Maria Erdmann needed no outreach seminars, campus overnights or direct mailings to persuade her to apply to Northwestern.

The Chicago high school senior started her college search by looking at NU and, years later, says the university remains her top choice.

“I just fell in love with Northwestern,” said Erdmann, who applied to the Medill School of Journalism. “Sometimes you just know where you belong.”

Today marks judgment day for nearly 14,000 high school students who applied to NU, as the university begins to mail out this year’s acceptance packets.

High school students like Erdmann said they check the mail daily for the proverbial “thick envelope” that signals an acceptance letter. And as the university mails its decisions, some of this year’s applicants said the NU letter is the one they anticipate the most.

“It’s nerve-wracking,” Erdmann said. “I hope I’ll be really ecstatic and happy. If I don’t get in, I’ll probably be moping around for a few days.”

Although administrators said they will not release admissions details until next week, the university generally admits about 5,000 students, or one-third of its applicants, according to data from U.S. News and World Reports.

And, inevitably, the university must send rejection letters to those it chooses not to admit. Rebecca Dixon, associate provost for university enrollment, said NU will send out its rejections soon after mailing out the acceptances.

THE WAITING GAME

For now, most high school seniors can only cross their fingers, check their mailboxes, and hope for the best.

Adam Alter, a high school student from New York City who applied to the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, said he rolls out of bed each day and immediately checks the mail.

“I just have the doorman let me know when the mail’s in,” he said. “I knew it’d be a long process. Now it’s crunch time.”

Alter said he applied to seven schools but that NU is one of his top choices. He spent the summer studying journalism in NU’s National High School Institute, living in a residence hall and getting a feel for campus life.

“I like the fact that it’s very traditional; it’s 150 years old,” he said. “It’s also very in tune with current events. It’s got a mix of the old and the new.”

COMPETITION ON BOTH SIDES

The application process also marks the beginning of a high-stakes betting game for NU. Administrators hope to choose top-ranking students, with good grades and standardized test scores – but they also want to make sure the student is likely to attend NU if admitted.

For the first time this year, the university plans to send admitted students a congratulatory e-mail after they receive their acceptance letters, Dixon said.

Many of this year’s applicants also applied to several Ivy League universities – and said that, if accepted, they probably would choose them over NU.

Emily Sheffield, a senior at Winnetka’s New Trier High School who applied to Weinberg, said she applied to six other colleges, including Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Although she loves NU and is seriously considering the university, Sheffield said, she probably would attend Harvard or Penn if accepted.

Sheffield, who said she has become “compulsive” about checking the mail, knows well the ups and downs of college admissions. Barnard College, a school she considered a sure thing, wait-listed her this week.

But when she arrived home Thursday, she found an acceptance letter from the University of California at Berkeley, boosting her confidence.

“I was super-nervous today, ” she said. “When I didn’t get into Barnard, I was really thrown off. It has been a crazy year.”

Elizabeth Newman, a New Trier senior who also applied to Weinberg, said the college admissions process has thrown her into a “period of confusion” about her future.

“I can’t have a normal conversation with anyone without talking about college admissions,” she said. “It’s all adults want to talk about. Even my orthodontist asked me today, ‘Where do you want to go to college?'”

So far Newman said she has received four acceptance letters and no rejections, making her decision even more difficult.

To make matters worse, her twin sister was admitted to Yale University, raising her family’s expectations.

“Everyone’s talking about Ivy League schools,” Newman said. “I don’t even know if that’s right for me.”

As for Chicago high school senior Erdmann, she said she is counting the minutes until her letter comes.

“I now eagerly await my future with no qualms whatsoever,” Erdmann concluded her NU college essay. “Nothing can make my future more appealing than knowing that I will be doing something I love.”