The most important thing to remember as you’re completing the Northwestern application is that the school looks at your app holistically: No one piece of your application will make or break your acceptance decision.  That’s the answer to probably the most common question we get from students interested in NU, so remember, we take everything into account! That also means you should take full advantage of your application. Don’t skimp on the essays because you have a stellar GPA, and if you have something you want to tell us, use the text field on the Common App that lets you add additional information.

Another piece of big-picture advice: Give yourself plenty of time. More time than you think you need, even if you work well under pressure. Timing is especially important when considering your recommendations. The more time you give the adults writing you a recommendation, the better. I’m a big planner when it comes to writing — I’ll outline everything — but I’m also a huge procrastinator and really dreaded writing my college essays. So I started early and would let myself call it a day after an hour of brainstorming and fleshing out a topic or outlining an essay. I didn’t necessarily have to write anything, but as long as I was sufficiently productive, I could do something else after about an hour or so; giving myself lots of time and smaller weekly or daily goals to achieve helped me beat procrastination.

The hardest part of my application was choosing an essay topic. Here are a few tips for helping you choose a topic:

• Pick a subject or story you can talk about thoroughly. You want to be able to describe exactly how you felt or how the subject makes you feel, and explain the important aspect of the topic in detail (and detail doesn’t necessarily mean wordy, detail can be succinct, as well).
• If you’re stuck on a topic to pick, just start writing. Write down topics that come to mind after you read the essay prompt, and try to get a few short paragraphs down on paper. It helps to realize which topics you can actually write a whole essay on and which would eventually be difficult to shape into a meaningful piece.
• Decide what you want to showcase in your essay. If you want to pick a topic that will show off your writing skills, pick a subject that lends itself to your particular style and voice. But if you have a great story you think will tell the reader about you and make you a stronger candidate, make sure your writing is clean and every sentence adds to or builds the story.

 –Ava Wallace