Applying to college in the US is hard no matter where you are from, but applying as an international student comes with a whole host of additional hurdles. We’re here to help you make sense of the process and pull together an acceptance-earning application. In this post, we’ll zoom in on Northwestern University, one of the top 10 universities in the United States, and break down what you need to know if you’re going to apply as an international student.
Northwestern is a big school with an intimate experience. There are over 22,000 students, of whom 8,600 or so are undergrads. Despite this large size, the student-to-faculty ratio is 6:1 and hands-on learning and close relationships with professors are the norm, not the exception. Northwestern is in Evanston, Illinois, a small city only 30 minutes from downtown Chicago by public transportation. This proximity to a major city — and a major airport — makes Northwestern very popular among international applicants, and there are about 900 international undergraduate students at any given time. Northwestern also accommodates for international students when it comes to aid. Need-based financial aid is available for International Students, but they do take your request for aid into consideration when looking at your application. They also have a whole international student ambassador team, and allow gap years for fulfillment of National Service or other requirements that may be mandated in your country.
If this has you really excited about Northwestern, you’re not alone. They receive over 50,000 applications for first-year undergrads every year, and the acceptance rate is only 7%. To make your application stand out, you need to start early, plan well, and work hard. You may also need a hand — luckily, we’re here to help.
What is Northwestern looking for in International Students?
Northwestern expects a lot from applicants. They want to see top grades, tough course loads, and evidence that you are actively pursuing your passions inside and outside of the classroom. They look for students who will be active members of the community, not simply sit on the sidelines. Below, we’ll break down what this means for you as an international applicant.
Courses + Grades
If you’re considering applying to Northwestern, you need to be pursuing a diversified course load — even if you think you know what you want to study in college. Northwestern likes specialists, but they love students who pursue their passions through a range of perspectives. You may know you want to be an engineer, but they want to see the full range of academic disciplines on your transcript. They recommend a very distributed course load for prospective applicants, including 4 years of English or literature, three years of math, two years of science, and two years of foreign language at minimum. And remember, with a 7% acceptance rate you really need to strive to exceed the minimum.
Breadth isn’t the only thing they look for. You should also be taking the hardest classes that you can excel in. Don’t push yourself so far that you start getting low grades, though — they want A-range (90-100) grades on your transcript. A few blips aren’t a dealbreaker, but an upward trajectory is important. If you struggled a little in your first year or two of secondary school that’s natural. By your third year, though, you should have found your stride.
And if you feel your educational system or experiences require some additional explanation, they ask you to use the “additional information” section on the Common App to give them more context.
Extracurriculars
In the US, extracurriculars are an important part of nearly every college application — but Northwestern takes them super seriously. It’s pretty normal for international students to hit a roadblock when it comes to extracurriculars, as your school may not have team sports or clubs similar to those found at American high schools, but Northwestern wants to see you stretch beyond these limitations.
“We also know that the importance of these activities is viewed differently in many parts of the world,” they say, but “applicants are still highly encouraged to pursue activities (organized or unorganized) during their free time. The most competitive candidates for admission demonstrate achievement and engagement inside and outside the classroom.”
These activities can include jobs, internships, and family responsibilities, so don’t get discouraged if your school doesn’t have a particular club. And remember, you may be able to start one, which would show the exact type of initiative that Northwestern is on the look-out for.
As you pursue activities, keep in mind that Northwestern likes a breadth of experience, so if you’re super into soccer we don’t recommend only doing soccer things all year all the time. Explore secondary interests too. For example, maybe serving as an academic tutor for student-athletes at your school.
Recommendations
Northwestern requires two recommendations: one from a teacher, and one from a school administrator or counselor. There is also an additional optional recommendation that could be written by a coach, mentor, or another teacher, but the first two we mentioned are mandatory. As in, if you want to have your application considered by Northwestern, they must be submitted in English and in a timely manner. Northwestern does not take excuses on this, so you need to plan far in advance, even as early as the spring before you will apply, to make sure that you have a teacher and a counselor or administrator lined up to write these recommendations.
We find that many international students come from schools where teachers aren’t used to writing these types of personal recommendations simply because the national university system doesn’t require them. If this is the case for you, you can help your recommenders out by giving them a lot of notice in advance of the deadline and sharing with them the types of things that you’re hoping they’ll spotlight when they write about you. This could be done through a short conversation, or even just a few bullet points respectfully written down.
Standardized Tests
The big giant looming over all your college applications will be standardized tests, namely the ACT and SAT. Your scores on the SAT or ACT are not a big deciding factor for Northwestern, but that doesn’t mean they don’t matter. However, while they consider your courses and grades, essays, and activities “very important,” standardized tests only rank as “considered.”
Now, the ACT and SAT have been optional the past few years due to COVID and this may change in the future but for now it’s worth noting that in the 2022-23 application cycle, 78% (or the vast majority) of accepted and enrolled first year students submitted SAT or ACT scores. So, leaving your scores out of your application and getting in is actually an aberration from the norm. If you want to be at the top of the pack of prospective students submitting scores, you should have an SAT composite score of 1560 or more, and an ACT score of 34 or 36.
If you’ve struggled to score above a 1530 or 34 on the SAT or ACT respectively, we’d recommend focusing on emphasizing other areas of your application and potentially not sending scores at all, as scores lower than the 50% percentile of accepted students may hurt your application.
Based on where you are currently enrolled in school and what language they teach in, you may also be required to take an English proficiency test.
Final Thoughts
Being an international applicant to US colleges comes with all the same expectations and challenges as an applicant from within the country, but it also has a few more hurdles to jump over — as we’ve explained here. Telling your story and showing your potential in the form of high grades and advanced courses are extremely important, as is representing yourself well in the optional interview, which you should absolutely take advantage of if you are able to book one. Northwestern isn’t simply looking for top students. They’re on the hunt for the best additions to their community, and showing that you’re a perfect fit is a massive piece of the puzzle. That’s where we can come in.
Send us an email if you want an extra boost to you application.