Located outside Chicago in Evanston, Illinois, Northwestern is beloved for its ability to find unique balance in everything: it has an urban setting with a college-town feel, it boasts top-tier academics with state-level school spirit, and it combines a brainy student population with exceptional arts programs. As you can imagine, it’s highly competitive, with last year’s common data set reporting a 7% acceptance rate.
Those are tough odds to begin with, and that doesn’t take the waiting list into account. Northwestern is a bit tight-lipped when it comes to its waiting list. They report that they do waitlist qualified students, and they report the number of students let in off the waitlist every year, but they don’t disclose the full context. They do not share how many students are offered spots on the waitlist or how many accept, so it’s nearly impossible to tell waitlisted students what their odds of getting in off the waitlist are.
Just looking at the last 3 years, the data paints a dynamic, and incomplete, picture. For first-year students incoming in the Fall of 2020, 108 students were let in off the waitlist. For Fall 2021, that number was 69, and for the last year of available data (Fall of 2022) it was 83.
What does this mean for you if you’ve been waitlisted? Well, we can assume that Northwestern has waitlist practices similar to its peers’ and that its total waitlist is close to a quarter of its total annual applicants — in this case, we’d be talking over 10,000 students. That means that it is by no means impossible to get in off the waitlist (and sometimes over 100 people do!) but that it’s by no means a guarantee when fewer than 1% of waitlisted students eventually get offers of admission. If you’re feeling overwhelmed because Northwestern is your dream school and you’ve been waitlisted, here’s a guide to your next steps.
JOIN THE WAITLIST
First things first, you do actually have to accept Northwestern’s offer to have a spot on the waitlist. If they don’t hear from you, they’ll assume you’re not interested and have committed elsewhere. Think carefully about what the waitlist really means. Joining the waitlist indicates that you are still so interested in Northwestern that you would consider the possibility of changing all your plans last minute and losing your deposit at another college if you hear from Northwestern just two months before matriculation. If you feel that way, go ahead and let Northwestern know you’d like to accept your spot on the waitlist.
COMMIT TO A BACKUP PLAN
This part is less fun on the surface, but it ensures that you can relax and prepare for freshman fall regardless of whether you hear from Northwestern — and that’s pretty exciting, too. The long and short is this: the waitlist exists because Northwestern isn’t sure how many of their accepted students will enroll by the commitment deadline, and they’re waiting to see how things will shake out. They will only know how many people they can let in off the waitlist after the commitment deadline has passed, so you will not hear from Northwestern before you have to indicate that you will attend another school. In other words, you cannot avoid enrolling elsewhere in the hopes that you’ll get into Northwestern before May 1st and not have to abandon a deposit elsewhere.
Unfortunately, losing a deposit is the cost of attending a school that waitlisted you. Either you don’t get into Northwestern off the waitlist and you attend the school where you paid your deposit on May 1st, or you do get into Northwestern off the waitlist and you lose that deposit. Those are the only two possibilities where you have a secure matriculation plan. The only other option is that you do not enroll anywhere hoping to get into Northwestern, never move off the waitlist, and do not begin undergraduate studies in the fall. That’s not what anyone wants to happen! The best alternative is to choose a school where you were accepted and could see yourself attending. Once you commit, you can start imagining a future there, and you’ll have a surprising, excellent first semester no matter where you are.
REINFORCE YOUR INTEREST
Now that you’ve taken care of that decision, you can devote your attention to the last piece of your Northwestern application. Northwestern doesn’t disclose how many students it places on the waitlist, but they do tell us that their waitlist is unranked. Of course, there’s no way to estimate year to year how many spots they’ll have to offer to the waitlist, but they do hand-select students from the waitlist once they’re allocating acceptances. Because you’re on the waitlist, admissions has already determined that you are qualified to attend Northwestern. Now what we want to do is give them the impression that you are the best candidate to fill gaps on their enrolled students list, and we do that by sending a Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI).
When you were waitlisted by Northwestern, they provided information about how to accept your spot on the waitlist. Depending on Northwestern’s system, either you’ll be able to message them your LOCI through their admissions portal or you’ll email their general admissions inbox. The LOCI is a very specific type of message; you do not want to leave a bad impression by re-litigating your application materials or repeating yourself and disrespecting their limited time. You should only report things that would truly update your profile and move the needle — basically, any additional accomplishments or major changes that would help them reevaluate your candidacy. You’ll write this brief letter in 4 parts and keep it under 400 words, like so:
Formal Opening: Professional and respectful. Start with the typical “Dear Northwestern University Office of Undergraduate Admission” or “Dear “Mr./Ms./Mx. [Last Name]” if you have an individual representative contact.
Reinforce Interest: Use 1 to 3 sentences reintroducing yourself, giving your name and articulating why Northwestern is the ideal place for you. It’s not enough to want to go; you need to remind them why you would be an asset to the school and how you could uniquely achieve your goals there. Make it clear that, if admitted off the waitlist, you would absolutely attend Northwestern.
Short Update: Perhaps the most crucial part of the LOCI, this is your space to strengthen your profile by adding academic, extracurricular, or personal recognition you’ve received since turning in your regular application. As we mentioned, Northwestern has already decided you’re qualified, or you wouldn’t have landed on the waitlist at all. But if they’ve got limited spots, you need to give them reasons that you rise above the rest of the waitlist at this moment.
This should truly be news. Do not repeat information included on your application elsewhere. You should report any notable grade or GPA changes, testing distinctions, school honors and awards, club or extracurricular achievements or leadership positions, any personal projects or individual research you’ve undertaken, or anything that recontextualizes your standing in any significant way.
Professional Closing: At this point, you can confidently wrap up. Be concise. In one sentence, thank admissions for the time they’re taking to consider your admission, restate your specific desire to attend Northwestern, and close with a professional sign-off (along the lines of “sincerely,” “respectfully,” or “best regards”).
THAT’S A WRAP
This can feel like a blessing and a curse, but it really is good news — you’ve done all you can do. For now, do your best to put college admissions out of your mind. You’ll hear when you hear, and until then you should do everything you can to enjoy senior spring and celebrate the accomplishment of getting through the college application process. Whether you end up at Northwestern or another incredible campus, you’re about to embark on a four-year journey you can’t even imagine yet — and how cool is that?
Need help confronting the waitlist? Contact us for personalized support to maximize your options.