u/Miracle_274

I am an incoming class of 2030 McCormick student for Industrial Engineering, but one of the main reasons I chose Northwestern was because of how many people picked up extra majors/interests. I had gone in with the intentions of wanting to do Economics and Industrial Engineering, but a lot of people are saying that it will take 5 years. I am not sure what I will end up doing, but I do know that doing 5 years at NU might be a bit of a financial strain so I would like to avoid that. Is it better to just try and double major in something else, try to get a minor in Economics at Weinberg, or just go through with a dual degree.

Demographics

• Gender: Female
• Race/Ethnicity: South Asian
• Residence: Georgia
• Income Bracket: Upper middle class
• Type of School: Large public high school (top 5 in the state but not a feeder, ~10-15 T20s a year), class had 639 students
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): None

Intended Major(s): Industrial Engineering/Business

Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.95/4.548
• Rank (or percentile): N/A (top 10%)
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 17 APs no DE
• Senior Year Course Load: AP Calc BC, AP World History, AP Research, AP Physics C: Mech, AP Literature, Orchestra

Standardized Testing

• SAT I: 1550 (760RW, 790M)
• AP/IB: Human Geo (5), Micro (5), Gov (5), Precalc (5), Macro (5), APES (5), Psych (5), Seminar (4), Calc AB (4), Stat (4), Lang (3), APUSH (took online: 3),

Extracurriculars/Activities

Im going to give general overview, not super in depth because I don't want people recognizing me

1. Paid internship at a consulting startup: developed competitive analyses, aided in business modeling, overall market research/trends
2. Viola section leader at my school 9th and 11th grades: was a part of the best orchestra at my school (out of 6). My school also has had two people over the last two years get admitted to NU for music so I believe they at least know about our orchestra (might have helped idk)
3. Model UN member: Attended 6 conferences and won best delegate at 2 and outstanding delegate at 1
4. Secretary of a Nonprofit Org: Played orchestral/chamber music for senior homes (got a majority of my service hours from here)
5. DECA member: got first at regionals and qualified for state for two years (honestly didn't do that much with this club cuz always conflicted with Model UN)
6. Vice President of Public Speaking Club: helped found this club at my school and hosted a TedEx event our first year, continued to establish the club for future years and helped people learn public speaking skills
7. All State Orchestra Member: qualified and participated (pretty competitive...?)
8. Varsity Golf Team: was a part of the tournament team my senior year (didn't put this on app because already submitted by then)
9. Volunteer at a nature center: I did 100+ hours at this center which is why I felt it was worth mentioning and I educated kids on different kinds of species, butterflies, insects, and helped run the butterfly gardens for a bit
10. Summer Camp Counselor: just a regular camp counseling job but I did feel like it showed a diff side of me and I talked about it in a couple supplementals for colleges

Awards/Honors

List all awards and honors submitted on your application.

1. State certificate of merit: shows I was top 10%
2. AP Scholar with distinction
3. Scholar athlete at my school
4. My Model UN awards (2 best dels and 1 outstanding)
5. My DECA awards (1st regionals)

Letters of Recommendation

Macro econ teacher: Honestly was super close with her and she only wrote 10 recommendations per year. Was also resigning right after my junior year so she wrote some of her last recommendations for us. I think she probably wrote a good one so I will say like a 9/10 maybe even a 10/10.

Literature teacher: She was super sweet but wrote recommendations for a lot of people. I know she likes me and did try to personalize it, but I honestly didn't get super close to her until after she wrote my recommendation. So, I think probably a 6/10?

Interviews

Georgetown: This was a required interview but honestly I felt like it went really well and I had great conversations with my interviewer. It didn't feel super formal and was pretty conversational. Half of it was her asking me if I had any questions about Georgetown so if you do have an interview for them, definitely prepare questions.

Essays

I feel like a spent a decent amount of time on my essay and I really liked it. I felt like it really showed my personality and I wrote about how I look vs. who I really am. I look like a stereotypical Indian, which is not a bad thing, but I was never someone that really connected with my culture and honestly was pretty Americanized. So, I wrote about my experience as being perceived as an entirely different person than who I really am. Would rate my essay an 8/10.

Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)

Acceptances:

• Georgia State University (lowk applied as a safety)
• University of Georgia - Honors College (EA)
• Georgia Institute of Technology (EA)
• Northwestern University (ED)

I withdrew all other applications before hearing back

Additional Information:

I feel like I showed a decent amount of demonstrated interest towards Northwestern, but it started the summer before my senior year, so I hadn't been doing it for years. Honestly feel like my ECs aren't that amazing or insane, and the ED probably helped me. I do think my essays helped show that I was a pretty well rounded person because I don't have anything I lean into specifically or insanely. Also note I applied industrial engineering to Northwestern but didn't really have ECs that aligned so idrk how that worked out. I kind of wanted to give other potential Northwestern ED students a reference because I barely found any, so I hope this helps anyone looking! Overall, super grateful for everything and am super happy to go to NU next year! Go Cats!