Northwestern will accept a new, optional supplement for college applications starting this admissions cycle.

Known as “Dialogues,” the program is part of the educational nonprofit Schoolhouse founded by Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy. 

Dialogues offers users opportunities to have civil discussions about political and cultural issues, and following these conversations, students fill out a survey to share their reflections and peer feedback. Feedback, as well as the number of discussions, hours of discussions and topics discussed, are compiled into a Dialogues portfolio that students can now submit to select colleges. 

NU is one of six institutions accepting the Dialogues portfolio for the 2025-26 admissions cycle.  Other universities include the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University, Colby College and Washington University in St. Louis. 

“It’s going to be more than these six universities, but these were definitely the first six to go out there,” Khan said.

Yet, in the four months since the program’s launch in May, the reverse has already happened.

Vanderbilt University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were two of the original universities that opted to accept Dialogues portfolios. However, following online controversy surrounding the program — much of it raised by rising Harvard sophomore Alex Bronzini-Vender’s editorial in The New York Times — both universities revoked their participation in July.

With the 2025-26 admissions cycle kicking off August 1, uncertainty remains regarding these new admissions supplements.

According to Khan, the idea for Dialogues followed a conversation with James Nondorf, the dean of college admissions and financial aid at UChicago, about a year ago. Nondorf suggested that giving students an opportunity for disagreement could be helpful to college admissions, as academic settings appreciate students who have the skill of “good disagreement.” 

“Over the last few years, there does seem to be a little bit less tolerance … so the hope is that we give people more constructive ways of showing that disagreement,” Khan said.

After developing a prototype, Schoolhouse reconnected with UChicago and several university admissions teams, including NU’s, to gauge interest — ultimately launching 2,000 pilots with high school students. 

Prior to the launch of Dialogues, NU already accepted other certificates from the Schoolhouse website in the admissions process, as stated in the FAQ portion of its website.

“We opted to accept Dialogue portfolios as one among many supplemental materials that can help us understand a student’s academic and intellectual foundation beyond their high school transcript,” Liz Kinsley, the dean of undergraduate admission, wrote in a statement to The Daily. “We see the premise of Dialogues as particularly well aligned with Northwestern’s priorities around supporting free expression and engaging across differences.” 

Schoolhouse worked with civil dialogue experts from elite universities and discourse-oriented organizations to create the program. 

Available for students ages 14-18, students choose thought-provoking topics they’re interested in exploring — including gun control, immigration and incarceration policy, among others — and are paired together by opposing viewpoints for Zoom calls. Schoolhouse offers discussion guides to help students navigate the conversations, which are also recorded for safety and are camera-optional. Afterwards, students complete a follow up survey which contributes accolades to their partner’s portfolio, such as whether the partner was “curious” or a “good listener.” 

Khan said the discussion is exactly what the name implies — a dialogue, not a debate — and that students do not have to convince each other of why one side is right.  

“I’ve had parents and the kids emailing me saying ‘We did it. We showed up for the college admissions, but we stayed for the connections and the real stimulation,’” he said.

He said he hopes the program gives students more exposure to differing viewpoints, something that he feels — while ideal — is not the current reality at many universities.  

When admissions officers view portfolios, they can see what topics a student has discussed, but not the student’s viewpoint, to limit bias, Khan said.

“I can assure you, I’ve had conversations with all these admissions officers,” Khan said. “They want diversity of thought. They don’t want to penalize you.”

Rising high school junior Margaret — identified by first name only per Schoolhouse policy — has participated in Dialogues since its inception as a pilot program. She said the program has helped her become more understanding of opposing viewpoints from family, friends and people online.

“I’m not as confrontational anymore,” Margaret said. “I try to restate the other person’s perspective in my own words to make sure I’m understanding it. I try to understand where they’re coming from.”

Dialogues also provides opportunities for real human conversation rather than disrespectful discourse that occurs on social media, Margaret said.

Since its launch, Dialogues has received mostly positive feedback from participants, Khan said, with 93% of conversations rated as “very constructive” and zero rated as “really unconstructive.” 

Yet, others have offered less favorable feedback. 

Bronzini-Vender’s opinion piece for the New York Times suggested Dialogues might just offer students another way to “game” the admissions system by feigning respect in civil discourse. 

Similarly, rising Weinberg senior and Daily opinion contributor Talia Winiarsky wrote she worried the program framed difficult conversations as “something to be optimized and performed rather than to actually learn from” in a recent opinion piece for The Daily.

Now, universities will evaluate portfolios for the first time. Khan said participating admissions teams have been informed how to interpret a portfolio, but it’s up to each university if and how they decide to weigh it. 

Applicants who submit a Dialogues portfolio to NU will not be given a “measurable advantage” over those who do not, Kinsley wrote in a statement to The Daily.

“We intend to treat Dialogues portfolios as one among many optional, supplemental materials that can evidence a student’s academic and intellectual foundation beyond their high school transcript, and further help us understand how a candidate’s vision for college aligns with Northwestern’s institutional values, academic culture, and campus community,” she wrote.

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