@matthew234 Yes, there is! If you search groups on Facebook it’s called “Northwestern University- Class of 2021”
Decision: Accepted!!
School of Communication
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 1500 (750, 750)
ACT: –
SAT II: Math II: 730, Literature: 740, US History: 580
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5% in class of 300
AP (place score in parenthesis): US History (5), World History (4), Physics I (4), English Lang (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): –
Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc AB, AP Biology, AP Psychology, AP English Lit., AP Spanish, Choir, World Religions, Capstone
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): –
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Theatre Department (Representative), 3 choirs (Section Leader), Technology Support Club
Job/Work Experience: –
Volunteer/Community service: Spent some time in Honduras helping with the construction of a school for an impoverished village
Summer Activities: Community theatre
Essays: Common App questioning the importance of an artist’s intent when interpretting their work, Very specific Why NU essay.
Teacher Recommendation: 2 very good recs from my APUSH teacher and one of my theatre directors, one decent rec from my Calc teacher
Counselor Rec: idk
Additional Rec:–
Interview: –
Other
State (if domestic applicant): MD
Country (if international applicant): USA
Intended major(s): Theatre
School Type: Private/religious, all-boys,
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: Middle-Upper middle class
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Nah
Reflection
Strengths: Very good essays and stellar recommendation letters, GPA
Weaknesses: Test scores
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected: Essays and my recommendations were from people who knew me very well.
@aumhcs Thank you! Submitted a request to join lol
I feel like, just to supplement what I had before, I should mention that I go to the best public high school in the state of Ohio (depending on what year and who you ask) and I had three fantastic letters of recommendation, two of which are from teachers who knew me very well personally as well as academically. I’m a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist and for the last four summers I have worked in my school’s IT department. Now, I work at a technology startup in my area. I’m a white male.
I have awards from my area for my work in the LGBTQ community and I got a medal from Northwestern University itself for my ACT score in 8th grade. I won the Rensselaer medal from my high school.
The two things that might have hurt me are my essays (which, I’ll admit, could have been stronger) and my unweighted GPA of 3.83, but, again, I go to an incredibly competitive school and that’s near the highest GPA a person can be reasonably expected to attain while still having a social/extracurricular life. Also, I didn’t have anything in the area of sports except for one season of track last year.
I’m really not saying this to brag or anything. I just want people to know that even very qualified candidates are getting deferred, and it’s probably not because of your grades or your extracurriculars. It might just be chance.
@scolton99 I’m sorry you weren’t accepted, you seem like you were probably one of the most qualified applicants. I’m sure if you have a good mid year report you will be accepted RD!
Excellent candidates get rejected all the time. It’s how life works. We are all…and I mean this all…excellent students. Why else would we by applying to college? So you can come up with any excuse you want…the right school is out there for all of us. Don’t give it another thought! I applied RD so my wait has just begun!
@scolton99 One possible explanation is that were other applicants with similar stats to you and NU can’t take them all. Being from OH probably worked against you.
Has anyone has an update on when we can see financial aid
Yeah has anyone been able to see their financial aid package?
To people asking about financial aid - I know a paper copy is coming in the mail, and fedex text me today to say mine was coming on Tuesday. Although I was planning on calling the office tomorrow because there are people at my school who need to know before I break up on Monday, so I’ll let you know what I find out
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@scolton99 perhaps what hurt you was your sense of self entitlement
If you apply ED and are not accepted, how can you tell whether you were denied or deferred? Thanks!
Asking for a friend, but to everyone who applied early decision, have you all heard back from NU by now?
@steve99 all decisions are in the portal by now (and have been since yesterday at 5 pm CST)
I just saw that some part of the housing process will open on the 4th. Just to get a heads up from current students, where should I try to live? Allison didn’t seem too bad. I know NU doesn’t have a great reputation for dorms so I figure I’ll do what I can haha
@mjlmjl In my application and all communication with Northwestern, I was as humble as can be. I didn’t start to feel like I really had a chance until my guidance counselor and the people around me who had experience with Northwestern told me that I had a fantastic chance of getting in. It’s hard not to be surprised after everyone has built you up like that for months.
But I’ll admit that that could be a factor and I’m ashamed of that.
@scolton99 - would you mind sharing why you think your essays could have been stronger - or perhaps why you thought those might have worked against you. Because, in all honesty, the rest of your application is very strong. Clearly your academics are sufficient (don’t worry about the .15 or whatever off from a perfect 4.0 - it doesn’t matter) and your test scores are more than enough. Those things didn’t hold you back. Neither did your EC’s, as long as you were passionate about what you were doing. It had to have been something intangible (assuming that there isn’t a large degree of chance, which does happen to be your point and can certainly have been the case). If you could pinpoint it - what would that be?
I’d also think that once you do pinpoint it, you can use that information to put together the message you want to convey to your admissions counselor in order to convince him/her once you call to re-commit to Northwestern. Assuming that you still wish to attend.
@JBStillFlying2 – thank you for all that. So, from my perspective, my essays were structurally and grammatically as good as they can get. What I worry more about is that I hit the wrong points or didn’t accentuate the parts of my life that aren’t already underlined in the rest of the Common App. I’ll have some more detail tomorrow because I’m talking with my friend’s mom, a communications expert and Northwestern alumna, and I’ll be sure to leave my findings here so that some of the RD applicants can benefit from it. Stay tuned.