9, Honors French Literature, Advanced Performing Arts Seminar (costume design)

Extracurriculars: all HEAVILY humanities related (manager at a small bookstore, EIC of a school magazine, coordinator at a literary nonprofit, summer camp counselor at a French-immersion elementary school, etc.)

• Hooks: legacy (Dad went to NU.) But it seems like only a third of NU legacy students got in; I’ve also witnessed a lot of heartbreak this past week from the majority of legacies to HYP, Penn, Columbia, Duke, etc. So I am incredibly, incredibly grateful to be a part of the class of 2026!!!

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Congratulations!! You deserve to be a Wildcat, even without legacy. But it is very interesting you brought up the heartbreaking legacy stories. Under the Penn thread, a double legacy kid (with a heavyhitter donor parent) was not given admission. A good friend of mine also told me his kid was deferred by Cornell, despite having double legacy. A Princeton alum also told me the school is trying to move away from legacy preference.

You mentioned that NU still admits 1/3 of legacy kids. How does that compare with historical numbers? Would you have stats for other elite schools? I will PM You.

Thanks and congrats again!!

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Anecdotally, word on the street here locally is that legacy is the only way to go ED.

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I think it makes perfect sense. How can you expect your alma mater to show loyalty to you if you don’t show them yours first?

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Thanks for the congrats!

The 1/3 was a guess, based on other top 20 colleges. I don’t have a stat for it, but it’s based on similar things I’ve seen at UPenn, Duke, Cornell, etc. The one I know for sure is Harvard, because they were forced to release their admissions after that lawsuit a few years ago; their acceptance rate for legacy is 33%. I’ve heard Penn is the friendlies with legacy, estimated to be at around 40%.

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Sharing our experience with our son who was admitted ED to McCormick for CS. We figured that ED was the way to go since NU was his first choice.

U/W 4.0 Rank 1/450 public HS in a rural area in the plains.

ACT 35, SS 36 (submitted)

9 AP classes and 3 DE - All 4s and 5s on tests taken

VERY extensive music extracurriculars on a local, regional, state, and national level and leadership positions within these groups

Academic Team president, All State Academic Team (top players in our state), top player in tournaments, Nationals appearances

Involvement in NHS, Beta club and the like

Part of new student orientation team

Committee head of major school wide philanthropy event

AP Scholar, National Merit semi finalist, other local and state honors

Volunteer at local food bank

Strong rec. letters (Two teacher and one counselor), strong essays, esp, Why NU?

Submitted resume on CA as well

Legacy (Dad)

Still surprised he was admitted given how difficult it has become, but he has worked toward this since we can remember.

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Our son was also accepted ED for McCormick CS. Similar stats - 4.0/36. Not legacy, but it’s always felt like home for him as he’s been on the NU campus 5-6 days a week since he was 7 y.o. for swim team. He lived through the construction of the new CS building, the Garage, football practice facility, the new 560 Lincoln dorms, etc. so he’s excited to get to actually get to use them!

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Did anyone get physical acceptance packets? My D got her acceptance ED through portal but nothing in mail yet.

Stats: 36 ACT, 1580 SAT, Nm semi finalist.
AP diploma. 4.0 unweighted

Youth Philanthropist of the year
Works for Department of public health
Co Chair of youth government statewide
Legacy ( grad school)
Lots of EC’s
Learning Disabilities

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nothing in the mail yet and my D keeps asking me if it has come. She has checked the portal to make sure her acceptance letter has not changed. LOL. on cloud9

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Nothing in the mail yet either. So excited! Does anyone know how the freshman housing assignments are made? Do freshmen ever get singles? What is the engineering res. college like?

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Any word on the official ED acceptance rate for class of 2026? Can’t find it online…

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Thanks for the helpful feedback and insight - it is much appreciated!

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Anyone gotten anything in the mail yet from NU?