[Sciencewoman]

Getting kids to do these essays is the worst...everyone I know says their kids procrastinate. Encourage him to start his essays early enough so that he has time to sit on them, reflect, and revise. I think GenerallyGreek rushed some of her essays, and when she went back and reread a couple of them later in the year, she found things she would have changed.

The best essay was the one she did for her scholarship. She really took her time with that one, and had a couple teachers read it and give her feedback. The worst ones were the couple that she reworked from HS papers. Her Georgetown one fell into this category...I'm sure that was a stinker compared to others they received.

If Halo is going to apply to Northwestern, he should visit. GenerallyGreek was specially invited to visit the music dept., meet with professors, etc. She didn't think she wanted to major in music at the time, so she blew that off. Big mistake...even though she'd attended all those summer programs, I think that hurt her in the admissions dept. Guess who's now majoring in music...apparently they knew her better than she knew herself! Last year's Northwestern Gamma Phi chapter president told me that their admissions dept. definitely tracks contacts and visits (this comes from sisters who have had student worker jobs in admissions). We also found that off-site interviews were very limited, and she couldn't get one. Halo might have better luck, but I think they feel we're close enough to visit. If he isn't that serious about NU, I wouldn't bother with that application fee.