Northwestern University has been logging record low acceptance rates most years over at least the past decade. As the acceptance rate creeps downwards, the university has become increasingly sought after. It’s the same exceptional education — of course — just more selective. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 dipped below 7%.
Simultaneously, Northwestern has prioritized early applicants. Last year, Northwestern admitted over half of the first-year class in the early admissions pool. That is a massive investment in decreasing their acceptance rate, and it has implications for the waitlist.
Applicants get in off of the waitlist when accepted students choose not to attend. When such a large portion of the class is accepted through a binding application option, there are typically many fewer spots left open after the commitment deadline. We see this in the waitlist numbers that Northwestern makes available.
For the pool of students applying to enter as first-years in the Fall of 2024, 59 were accepted off of the waitlist. Northwestern did not share the number of students they had offered a spot on the waitlist, nor the number who chose to join the waitlist from that pool. One year earlier, for the Fall of 2023, 55 students were accepted off of the waitlist. Looking further back, those two years were fairly representative. For the fall of 2022, 83 students were accepted off of the waitlist. Another year further back, it was 69.
This wouldn’t be such frustrating news if there were only a few hundred students on the Northwestern waitlist. Since Northwestern does not include any other waitlist data in their Common Data Set reports, we can’t be certain about how many students are sitting on the waitlist hoping for a spot. However, when we look at comparably competitive and sized universities they have, at minimum, 1,200 students on the waitlist. If we use that minimum as an estimate, the waitlist acceptance rate is about (or less than) 5%.
What this means for you is that you need to do more than simply sit on the waitlist. Getting into Northwestern off of the waitlist is possible, but it is also far from probable. To increase your odds, there are steps you need to take basically immediately. So, let’s get started.
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Northwestern doesn’t make a ton of information about their waitlist public, but they have historically provided guidance geared towards high school counselors. Even though this isn’t written for a student reader, it’s still helpful in determining next steps, perhaps even more helpful as it’s written to a peer (a fellow counselor) as opposed to a disappointed applicant.
Step One: Get on the Waitlist
First, you need to get on the waitlist. Receiving a waitlist offer is not the same as actually being on the Northwestern waitlist. If you want to stay in the running for acceptance, you need to keep your application in the ring.
If you’ve been holding off on joining the waitlist and are now worries that you missed your chance, take a deep breath. In the letter to high school counselors that Northwestern sent last year, in March 2025, they stated that the deadline to accept the waitlist offer was May 1, or nationwide decision day. They also emphasize that the waitlist is not ranked, and your response time does not impact your chances of getting in — to a point. If you wait weeks to respond, they may notice. But taking a few days to consider the waitlist offer is thoughtfulness, not a lack of enthusiasm.
Step Two: Set Your Backup Plan
Once you are officially on the Northwestern waitlist, you need to make sure that you have a college to call your academic home in the fall. As we’ve shown, the waitlist odds are long at Northwestern. Betting on getting in off of the Northwestern waitlist is a terrible idea. So, you need to commit.
Look at your options — the acceptances you have on the ‘table’ — and pick the best option for you. Hopefully, this is a school you really like. If you don’t have an option you are in love with, though, you still need to pick a school. Planning on transferring is fine, but choosing to reapply instead of committing now is a very bad idea.
Step Three: Update Northwestern
Once you have committed to a college that isn’t Northwestern, you need to increase your odds of getting into the university you really want to be a part of. Northwestern invites waitlisted applicants to “write if they’re still keen on Northwestern.” So, you should jump on this opportunity. But what should you send?
We advise that students on the Northwestern waitlist write a Letter of Continued Interest, or LOCI, to both underline your enthusiasm and update your application. This is how it should go…
Opening
This is a letter, so it should start like one. Begin with “Dear Northwestern Admissions Team,” or something like that, and then write a three or four-sentence introduction that includes a few key things: your name, status as a waitlisted applicant, prospective major, and that Northwestern remains your first-choice school. You also need to set out your intentions with this letter, i.e., to update them on what you’ve been up to since initially applying and to reinforce your interest in Northwestern.
Update
We like to lead the LOCI for Northwestern with an update. They know that you like the school — you are writing a LOCI, after all — but there are things about you that they don’t know either because they were left out of your application or because they have happened since you pressed submit.
Aim to include 2-4 updates that are ‘substantive.’ This means that they are not simply a strong grade on a math test. Rather, we want you to include updates that speak to bigger undertakings or initiatives. Bonus points if you can also include things that speak to your role in your community and how you prioritize teamwork.
Reinforce
After your update, you need to write a short paragraph that emphasizes the strength of your interest in Northwestern. We like to do this by focusing on a small number of things that are unique to Northwestern and that are relevant to your proposed course of study. This may be a professor doing research you love, a program that builds on research you are already conducting, or a focus within a major that is hard to find anywhere else.
Close
This letter needs to be no more than one-page, seriously, so the conclusion is going to have to be pretty quick to make it all fit. Like the intro, you’re going to write two to four sentences that need to accomplish a few things: thank the readers for their time, state clearly that you will attend if accepted, and maybe include cheerful optimistic vision of yourself as part of the Northwestern community.
You don’t need to rush to write the LOCI, because they won’t seriously consider it until mid-April at the earliest. If something big does happen after sending the LOCI, email your additional update to the admissions contact email, or upload it through the Applicant Status Portal.
Step Four: Wait it out.
Once you’ve submitted your update, it’s truly only a waiting game. Keep an eye on your email for requests to reconfirm interest, and enjoy your senior spring. In the past, students who committed to join the Northwestern waitlist before April 15 were asked to reconfirm their interest in early May. If you receive that request and do not recommit, you will lose your spot.
As you wait to hear from Northwestern, remember that students accepted off of the waitlist cannot defer their enrollment to take a gap year.
Getting in off of the waitlist is hard, but we help students pull it off. Email us to learn more.