Northwestern is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois with 8,000 undergraduates and as many graduate students. The university is in the top 10 nationally, and is world-renowned for journalism and communications. Many students seek out Northwestern for just this reason, as they look to combine a journalism or communications course of study with secondary interests in STEM or the humanities. That isn’t the only journey you can go on at Northwestern, though — not by a long shot.
The mission of the school isn’t strange among top universities. They want to provide “excellent teaching, innovative research,” and personal and intellectual growth. How they pursue that goal, however, is pretty unique. With campuses in Evanston, Chicago, and Qatar, there is a global bend to the educational environment that is undeniable by design. Evanston and Chicago are only 12 miles apart, but offer two totally different campus environments, one in a college town and the other in a global city. Since 2008, the Qatar campus has represented another side to the Northwestern experience, with undergraduate majors in communication and journalism in global setting. All of the campus’ are quirky. Just look at “The Rock” a literal rock that has a near cult following, including its own 24/7 webcam. The most competitive students for admission to Northwestern combine the pursuit for excellence in academics with great curiosity and passionate individualism.
The Northwestern acceptance rate is a mere 7.2%, and about half the class is admitted through Early Decision.
If you are considering applying to Northwestern, you’ll need to plan ahead and put your summers to work. In this post, we’ll break down how you can use your summers to increase your chances of getting into Northwestern.
If you’re considering applying to Northwestern, let us know. We’re pros at helping top students get into their first-choice colleges.
What does Northwestern want to see from your summer?
When it comes to summer break, Northwestern wants to see that you use your time outside of the classroom to pursue what you care about — but it’s doesn’t need to be a linear path. How you use your summers can reinforce, or even prove, that you’re a ‘fit.’ But what is a ‘fit,’ you ask? Northwestern is really passionate about this idea that there are students that fit with the school in the way a perfect sweatshirt feels like a second skin.
There are quantitative measures of fit: your grades being the most obvious. But what Northwestern spends the most time contemplating are the non-quantitative aspects of who you are, and how they align with the university. It is, they say, “not just about who you’ve been or who you are, but also who you will be.” It is “not about being perfect,” and they want students who will “change as you develop.”
So, it isn’t about checking any particular box with your summer, but instead giving them a feeling. Is that hard? Um, yeah. It’s fuzzy and unclear and hard. We can help, but there are some other things you can do in the meantime to use your summer to illustrate that you are a fit.
Emphasize Your Interests
The number one thing your summer should do is to serve to emphasize your interests. Show them what you care about through what you do. This isn’t as obvious, or at least doesn’t need to be, as doing a summer program in history if you want to major in history. We encourage students to look at their interests more broadly, and to explore them more creatively. If you are indeed interested in history, you could seek out an internship at a local library. If you are passionate about education, you could work as a camp counselor. If you are thinking of majoring in journalism, you could try for a summer job at a local paper. All the same principles apply to the maths and sciences, too. Volunteering with a summer tutoring program or working at a local robotics camp are ways to underlining what you care about while broadening your experiences and serving your community (even if you are getting paid, which isn’t a bad thing — we love a job!).
You can also take part in summer programs that you have to pay for, like camps and academic programs, and many of them are quite competitive and look fancy on your resume. But you need to make sure that you’re doing any pay-to-play program for more than the brand name of whatever program it is. An Ivy League summer program isn’t all that valuable or impressive towards your Northwestern application if you’re only doing it for that Ivy credential. It needs to be aligned with your interests and passions, and provide an opportunity to explore those passions to a depth you haven’t been able to access at school so far.
Augment Your Academics
One thing summer programs can be useful for is addressing gaps in your educational record. This can include academic programs and camps, or courses through a local university that your high school will accept as credit towards your graduation or even to replace a weak grade earned during the normal school year. For example, if you’re passionate about language, or if you simply got a bad grade in a language class, you could consider going to a program like the Concordia Language Villages, which offers immersive summer camp language experiences, many for high school credit, in 14 languages.
Taking additional summer instruction can be especially important if you are interested in the Integrated Science Program or the Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences Program at Northwestern, both of which have expectations that may require you to supplement what your high school offers. The Emory Summer College program, for example, operates parallel to a non-credit option, but gives rising juniors and seniors in high school the opportunity to earn real credit through Emory courses in-person or online, sharing a classroom with Emory undergrads.
If you live near a major university, it may also be worth reaching out to professors and graduate students for independent research opportunities. By contributing to their work, you learn a lot about how the world of research functions, and may even learn what you need to conduct research of your own.
Have Fun
Northwestern is looking for students who do more, and who want more from life, than to just grind towards an A. They want to see that you’re enjoying yourself, and embracing all life has to offer. You’ll be able to show this in how you write about what you do in your application essays, and even in your activities section (even though those descriptions are very short). So, what we’re saying here is that it’s ok to do some things just for fun. You’re a kid. Enjoy yourself. Not everything needs to be calibrated for a college outcome.
If you pack all of your summer, every summer, full of things that look like work (and not the fun, fulfilling a passion kind), that doesn’t make you look like too much fun. And Northwestern wants students who truly enjoy life, and who seek out fun.
But Not Too Much
Ok, but don’t take that too far. Frolicking in a field of flowers is all well and good (and maybe even an essay topic if you’re into biology, ecology, or the 19th century Romantics), but it won’t give you the ‘pay off’ you’re looking for if you’re shooting for a top college. Seek to find a balance between fun-time and productive time, and allow for a blurring of a line between the two. When you are looking for a summer job that connects to what you want to study, remember that ‘relevant’ can be defined widely. Working as a server with your best friend in a restaurant has a lot to do with psychology and communication, so link can be found in the most unexpected places and may not be immediately evident.
And don’t get in trouble. That’s no fun at all. Seriously. Silly mess-ups can seriously impact your chances of getting into Northwestern, especially if they are immortalized on social media.
It can be easy to let a summer slide by, then another, and another. We get it. We like dangling our toes in the water too, but it’s important to forge a balance between making summer work for you, while also letting it recharge your batteries before another successful school year.
We work with exceptional students to create outstanding applications, from summer plans to final essays. Email us to learn more.