Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they LIE a lot. Don't tell me this is news to you. Their gaming strategy is well known.

Why do so many people get upset? Stay away! Dont apply! Dont tell me that DCUM posters are "warning" parents out of the goodness of their hearts.

It’s an R1 research institution that manipulates its own data. The better question is - why doesn’t that upset you?

It doesn't manipulates data.

There have been real cheater schools, but Northeastern is not one of them.

[Anonymous]

My kid is about to graduate from Northeastern in a few weeks. Took him 4 years, including 2 co-ops (so only had classes for 6 semesters, plus a one month summer program). Its been a great experience for him, and he's found his peers to be bright and ambitious. Its not for everyone (and its not easy to get into, especially Boston), but for the right person, its a fantastic program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are some people with a weird fetish for supplemental essays. The whole purpose of these essays is for schools to select highly qualified students who are the right fit. It’s not meant to make students’ lives more difficult.

Northeastern is already doing an excellent job in this regard, and its retention rate is top-notch as a result. It's up there with T20 schools.

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities/freshmen-least-most-likely-return

If a school picks the right students, they stay. Schools already have plenty of data and information to make these decisions; Northeastern doesn't need "dumb" supplemental essays to gather more information to pick the right candidates. No need to make lives of students unnecessarily more difficult.

+1. Having just gone through this process with my DC, the supplemental essays are probably the stupidest aspect. The main essay, teacher recs, and activities list should be enough for any school to make an admission decision. They shouldn’t need to ask, “Why do you love ME”?

NEU intentionally eliminates supplementals to make it easier to apply, subsequently artificially driving up number of applications (only need to check a box vs. write an additional essay or two or three).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same old complaints...

My DC was rejected RD despite getting into better schools. Liked the school, its co-op structure, location, international presence and the first-hand reviews of many bright kids we know who've attended. She just didn't like it enough to ED and she paid that price.

You know what? Neither of us are upset and we don't bad mouth the school. No hate whatsoever - they're maneuvering a challenging landscape on their own terms can and doing a good job of it.

Good for them and good for the many kids who are getting exactly what they want.

+1

They offer a lot that students want today -- there is a reason why they get so many applications.

It is hard to get into the Boston campus, less difficult for the alternate programs. And ED/EA gives a boost.

And the reason is no supplemental essay required!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. If a kid applies to a school and he gets admitted (whether to the main or another alternative campus), the kid is admitted, period. You can't pretend he was rejected.

Which is why if you look at your kid’s Naviance or SCOIR, you’ll likely see a significantly higher admission rate than what Northeastern reports. Because of course if the kid is accepted, regardless of if it was Boston or Oakland or whatever, they report that they were accepted. I think our (public) high school’s acceptance rate to Northeastern is like 28%.

Exactly, on Scoir our private school's acceptance rate to NEU is 39%, not the 5% they report to USNWR!

(Note: I applied earlier to the wrong comment. This is what I meant to apply to.)

And the truth comes out. Bethesda Magazine publishes acceptances every year of about a half dozen high schools, and combined the acceptance rate to Northeastern was 32% last year. Looking at Boston College it was 13%, more in line with published rates. Very telling.

Self reported data isn't reliable.

It's reported by the schools. It's pretty much what the Scoir data is providing at other schools...approximately 30% acceptance rate. Very interesting spread from what NEU reports.

Simple math immediately says that's bogus. 5% at Boston. Studetns starting at other campuses come to Boston after one semester or one year.
Get it? Looks like Scoir is very unreliable.

+1

Scoir can’t differentiate between the different programs. So 30% of kids are admitted to any one of the Northeastern programs, not just the Boston campus.


I don’t get why some people are so triggered over this. You actually sent your kid there thinking it was 5%?

It's bait and switch, except they only report on the admissions to the Boston campus. Shady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same old complaints...

My DC was rejected RD despite getting into better schools. Liked the school, its co-op structure, location, international presence and the first-hand reviews of many bright kids we know who've attended. She just didn't like it enough to ED and she paid that price.

You know what? Neither of us are upset and we don't bad mouth the school. No hate whatsoever - they're maneuvering a challenging landscape on their own terms can and doing a good job of it.

Good for them and good for the many kids who are getting exactly what they want.

+1

They offer a lot that students want today -- there is a reason why they get so many applications.

It is hard to get into the Boston campus, less difficult for the alternate programs. And ED/EA gives a boost.

And the reason is no supplemental essay required!!

Similarly ranked school Case Western doesn't have supplemental essay, but it's not that popular, so it's not the reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. If a kid applies to a school and he gets admitted (whether to the main or another alternative campus), the kid is admitted, period. You can't pretend he was rejected.

Which is why if you look at your kid’s Naviance or SCOIR, you’ll likely see a significantly higher admission rate than what Northeastern reports. Because of course if the kid is accepted, regardless of if it was Boston or Oakland or whatever, they report that they were accepted. I think our (public) high school’s acceptance rate to Northeastern is like 28%.

Exactly, on Scoir our private school's acceptance rate to NEU is 39%, not the 5% they report to USNWR!

(Note: I applied earlier to the wrong comment. This is what I meant to apply to.)

And the truth comes out. Bethesda Magazine publishes acceptances every year of about a half dozen high schools, and combined the acceptance rate to Northeastern was 32% last year. Looking at Boston College it was 13%, more in line with published rates. Very telling.

Self reported data isn't reliable.

It's reported by the schools. It's pretty much what the Scoir data is providing at other schools...approximately 30% acceptance rate. Very interesting spread from what NEU reports.

Simple math immediately says that's bogus. 5% at Boston. Studetns starting at other campuses come to Boston after one semester or one year.
Get it? Looks like Scoir is very unreliable.

+1

Scoir can’t differentiate between the different programs. So 30% of kids are admitted to any one of the Northeastern programs, not just the Boston campus.


I don’t get why some people are so triggered over this. You actually sent your kid there thinking it was 5%?

It's bait and switch, except they only report on the admissions to the Boston campus. Shady.

Report to where??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is about to graduate from Northeastern in a few weeks. Took him 4 years, including 2 co-ops (so only had classes for 6 semesters, plus a one month summer program). Its been a great experience for him, and he's found his peers to be bright and ambitious. Its not for everyone (and its not easy to get into, especially Boston), but for the right person, its a fantastic program.

So it's more of a vocational school?

No, just because some students have a lot of AP credits and managed to graduate in 3 years, doesn't make it a vocational school.
Duh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is about to graduate from Northeastern in a few weeks. Took him 4 years, including 2 co-ops (so only had classes for 6 semesters, plus a one month summer program). Its been a great experience for him, and he's found his peers to be bright and ambitious. Its not for everyone (and its not easy to get into, especially Boston), but for the right person, its a fantastic program.

So it's more of a vocational school?

No, just because some students have a lot of AP credits and managed to graduate in 3 years, doesn't make it a vocational school.
Duh

Correct. This was my kid, who had a bunch of AP and IB credits. Not to be fair, he hasn't taken a lot of liberal artsy/poli sci/history type classes, like I did as an undergrad. He's a business major with concentration in Financial Technology and a minor in Data Science, so he has taken a lot of business classes/computer science-type classes. Whether you think that's "vocational school" (and whether if it is, you think that's bad), is up to you.

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Weird take — writer is upset that they LIE because they only give the main campus numbers and so many more are accepted to other programs, but goes on to say no one wants those other programs when they apply. Well, if applicants only want the main campus, then that 5% or whatever stat isn’t a lie, is it?

+1 agree

UMD acceptance rates are for college park not eastern shore or Baltimore or DC or China or wherever else they have a satellite campus

Do you think UMBC and UMD are they same schools? They are not.
College Park does have a spring start program

[Anonymous]

She's not saying anything new. If any applicant hadn't learned this prior to applying they probably don't deserve to go to any top 100 school.

If the end (smaller class sizes, more faculty) serves the goal (higher ranking) doesn't everyone win?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they LIE a lot. Don't tell me this is news to you. Their gaming strategy is well known.

Why do so many people get upset? Stay away! Dont apply! Dont tell me that DCUM posters are "warning" parents out of the goodness of their hearts.

It’s an R1 research institution that manipulates its own data. The better question is - why doesn’t that upset you?

It doesn't manipulates data.

There have been real cheater schools, but Northeastern is not one of them.

I don't believe Northeastern ever falsified data. It used the data collection rules to its advantage. There is a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. If a kid applies to a school and he gets admitted (whether to the main or another alternative campus), the kid is admitted, period. You can't pretend he was rejected.

Which is why if you look at your kid’s Naviance or SCOIR, you’ll likely see a significantly higher admission rate than what Northeastern reports. Because of course if the kid is accepted, regardless of if it was Boston or Oakland or whatever, they report that they were accepted. I think our (public) high school’s acceptance rate to Northeastern is like 28%.

Exactly, on Scoir our private school's acceptance rate to NEU is 39%, not the 5% they report to USNWR!

(Note: I applied earlier to the wrong comment. This is what I meant to apply to.)

And the truth comes out. Bethesda Magazine publishes acceptances every year of about a half dozen high schools, and combined the acceptance rate to Northeastern was 32% last year. Looking at Boston College it was 13%, more in line with published rates. Very telling.

Self reported data isn't reliable.

It's reported by the schools. It's pretty much what the Scoir data is providing at other schools...approximately 30% acceptance rate. Very interesting spread from what NEU reports.

Simple math immediately says that's bogus. 5% at Boston. Studetns starting at other campuses come to Boston after one semester or one year.
Get it? Looks like Scoir is very unreliable.

+1

Scoir can’t differentiate between the different programs. So 30% of kids are admitted to any one of the Northeastern programs, not just the Boston campus.


I don’t get why some people are so triggered over this. You actually sent your kid there thinking it was 5%?

It's bait and switch, except they only report on the admissions to the Boston campus. Shady.

Only if you haven't researched the school in any way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Same old complaints...

My DC was rejected RD despite getting into better schools. Liked the school, its co-op structure, location, international presence and the first-hand reviews of many bright kids we know who've attended. She just didn't like it enough to ED and she paid that price.

You know what? Neither of us are upset and we don't bad mouth the school. No hate whatsoever - they're maneuvering a challenging landscape on their own terms can and doing a good job of it.

Good for them and good for the many kids who are getting exactly what they want.

+1

They offer a lot that students want today -- there is a reason why they get so many applications.

It is hard to get into the Boston campus, less difficult for the alternate programs. And ED/EA gives a boost.

And the reason is no supplemental essay required!!

Similarly ranked school Case Western doesn't have supplemental essay, but it's not that popular, so it's not the reason.

+1

It's a good-sized school in a city with a cohesive campus and offers internships, research, study abroad, etc. Checked a lot of boxes for my kid.