Wustl vs Northwestern

Bala
Sun, 17 Jun 2007 01:47:48 +0000

Pizzagirl:

General numbers are available via the school’s common data set:
http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/commondata/
and general admission’s office web page:
http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/freshman/applying/frosh.htm

Be careful of listed median SAT 25-75%s for colleges. Northwestern, to its credit, posts medians of Enrolled students on its admissions site. These numbers tend to be lower than those for Accepted (AKA Admitted) students. Most colleges typically make available the latter. Be careful to compare apples to apples when assessing potential admission competitiveness. I have not seen Wash U make any of this information available.

Sam Lee’s numbers regarding SAT differences among individual schools at NU I’m guessing derive from the site below (or its updated cousin). His posts are quite reliable. I only have these available through 2004 – sorry I don’t have more recent figures, they’re out there somewhere in cyberspace:
http://www.adminplan.northwestern.edu/ir/databook/v37/V37_T27.XLS

With regard to legacy, the admissions office is quite open in stating that it does consider this in your favor if applying ED. They are also quite clear that it will not be considered in an RD application. Again, they tend to shoot quite straight in this regard. How much will it help? It will take an already qualified applicant and solidify his/her chances. At NU, and most top tier schools, if you have grades/standardized tests/ECs solidly in range for accepted students, legacy offers a measurably greater chance of admission. If any of these factors, especially grades and test scores, fall outside that range, don’t expect miracles.