Northwestern received a record number of early decision applications this year, including an increase in the number of minority applicants.
If accepted early decision applicants make a binding commitment to enroll in the University. This year 1,770 students applied and 625 were admitted, said Michael Mills, associate provost for university enrollment. Last year 1,498 applied and 572 were admitted.
Thirty-four African American students and 34 Latino students were admitted this year, and there was a record number of applicants for both demographics, Mills said.
Mills partly attributed the increase to help from student organizations, such as Ambassadors, which works to increase African-American applicants, and Clave, which targets prospective Latino students. Mills also said individual students, including Associated Student Government President Mike McGee, have assisted in the effort to increase minority applicants.
“A lot of students have stepped up and assisted us in a number of different ways,” Mills said. “We’re very pleased that it was an increase. We’re very pleased that the pool was more ethnically and racially diverse. We’re very pleased that qualitatively the class was as strong as previous years.”
The University also deferred 48 students to view their senior year grades, Mills said. This was the second year NU deferred students.
Mills cited higher stakes, better outreach and good luck as possible contributors to the number of applicants.
“Given the severity of the economic downturn, there’s a sense that the stakes have never been higher in terms of the choices you make,” he said. “There’s a sense of gratitude that the pool was as large as it was because of what’s been going on with the economy.”
Admitted early decision student Kate Geraghty, a senior at Roland Park Country School in Baltimore, said her college counselor was unsure how the economy would impact applicants.
“(The counselor) has been talking to me about how this year was a really odd year, and she was preparing everyone for the worst,” she said. “It was so exciting to hear. I was practically in tears, I was so thrilled.”
The future McCormick student said NU offered everything she was looking for in a school.
“It had a band, it had sororities, which were there but not the predominant social atmosphere, and (it had) a great engineering department,” she said. “It felt like the perfect school for me.”
