Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions

[Anonymous]

UVa changed to drop supplemental essays only starting this year - and due to pressure from US DoJ. They are likely to switch back with any new Federal administration.

[Anonymous]

I love how people describe the Common App as clicking a few buttons.

Tell me you've never filled out the app without telling me.

[Anonymous]

The issue is that Northeastern counts the total applicant count in the denominator but not the numerator, which is, at best, misleading and realistically, an outward lie.

All of the full-pay admits to their portfolio of campuses around the world are not calculated in their admission rate. In fact, they are misleadingly considered rejected in the calculation (and the GPA, test scores of the non-Boston admits aren't incorporated either).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love how people describe the Common App as clicking a few buttons.

Tell me you've never filled out the app without telling me.

Well, it is. If there is no supplemental question, and assuming you have used the Common App for other schools, the incremental effort of applying to Northeastern is a few clicks and a credit card number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

NP yeah, it is.

Using easy number, if 20,000 apply and 2000 are admitted to the main campus and 4000 are admitted to satellite campuses, their acceptance rate is 30% but they report it at 10%.

You all don’t complain like this when NYU and USC do spring admits, Vanderbilt gives Verto, and Cornell gives GT offers. None of that factors into the acceptance rate despite being virtually the same as NU.In

Do these programs functionally DOUBLE the size of the class?

[Anonymous]

Its been a while since we've had a Northeastern-bashing post. I haven't missed them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its been a while since we've had a Northeastern-bashing post. I haven't missed them

Unfortunately necessary to spread awareness

[Anonymous]

U of Chicago and Vanderbilt are similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:U of Chicago and Vanderbilt are similar.

Not similar in any capacity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

NP yeah, it is.

Using easy number, if 20,000 apply and 2000 are admitted to the main campus and 4000 are admitted to satellite campuses, their acceptance rate is 30% but they report it at 10%.

You all don’t complain like this when NYU and USC do spring admits, Vanderbilt gives Verto, and Cornell gives GT offers. None of that factors into the acceptance rate despite being virtually the same as NU.In

Yeah, I do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take it with an obvious grain of salt as this was an Instagram post from a college advisor and quasi-influencer, but I happen to agree with the substance:

Northeastern isn’t a bad school. They just LIE, a lot.

That 5% acceptance rate is completely manufactured. They only count students admitted to the Boston campus. Meanwhile thousands more get accepted into NUin, Global Scholars, London, Oakland, and now NYC. For the class of 2028 alone, only about 2,700 students were admitted to Boston, but over 3,300 more got in through those other programs that conveniently don’t show up in the number. If you count everyone they actually accept, the real rate is way higher than 5%. And be honest, who’s dreaming of spending their freshman year at Northeastern’s Oakland campus? Nobody applied to Northeastern for that.

They’ve rigged the front end too. No supplemental essays. Test optional. Applying to Northeastern is basically a one-click process through the Common App, which is exactly the point. The more unqualified applicants they attract, the lower that rate looks on paper.

Total cost of attendance at Northeastern runs around $90–94K a year. Harvard is about $87K with WAY more aid at Harvard. You’re paying more than Harvard for a degree that no one is that impressed by.

Now I already know the Northeastern crowd is gonna flood my comments bragging about their co-ops. A co-op is an internship. That’s it. The rest of us can apply for internships on our own, graduate on time, and we don’t have to pay $94,000 a year for the privilege.

Now is Northeastern worth going to sometimes? Yes. Of course. If it’s your LOWEST cost option. At least then you’re getting value for your money🤷‍♂️

This paragraph both complains about the "artificial" acceptance rate for the school because it's just for the Boston campus AND complains that no one wants to go anywhere but to the Boston campus - so to me that acceptance rate is exactly the information that this quasi-influencer says applicants should need. If "nobody" wants to go to any of the other programs NEU is doing applicants a favor by not including that data in their acceptance rate.

My family has no interest in NEU, but they also are no where near the only school who plays these games and charges these dollars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:U of Chicago and Vanderbilt are similar.

Do they have satellite sires they accept kids to? How are they similar? I guess Vanderbilt did that transfer in option this year, but not chicago and also i don't see how these are same academic caliber as northeastern (which is way way lower)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it with an obvious grain of salt as this was an Instagram post from a college advisor and quasi-influencer, but I happen to agree with the substance:

Northeastern isn’t a bad school. They just LIE, a lot.

That 5% acceptance rate is completely manufactured. They only count students admitted to the Boston campus. Meanwhile thousands more get accepted into NUin, Global Scholars, London, Oakland, and now NYC. For the class of 2028 alone, only about 2,700 students were admitted to Boston, but over 3,300 more got in through those other programs that conveniently don’t show up in the number. If you count everyone they actually accept, the real rate is way higher than 5%. And be honest, who’s dreaming of spending their freshman year at Northeastern’s Oakland campus? Nobody applied to Northeastern for that.

They’ve rigged the front end too. No supplemental essays. Test optional. Applying to Northeastern is basically a one-click process through the Common App, which is exactly the point. The more unqualified applicants they attract, the lower that rate looks on paper.

Total cost of attendance at Northeastern runs around $90–94K a year. Harvard is about $87K with WAY more aid at Harvard. You’re paying more than Harvard for a degree that no one is that impressed by.

Now I already know the Northeastern crowd is gonna flood my comments bragging about their co-ops. A co-op is an internship. That’s it. The rest of us can apply for internships on our own, graduate on time, and we don’t have to pay $94,000 a year for the privilege.

Now is Northeastern worth going to sometimes? Yes. Of course. If it’s your LOWEST cost option. At least then you’re getting value for your money🤷‍♂️

This paragraph both complains about the "artificial" acceptance rate for the school because it's just for the Boston campus AND complains that no one wants to go anywhere but to the Boston campus - so to me that acceptance rate is exactly the information that this quasi-influencer says applicants should need. If "nobody" wants to go to any of the other programs NEU is doing applicants a favor by not including that data in their acceptance rate.

My family has no interest in NEU, but they also are no where near the only school who plays these games and charges these dollars.

The notion that NEU is doing this for transparency and altruistic reasons is obviously disingenuous. They are doing it to artificially manipulate rankings while concurrently maximizing revenue from their conscientious strategy of adding capacity outside of Boston for lower-stats, full-pay kids that think they're getting into an incredibly competitive institution. I have no issue with the philosophy of the school - I think the co-op program is great. I am, however, repulsed by the blatantly misleading manipulation of the rankings that should be smarter and more nuanced but are not.

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/technology/chatgpt-college-professors.html

100k a year for this!