Question: My 15 year old daughter will be a senior in High School this fall. Her dream school is Northwestern. Her second choice is Bradley in Peoria.

She recently scored a 32 on her ACT. She is #2 in her class and has maintained a 4.0 GPA. She has been the officer in several clubs; this year she will be a the President of FBLA and NHS.
Does she have a good chance of being accepted into either of these schools? We have visited Northwestern’s campus and would be happy with her being on that campus. However, the tuition is way out of our range.

Will her scholastic and leadership achievements help her/us to obtain financial aid to either of these schools.

Thank you from a very naive, interested mom.

Answer: I am 16 (turning 17 shortly!) and I will be a freshman next year at NU. I was accepted into the College of Arts and Sciences Regular Decision with a 32 ACT (no SAT I or IIs) and was newspaper editor, VP of student govt., etc. With a 4.17 GPA and a class rank of 9th, I was in the top 3% of my class.

Obviously, I’d say your daughter’s chances of being accepted at NU are good. The only scholarships offered are for music and sports, though, but luckily they are quite generous with the need-based aid. There was no way my family could pay state school tuition without aid, let alone cover $32,000, but with state (I’m an IL native) and university grants (and a relatively small student loan), they made it possible.

As for Bradley, I can confidently say that you’re daughter will get in. While I didn’t apply, I saw friends with 23 ACTs in the top 30% admitted. I don’t know much about aid there, but I suspect they will have scholarship opportunities (which your daughter will definitely qualify for) and grants.
I applied to schools (somewhat) similar to Bradley (Augustana, Illinois Wesleyan) and received half-tuition scholarships (around $8,500) and grants. They still had a calculated contribution which we were to pay, and the grants and scholarships only added up to the tuition minus that. Since NU has a little bit more to give in the way of grants, it actually ended up costing about $1,500 less to attend despite the absence of a scholarship component, making an easy decision surprisingly easier.
On a side note, NU’s financial aid office was great–after realizing that the CSS Profile had been sitting on my mom’s desk for four months, we panicked, but nearly everyone we talked to was friendly and helpful despite our tardiness.

Your daughter will be very lucky to attend either school. Good luck and if you have any questions, please ask.

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