This is how Northeastern gamed the system

[Anonymous]

So the article verified Northeastern never cheated while bunch of schools cheated.
Respect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be honest, I'd be embarrassed to be going to NEU or sending my kid there. The amount of ridicule it gets both by parents and students alike is astounding. Jury is out on whether that's justified, but there is something to be said about the insane boosterism, marketing, exploitative practices, and general air of arrogance I've seen exhibited by some NEU alums who are constantly claiming that it's an elite school.

Yes over 90K kids applied and only 7% acceptance rate this year.
So the amount of bitter parents and students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, pick a school for what it offers your kid NOW. Ignore the rankings. Yes, NEU gamed the system a bit, and so do many other schools. If you like what NEU offers, then go for it.

If you don't, and many don't want to study abroad fall or all of freshman year, then don't attend. Right now, I'd be more concerned about the housing issues and overcrowding and how that affects getting the courses you need, whether my kid is stuck in a single that's now a double (or double that's now a triple), whether for $6K+ per year for dining my kid can get food in a timely manner, whether my kid is stuck living in a hotel that is not on campus. NEU has grown really fast in the past decade and the infrastructure is not in place to support it. So go in with eyes wide open about what this could mean for your student for all aspects of life in college.

Also, be open minded and realize that students do get internships and do Coops at many other colleges (at least in the STEM fields). So your kid can attend elsewhere and still get work experience---many kids have been doing that for decades

Where are you getting this info regarding on campus housing shortage at NEU?

Following the NEU Parents FB pages, as my kid was admitted and considered attending. Tons of information on there about the housing issues, dining issues, no room to study in library with so many extra students. Ironically, I'd think kids shoved into forced triples or forced doubles would probably want to head to the library to study since they have no space in their room.

NEU applied to the city of Boston to do precisely that; there was a public hearing this spring. Boston approved the plan to add 900 new beds in East Village and International Village dorms. These are dorms where 2 rooms share a bathroom; so what was 2 doubles will now be 5 students sharing one bathroom and there is no Hallway bathroom to go use (it's not a traditional communal dorm bathroom). I've seen photos and heard parents complain---those dorms are not that big. This plan will force kids to share the closet space as well (don't know about you, but a 2ft closet is already tiny, how can you make 3 people share 2). There simply isn't really enough room for the extra person in those rooms.

Here's an article on it. https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2022/03/11/bpda-approves-northeastern-dorm-plan.html


Fall of 2021 produced a yield with over 1000 extra students, and then they had extras accept into the NUIn and NUBOund program as well (spring admit, go overseas for first semester and fall soph admit go overseas for the entire first year). So they have well over 1000 extra students to place on campus this fall---no clue yet what their yield will be for fall 2022. And NEU has grown alot in the last 8-10 years already and was already poorly dealing with this growth in many areas on campus (except collecting your tuition and R&B $$$).

Initially for fall 2022 admits, the NUBound students were NOT going to EVER be allowed to live on campus when they returned. But when parents (reasonably complained), NEU changed their tone. However, not sure where exactly those extra 500-800 students will be put fall of 2023. And while they could go off campus, that's a challenge in Boston when you haven't even spent the last year in Boston but instead in Oakland CA or London. Boston is a city where you typically pay 1 month brokerage fee to find an apartnemtn. How do you find an apt when you aren't there, how do you find roommates if you don't want to live with NUBound people? Just an indicator to me that they have accepted too many students and cannot accommodate the growing student population.

There is also the huge issue that NEU has already had to use Hotels to house students and requires those students to have a meal plan, despite not being on campus. They may need to do it again this fall. They are struggling with housing---typically the rising 2nd year and beyond (non-freshman) select their housing in March/early April. That hasn't happened yet. Supposed to happen in June/July. After that they will assign freshman. Sophmores are required to live on campus, yet it could be July before they are told where they can live, and for students with terrible housing numbers it might be august before they get assigned to an open space.

Maybe that's what you want for your kid. I personally at 75K+ per year for an education hope my kid could have a few things that are stable in their experiences. And for most the desire to know where they will be living is a key part of that. My incoming freshman (somewhere else) will likely have their housing assignment for freshman year before NEU rising sophomore/jr/seniors have their fall housing.

The article also states that this may NOT be temporary. "Kathy Spiegelman, Northeastern’s chief of campus planning and development, indicated that the added beds may not be temporary. " To me that's a red warning flag that it will continue as long as the city says NEU can cram that many kids into a dorm room.

Yes, I understand that many schools have to do "forced triples" or some solutions certain years as it's damn near impossible to predict yeild. But I've seen other schools forced triples---at one school I visited, those were extremely large doubles, everyone had a wardrobe/closet, beds had to be lofted with desk/dresser underneath, but there was still space for 1-2 lounge chairs and there was 6+ ft between the beds so open space in the center of the room. I've actually seen regular triples that have less space at other schools.

Just saying that don't just read the glossy brochure that NEU gives you. Dig a bit deeper into the school and see what issues there are and whether you are willing to accept these issues for your student's 4-5 years. Parent FB pages are great for this. Reading the student newspaper gives insight into student grievances as well.

Do you think 7% acceptance rate is norm for Northeastern?

Yield was surprisingly high last year which is a good news for the school.
However it caused the overcrowding.
That's why they admitted significantly less students this year than usual to offset the overcrowding, and will adopt to the increased yield.
So it'll get better. We'll see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, pick a school for what it offers your kid NOW. Ignore the rankings. Yes, NEU gamed the system a bit, and so do many other schools. If you like what NEU offers, then go for it.

If you don't, and many don't want to study abroad fall or all of freshman year, then don't attend. Right now, I'd be more concerned about the housing issues and overcrowding and how that affects getting the courses you need, whether my kid is stuck in a single that's now a double (or double that's now a triple), whether for $6K+ per year for dining my kid can get food in a timely manner, whether my kid is stuck living in a hotel that is not on campus. NEU has grown really fast in the past decade and the infrastructure is not in place to support it. So go in with eyes wide open about what this could mean for your student for all aspects of life in college.

Also, be open minded and realize that students do get internships and do Coops at many other colleges (at least in the STEM fields). So your kid can attend elsewhere and still get work experience---many kids have been doing that for decades

Where are you getting this info regarding on campus housing shortage at NEU?

Following the NEU Parents FB pages, as my kid was admitted and considered attending. Tons of information on there about the housing issues, dining issues, no room to study in library with so many extra students. Ironically, I'd think kids shoved into forced triples or forced doubles would probably want to head to the library to study since they have no space in their room.

NEU applied to the city of Boston to do precisely that; there was a public hearing this spring. Boston approved the plan to add 900 new beds in East Village and International Village dorms. These are dorms where 2 rooms share a bathroom; so what was 2 doubles will now be 5 students sharing one bathroom and there is no Hallway bathroom to go use (it's not a traditional communal dorm bathroom). I've seen photos and heard parents complain---those dorms are not that big. This plan will force kids to share the closet space as well (don't know about you, but a 2ft closet is already tiny, how can you make 3 people share 2). There simply isn't really enough room for the extra person in those rooms.

Here's an article on it. https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2022/03/11/bpda-approves-northeastern-dorm-plan.html


Fall of 2021 produced a yield with over 1000 extra students, and then they had extras accept into the NUIn and NUBOund program as well (spring admit, go overseas for first semester and fall soph admit go overseas for the entire first year). So they have well over 1000 extra students to place on campus this fall---no clue yet what their yield will be for fall 2022. And NEU has grown alot in the last 8-10 years already and was already poorly dealing with this growth in many areas on campus (except collecting your tuition and R&B $$$).

Initially for fall 2022 admits, the NUBound students were NOT going to EVER be allowed to live on campus when they returned. But when parents (reasonably complained), NEU changed their tone. However, not sure where exactly those extra 500-800 students will be put fall of 2023. And while they could go off campus, that's a challenge in Boston when you haven't even spent the last year in Boston but instead in Oakland CA or London. Boston is a city where you typically pay 1 month brokerage fee to find an apartnemtn. How do you find an apt when you aren't there, how do you find roommates if you don't want to live with NUBound people? Just an indicator to me that they have accepted too many students and cannot accommodate the growing student population.

There is also the huge issue that NEU has already had to use Hotels to house students and requires those students to have a meal plan, despite not being on campus. They may need to do it again this fall. They are struggling with housing---typically the rising 2nd year and beyond (non-freshman) select their housing in March/early April. That hasn't happened yet. Supposed to happen in June/July. After that they will assign freshman. Sophmores are required to live on campus, yet it could be July before they are told where they can live, and for students with terrible housing numbers it might be august before they get assigned to an open space.

Maybe that's what you want for your kid. I personally at 75K+ per year for an education hope my kid could have a few things that are stable in their experiences. And for most the desire to know where they will be living is a key part of that. My incoming freshman (somewhere else) will likely have their housing assignment for freshman year before NEU rising sophomore/jr/seniors have their fall housing.

The article also states that this may NOT be temporary. "Kathy Spiegelman, Northeastern’s chief of campus planning and development, indicated that the added beds may not be temporary. " To me that's a red warning flag that it will continue as long as the city says NEU can cram that many kids into a dorm room.

Yes, I understand that many schools have to do "forced triples" or some solutions certain years as it's damn near impossible to predict yeild. But I've seen other schools forced triples---at one school I visited, those were extremely large doubles, everyone had a wardrobe/closet, beds had to be lofted with desk/dresser underneath, but there was still space for 1-2 lounge chairs and there was 6+ ft between the beds so open space in the center of the room. I've actually seen regular triples that have less space at other schools.

Just saying that don't just read the glossy brochure that NEU gives you. Dig a bit deeper into the school and see what issues there are and whether you are willing to accept these issues for your student's 4-5 years. Parent FB pages are great for this. Reading the student newspaper gives insight into student grievances as well.

Do you think 7% acceptance rate is norm for Northeastern?

Yield was surprisingly high last year which is a good news for the school.
However it caused the overcrowding.
That's why they admitted significantly less students this year than usual to offset the overcrowding, and will adopt to the increased yield.
So it'll get better. We'll see.

No 7% is not the norm.
Yes, it will get better in 4-5 years when the current freshman are gone.

They not only messed up the yield for fall of 2022 for those in Boston but also for the NUIn/NuBound numbers. Based on the Housing numbers assigned for upcoming sophomores, it's estimated that along with the 4500 who were on campus fall 2022, there are almost 2500 in the NUIn/NuBound programs. This is know from the fact housing numbers were approximately 1to7000!
Don't know for sure as NEU doesn't have to publish the numbers for NUIn/NuBound. But based on this it's assumed they got a much higher acceptance for those 2 programs last fall as well. So that's approximately 7000 freshman. Even with a smaller class this fall, it will take several years to undo the over enrollment issues. You've got 5 years worth of students on campus, with 3 at normal sizes (which were growing each year), 1 at major over enrollment and 1 with a slightly reduced enrollment. It will be interesting to see what the actual numbers turn out for fall 2023 freshman.

Yes, good news for the university as that means more $$$. Bad news for students as that means overcrowding in almost every situation. I'd be pissed to pay $12K for housing for my kid to have only 60sq ft of living space and be sharing an already small closet with another student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be honest, I'd be embarrassed to be going to NEU or sending my kid there. The amount of ridicule it gets both by parents and students alike is astounding. Jury is out on whether that's justified, but there is something to be said about the insane boosterism, marketing, exploitative practices, and general air of arrogance I've seen exhibited by some NEU alums who are constantly claiming that it's an elite school.

Interesting. While you’re at it, what other things that embarrass you do you want to admit to here?

[Anonymous]

Op, I think almost everyone who follows college knows about how they play the game. I am not sure if this is worth another round of pissing match though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, pick a school for what it offers your kid NOW. Ignore the rankings. Yes, NEU gamed the system a bit, and so do many other schools. If you like what NEU offers, then go for it.

If you don't, and many don't want to study abroad fall or all of freshman year, then don't attend. Right now, I'd be more concerned about the housing issues and overcrowding and how that affects getting the courses you need, whether my kid is stuck in a single that's now a double (or double that's now a triple), whether for $6K+ per year for dining my kid can get food in a timely manner, whether my kid is stuck living in a hotel that is not on campus. NEU has grown really fast in the past decade and the infrastructure is not in place to support it. So go in with eyes wide open about what this could mean for your student for all aspects of life in college.

Also, be open minded and realize that students do get internships and do Coops at many other colleges (at least in the STEM fields). So your kid can attend elsewhere and still get work experience---many kids have been doing that for decades

Where are you getting this info regarding on campus housing shortage at NEU?

Following the NEU Parents FB pages, as my kid was admitted and considered attending. Tons of information on there about the housing issues, dining issues, no room to study in library with so many extra students. Ironically, I'd think kids shoved into forced triples or forced doubles would probably want to head to the library to study since they have no space in their room.

NEU applied to the city of Boston to do precisely that; there was a public hearing this spring. Boston approved the plan to add 900 new beds in East Village and International Village dorms. These are dorms where 2 rooms share a bathroom; so what was 2 doubles will now be 5 students sharing one bathroom and there is no Hallway bathroom to go use (it's not a traditional communal dorm bathroom). I've seen photos and heard parents complain---those dorms are not that big. This plan will force kids to share the closet space as well (don't know about you, but a 2ft closet is already tiny, how can you make 3 people share 2). There simply isn't really enough room for the extra person in those rooms.

Here's an article on it. https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2022/03/11/bpda-approves-northeastern-dorm-plan.html


Fall of 2021 produced a yield with over 1000 extra students, and then they had extras accept into the NUIn and NUBOund program as well (spring admit, go overseas for first semester and fall soph admit go overseas for the entire first year). So they have well over 1000 extra students to place on campus this fall---no clue yet what their yield will be for fall 2022. And NEU has grown alot in the last 8-10 years already and was already poorly dealing with this growth in many areas on campus (except collecting your tuition and R&B $$$).

Initially for fall 2022 admits, the NUBound students were NOT going to EVER be allowed to live on campus when they returned. But when parents (reasonably complained), NEU changed their tone. However, not sure where exactly those extra 500-800 students will be put fall of 2023. And while they could go off campus, that's a challenge in Boston when you haven't even spent the last year in Boston but instead in Oakland CA or London. Boston is a city where you typically pay 1 month brokerage fee to find an apartnemtn. How do you find an apt when you aren't there, how do you find roommates if you don't want to live with NUBound people? Just an indicator to me that they have accepted too many students and cannot accommodate the growing student population.

There is also the huge issue that NEU has already had to use Hotels to house students and requires those students to have a meal plan, despite not being on campus. They may need to do it again this fall. They are struggling with housing---typically the rising 2nd year and beyond (non-freshman) select their housing in March/early April. That hasn't happened yet. Supposed to happen in June/July. After that they will assign freshman. Sophmores are required to live on campus, yet it could be July before they are told where they can live, and for students with terrible housing numbers it might be august before they get assigned to an open space.

Maybe that's what you want for your kid. I personally at 75K+ per year for an education hope my kid could have a few things that are stable in their experiences. And for most the desire to know where they will be living is a key part of that. My incoming freshman (somewhere else) will likely have their housing assignment for freshman year before NEU rising sophomore/jr/seniors have their fall housing.

The article also states that this may NOT be temporary. "Kathy Spiegelman, Northeastern’s chief of campus planning and development, indicated that the added beds may not be temporary. " To me that's a red warning flag that it will continue as long as the city says NEU can cram that many kids into a dorm room.

Yes, I understand that many schools have to do "forced triples" or some solutions certain years as it's damn near impossible to predict yeild. But I've seen other schools forced triples---at one school I visited, those were extremely large doubles, everyone had a wardrobe/closet, beds had to be lofted with desk/dresser underneath, but there was still space for 1-2 lounge chairs and there was 6+ ft between the beds so open space in the center of the room. I've actually seen regular triples that have less space at other schools.

Just saying that don't just read the glossy brochure that NEU gives you. Dig a bit deeper into the school and see what issues there are and whether you are willing to accept these issues for your student's 4-5 years. Parent FB pages are great for this. Reading the student newspaper gives insight into student grievances as well.

Do you think 7% acceptance rate is norm for Northeastern?

Yield was surprisingly high last year which is a good news for the school.
However it caused the overcrowding.
That's why they admitted significantly less students this year than usual to offset the overcrowding, and will adopt to the increased yield.
So it'll get better. We'll see.

No 7% is not the norm.
Yes, it will get better in 4-5 years when the current freshman are gone.

They not only messed up the yield for fall of 2022 for those in Boston but also for the NUIn/NuBound numbers. Based on the Housing numbers assigned for upcoming sophomores, it's estimated that along with the 4500 who were on campus fall 2022, there are almost 2500 in the NUIn/NuBound programs. This is know from the fact housing numbers were approximately 1to7000!
Don't know for sure as NEU doesn't have to publish the numbers for NUIn/NuBound. But based on this it's assumed they got a much higher acceptance for those 2 programs last fall as well. So that's approximately 7000 freshman. Even with a smaller class this fall, it will take several years to undo the over enrollment issues. You've got 5 years worth of students on campus, with 3 at normal sizes (which were growing each year), 1 at major over enrollment and 1 with a slightly reduced enrollment. It will be interesting to see what the actual numbers turn out for fall 2023 freshman.

Yes, good news for the university as that means more $$$. Bad news for students as that means overcrowding in almost every situation. I'd be pissed to pay $12K for housing for my kid to have only 60sq ft of living space and be sharing an already small closet with another student.

Legitimate question here. Why does it take 5 years to undo the overenrollment issues. Can’t they undo it by accepting smaller freshman classes for the next couple of years and by closing the door to transfers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seriously, pick a school for what it offers your kid NOW. Ignore the rankings. Yes, NEU gamed the system a bit, and so do many other schools. If you like what NEU offers, then go for it.

If you don't, and many don't want to study abroad fall or all of freshman year, then don't attend. Right now, I'd be more concerned about the housing issues and overcrowding and how that affects getting the courses you need, whether my kid is stuck in a single that's now a double (or double that's now a triple), whether for $6K+ per year for dining my kid can get food in a timely manner, whether my kid is stuck living in a hotel that is not on campus. NEU has grown really fast in the past decade and the infrastructure is not in place to support it. So go in with eyes wide open about what this could mean for your student for all aspects of life in college.

Also, be open minded and realize that students do get internships and do Coops at many other colleges (at least in the STEM fields). So your kid can attend elsewhere and still get work experience---many kids have been doing that for decades

Where are you getting this info regarding on campus housing shortage at NEU?

Following the NEU Parents FB pages, as my kid was admitted and considered attending. Tons of information on there about the housing issues, dining issues, no room to study in library with so many extra students. Ironically, I'd think kids shoved into forced triples or forced doubles would probably want to head to the library to study since they have no space in their room.

NEU applied to the city of Boston to do precisely that; there was a public hearing this spring. Boston approved the plan to add 900 new beds in East Village and International Village dorms. These are dorms where 2 rooms share a bathroom; so what was 2 doubles will now be 5 students sharing one bathroom and there is no Hallway bathroom to go use (it's not a traditional communal dorm bathroom). I've seen photos and heard parents complain---those dorms are not that big. This plan will force kids to share the closet space as well (don't know about you, but a 2ft closet is already tiny, how can you make 3 people share 2). There simply isn't really enough room for the extra person in those rooms.

Here's an article on it. https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2022/03/11/bpda-approves-northeastern-dorm-plan.html


Fall of 2021 produced a yield with over 1000 extra students, and then they had extras accept into the NUIn and NUBOund program as well (spring admit, go overseas for first semester and fall soph admit go overseas for the entire first year). So they have well over 1000 extra students to place on campus this fall---no clue yet what their yield will be for fall 2022. And NEU has grown alot in the last 8-10 years already and was already poorly dealing with this growth in many areas on campus (except collecting your tuition and R&B $$$).

Initially for fall 2022 admits, the NUBound students were NOT going to EVER be allowed to live on campus when they returned. But when parents (reasonably complained), NEU changed their tone. However, not sure where exactly those extra 500-800 students will be put fall of 2023. And while they could go off campus, that's a challenge in Boston when you haven't even spent the last year in Boston but instead in Oakland CA or London. Boston is a city where you typically pay 1 month brokerage fee to find an apartnemtn. How do you find an apt when you aren't there, how do you find roommates if you don't want to live with NUBound people? Just an indicator to me that they have accepted too many students and cannot accommodate the growing student population.

There is also the huge issue that NEU has already had to use Hotels to house students and requires those students to have a meal plan, despite not being on campus. They may need to do it again this fall. They are struggling with housing---typically the rising 2nd year and beyond (non-freshman) select their housing in March/early April. That hasn't happened yet. Supposed to happen in June/July. After that they will assign freshman. Sophmores are required to live on campus, yet it could be July before they are told where they can live, and for students with terrible housing numbers it might be august before they get assigned to an open space.

Maybe that's what you want for your kid. I personally at 75K+ per year for an education hope my kid could have a few things that are stable in their experiences. And for most the desire to know where they will be living is a key part of that. My incoming freshman (somewhere else) will likely have their housing assignment for freshman year before NEU rising sophomore/jr/seniors have their fall housing.

The article also states that this may NOT be temporary. "Kathy Spiegelman, Northeastern’s chief of campus planning and development, indicated that the added beds may not be temporary. " To me that's a red warning flag that it will continue as long as the city says NEU can cram that many kids into a dorm room.

Yes, I understand that many schools have to do "forced triples" or some solutions certain years as it's damn near impossible to predict yeild. But I've seen other schools forced triples---at one school I visited, those were extremely large doubles, everyone had a wardrobe/closet, beds had to be lofted with desk/dresser underneath, but there was still space for 1-2 lounge chairs and there was 6+ ft between the beds so open space in the center of the room. I've actually seen regular triples that have less space at other schools.

Just saying that don't just read the glossy brochure that NEU gives you. Dig a bit deeper into the school and see what issues there are and whether you are willing to accept these issues for your student's 4-5 years. Parent FB pages are great for this. Reading the student newspaper gives insight into student grievances as well.

Do you think 7% acceptance rate is norm for Northeastern?

Yield was surprisingly high last year which is a good news for the school.
However it caused the overcrowding.
That's why they admitted significantly less students this year than usual to offset the overcrowding, and will adopt to the increased yield.
So it'll get better. We'll see.

No 7% is not the norm.
Yes, it will get better in 4-5 years when the current freshman are gone.

They not only messed up the yield for fall of 2022 for those in Boston but also for the NUIn/NuBound numbers. Based on the Housing numbers assigned for upcoming sophomores, it's estimated that along with the 4500 who were on campus fall 2022, there are almost 2500 in the NUIn/NuBound programs. This is know from the fact housing numbers were approximately 1to7000!
Don't know for sure as NEU doesn't have to publish the numbers for NUIn/NuBound. But based on this it's assumed they got a much higher acceptance for those 2 programs last fall as well. So that's approximately 7000 freshman. Even with a smaller class this fall, it will take several years to undo the over enrollment issues. You've got 5 years worth of students on campus, with 3 at normal sizes (which were growing each year), 1 at major over enrollment and 1 with a slightly reduced enrollment. It will be interesting to see what the actual numbers turn out for fall 2023 freshman.

Yes, good news for the university as that means more $$$. Bad news for students as that means overcrowding in almost every situation. I'd be pissed to pay $12K for housing for my kid to have only 60sq ft of living space and be sharing an already small closet with another student.

Legitimate question here. Why does it take 5 years to undo the overenrollment issues. Can’t they undo it by accepting smaller freshman classes for the next couple of years and by closing the door to transfers?

They could. Time will tell if they succeed when we hear yield for fall 2022 and eventually figure out #s for NUIn/NUBound fall 2022. They are hoping to yield 1000 students less than fall 2021---but this is just for Boston fall start. We also know they had over crowding with their NUIn/NUbound for last fall and the 1K less students does not address any of those number.
But since they have already been growing each year for he last decade, without changing infrastructure yet, I think the overcrowding issue is more than just fall 2021 freshman class. The sheer fact that their solution so far is forced doubles and triples, in what amounts to 60-70sq ft of living space for most and the university states this may not be temporary indicates to me that they don't have a full solution yet. Because to me, that really is not a viable solution.

As reference, there were over 4300 more undergrads fall 2021 than in fall 2011. That doesn't take into account the extra large NUin/NuBound class fall 2021. But not much infrastructure has changes on campus since 2011. I believe they opened 1 new dorm (East village) since then. But certainly not 4300 more dorm spaces. THere's been another new dorm in the works for year and they've cut rooms out of that and no real plan for when it will be built.

I get that all schools have issues, just saying that these seem like HUGE issues to me and my family and I'm sure would be for other families if they researched and knew this. Basically, NEU is no longer the 10-12K sized school. It's a 20K sized school in the 10K infrastructure. For 80K/year costs, I personally expect more for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Then only difference between Northeastern and *insert name of college you admire* is that Northeastern was new to the scene and overt about its intentions. Nearly every university has been playing the rankings game for the better part of 30 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To be honest, I'd be embarrassed to be going to NEU or sending my kid there. The amount of ridicule it gets both by parents and students alike is astounding. Jury is out on whether that's justified, but there is something to be said about the insane boosterism, marketing, exploitative practices, and general air of arrogance I've seen exhibited by some NEU alums who are constantly claiming that it's an elite school.

It's pretty embarrassing that you would be embarrassed by that, frankly.

People sneer at every college. If you went to Virginia Tech, people would sneer at you for going to a cow college with 75%+ acceptance. If you go to Cornell, people will sneer at you for going to the "worst" college. With Harvard it's "overrated" and MIT is "nerds". Etc. etc.

If you live life based on what people sneer at, you are going to live a pretty pathetic life.

[Anonymous]

I've got a kld heading to Northeastern this fall. I am very excited about the program and opportunities there (and I think my kid is too!). The housing stuff outlined above is concerning, but I think most colleges/universities have issues which arise from time to time. My older kid is at William and Mary, and the parent Facebook pages are full of complaints about different things (poor food/food availability, unhappiness with the dorms, problems with registering for classes, etc.). My alma mater, a small, very selective liberal arts college, is having its own housing issues as the incoming freshman class is apparently much bigger than usual. Virginia Tech had enormous problems with housing a few years ago. Ultimately, almost no experience is going to be perfect, and hopefully the housing issues PP details above either work themselves out or are only short-term problems for any one kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've got a kld heading to Northeastern this fall. I am very excited about the program and opportunities there (and I think my kid is too!). The housing stuff outlined above is concerning, but I think most colleges/universities have issues which arise from time to time. My older kid is at William and Mary, and the parent Facebook pages are full of complaints about different things (poor food/food availability, unhappiness with the dorms, problems with registering for classes, etc.). My alma mater, a small, very selective liberal arts college, is having its own housing issues as the incoming freshman class is apparently much bigger than usual. Virginia Tech had enormous problems with housing a few years ago. Ultimately, almost no experience is going to be perfect, and hopefully the housing issues PP details above either work themselves out or are only short-term problems for any one kid.

Yes, housing issues is not unique to NEU or any other school. However, similarly, I wouldn't have sent my kid to VAtech when they had the major housing issues a few years ago. Basically, know your facts and make informed decisions. If the housing at NEU doesn't bother you then go for it. However in Boston, it's not cheap or easy to find alternatives and NEU is still holding to the "live on campus freshman & sophomore years" requirement. So it's not like you have an alternative.

My own kid would not do well in a dorm room with only 60 sq ft of space, not incredibly picky (their College just has basic dorms, nothing fancy but they are all over 100 sq ft per student, some even larger). For 80K/year, I'd prefer to start at a school that is not currently overcrowded, as it's not just housing that has issues when there's overcrowding. My kid found a perfect school for them where getting into classes you want also does not appear to be much of an issues. If I check the course schedule for last 2 years, very few Lectures are at 100% capacity---labs and recitations are but there were still sections with availability. Having already experienced college with 3 older kids, I know how stressful it can be to constantly fight to get the courses you actually need for your major at the times you need them (so you can take the next course in a sequence on time as well). And by fight I'm not talking, "man I don't want to take X at 8am or have any friday classes or have Professor ABC they suck",
I'm talking "I need Y this semester and there is NO space and I'm on the waitlist" or "I registered and have only 2 of the 5 classes I need for Spring semester. I am only registered for 6 credits because everything else is full". I know life is not perfect, but if we are paying $80K/year, I expect my kid to be able to register for meaningful courses when they need them.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Seriously, pick a school for what it offers your kid NOW. Ignore the rankings. Yes, NEU gamed the system a bit, and so do many other schools. If you like what NEU offers, then go for it.

If you don't, and many don't want to study abroad fall or all of freshman year, then don't attend. Right now, I'd be more concerned about the housing issues and overcrowding and how that affects getting the courses you need, whether my kid is stuck in a single that's now a double (or double that's now a triple), whether for $6K+ per year for dining my kid can get food in a timely manner, whether my kid is stuck living in a hotel that is not on campus. NEU has grown really fast in the past decade and the infrastructure is not in place to support it. So go in with eyes wide open about what this could mean for your student for all aspects of life in college.

Also, be open minded and realize that students do get internships and do Coops at many other colleges (at least in the STEM fields). So your kid can attend elsewhere and still get work experience---many kids have been doing that for decades

Where are you getting this info regarding on campus housing shortage at NEU?

Following the NEU Parents FB pages, as my kid was admitted and considered attending. Tons of information on there about the housing issues, dining issues, no room to study in library with so many extra students. Ironically, I'd think kids shoved into forced triples or forced doubles would probably want to head to the library to study since they have no space in their room.

NEU applied to the city of Boston to do precisely that; there was a public hearing this spring. Boston approved the plan to add 900 new beds in East Village and International Village dorms. These are dorms where 2 rooms share a bathroom; so what was 2 doubles will now be 5 students sharing one bathroom and there is no Hallway bathroom to go use (it's not a traditional communal dorm bathroom). I've seen photos and heard parents complain---those dorms are not that big. This plan will force kids to share the closet space as well (don't know about you, but a 2ft closet is already tiny, how can you make 3 people share 2). There simply isn't really enough room for the extra person in those rooms.

Here's an article on it. https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2022/03/11/bpda-approves-northeastern-dorm-plan.html


Fall of 2021 produced a yield with over 1000 extra students, and then they had extras accept into the NUIn and NUBOund program as well (spring admit, go overseas for first semester and fall soph admit go overseas for the entire first year). So they have well over 1000 extra students to place on campus this fall---no clue yet what their yield will be for fall 2022. And NEU has grown alot in the last 8-10 years already and was already poorly dealing with this growth in many areas on campus (except collecting your tuition and R&B $$$).

Initially for fall 2022 admits, the NUBound students were NOT going to EVER be allowed to live on campus when they returned. But when parents (reasonably complained), NEU changed their tone. However, not sure where exactly those extra 500-800 students will be put fall of 2023. And while they could go off campus, that's a challenge in Boston when you haven't even spent the last year in Boston but instead in Oakland CA or London. Boston is a city where you typically pay 1 month brokerage fee to find an apartnemtn. How do you find an apt when you aren't there, how do you find roommates if you don't want to live with NUBound people? Just an indicator to me that they have accepted too many students and cannot accommodate the growing student population.

There is also the huge issue that NEU has already had to use Hotels to house students and requires those students to have a meal plan, despite not being on campus. They may need to do it again this fall. They are struggling with housing---typically the rising 2nd year and beyond (non-freshman) select their housing in March/early April. That hasn't happened yet. Supposed to happen in June/July. After that they will assign freshman. Sophmores are required to live on campus, yet it could be July before they are told where they can live, and for students with terrible housing numbers it might be august before they get assigned to an open space.

Maybe that's what you want for your kid. I personally at 75K+ per year for an education hope my kid could have a few things that are stable in their experiences. And for most the desire to know where they will be living is a key part of that. My incoming freshman (somewhere else) will likely have their housing assignment for freshman year before NEU rising sophomore/jr/seniors have their fall housing.

The article also states that this may NOT be temporary. "Kathy Spiegelman, Northeastern’s chief of campus planning and development, indicated that the added beds may not be temporary. " To me that's a red warning flag that it will continue as long as the city says NEU can cram that many kids into a dorm room.

Yes, I understand that many schools have to do "forced triples" or some solutions certain years as it's damn near impossible to predict yeild. But I've seen other schools forced triples---at one school I visited, those were extremely large doubles, everyone had a wardrobe/closet, beds had to be lofted with desk/dresser underneath, but there was still space for 1-2 lounge chairs and there was 6+ ft between the beds so open space in the center of the room. I've actually seen regular triples that have less space at other schools.

Just saying that don't just read the glossy brochure that NEU gives you. Dig a bit deeper into the school and see what issues there are and whether you are willing to accept these issues for your student's 4-5 years. Parent FB pages are great for this. Reading the student newspaper gives insight into student grievances as well.

Do you think 7% acceptance rate is norm for Northeastern?

Yield was surprisingly high last year which is a good news for the school.
However it caused the overcrowding.
That's why they admitted significantly less students this year than usual to offset the overcrowding, and will adopt to the increased yield.
So it'll get better. We'll see.

No 7% is not the norm.
Yes, it will get better in 4-5 years when the current freshman are gone.

They not only messed up the yield for fall of 2022 for those in Boston but also for the NUIn/NuBound numbers. Based on the Housing numbers assigned for upcoming sophomores, it's estimated that along with the 4500 who were on campus fall 2022, there are almost 2500 in the NUIn/NuBound programs. This is know from the fact housing numbers were approximately 1to7000!
Don't know for sure as NEU doesn't have to publish the numbers for NUIn/NuBound. But based on this it's assumed they got a much higher acceptance for those 2 programs last fall as well. So that's approximately 7000 freshman. Even with a smaller class this fall, it will take several years to undo the over enrollment issues. You've got 5 years worth of students on campus, with 3 at normal sizes (which were growing each year), 1 at major over enrollment and 1 with a slightly reduced enrollment. It will be interesting to see what the actual numbers turn out for fall 2023 freshman.

Yes, good news for the university as that means more $$$. Bad news for students as that means overcrowding in almost every situation. I'd be pissed to pay $12K for housing for my kid to have only 60sq ft of living space and be sharing an already small closet with another student.

Legitimate question here. Why does it take 5 years to undo the overenrollment issues. Can’t they undo it by accepting smaller freshman classes for the next couple of years and by closing the door to transfers?

They could. Time will tell if they succeed when we hear yield for fall 2022 and eventually figure out #s for NUIn/NUBound fall 2022. They are hoping to yield 1000 students less than fall 2021---but this is just for Boston fall start. We also know they had over crowding with their NUIn/NUbound for last fall and the 1K less students does not address any of those number.
But since they have already been growing each year for he last decade, without changing infrastructure yet, I think the overcrowding issue is more than just fall 2021 freshman class. The sheer fact that their solution so far is forced doubles and triples, in what amounts to 60-70sq ft of living space for most and the university states this may not be temporary indicates to me that they don't have a full solution yet. Because to me, that really is not a viable solution.

As reference, there were over 4300 more undergrads fall 2021 than in fall 2011. That doesn't take into account the extra large NUin/NuBound class fall 2021. But not much infrastructure has changes on campus since 2011. I believe they opened 1 new dorm (East village) since then. But certainly not 4300 more dorm spaces. THere's been another new dorm in the works for year and they've cut rooms out of that and no real plan for when it will be built.

I get that all schools have issues, just saying that these seem like HUGE issues to me and my family and I'm sure would be for other families if they researched and knew this. Basically, NEU is no longer the 10-12K sized school. It's a 20K sized school in the 10K infrastructure. For 80K/year costs, I personally expect more for my kids.

Thanks. This is an explanation of the situation. Seems like a classic case of “Beware what you wish for . . .”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've got a kld heading to Northeastern this fall. I am very excited about the program and opportunities there (and I think my kid is too!). The housing stuff outlined above is concerning, but I think most colleges/universities have issues which arise from time to time. My older kid is at William and Mary, and the parent Facebook pages are full of complaints about different things (poor food/food availability, unhappiness with the dorms, problems with registering for classes, etc.). My alma mater, a small, very selective liberal arts college, is having its own housing issues as the incoming freshman class is apparently much bigger than usual. Virginia Tech had enormous problems with housing a few years ago. Ultimately, almost no experience is going to be perfect, and hopefully the housing issues PP details above either work themselves out or are only short-term problems for any one kid.

Yes, housing issues is not unique to NEU or any other school. However, similarly, I wouldn't have sent my kid to VAtech when they had the major housing issues a few years ago. Basically, know your facts and make informed decisions. If the housing at NEU doesn't bother you then go for it. However in Boston, it's not cheap or easy to find alternatives and NEU is still holding to the "live on campus freshman & sophomore years" requirement. So it's not like you have an alternative.

My own kid would not do well in a dorm room with only 60 sq ft of space, not incredibly picky (their College just has basic dorms, nothing fancy but they are all over 100 sq ft per student, some even larger). For 80K/year, I'd prefer to start at a school that is not currently overcrowded, as it's not just housing that has issues when there's overcrowding. My kid found a perfect school for them where getting into classes you want also does not appear to be much of an issues. If I check the course schedule for last 2 years, very few Lectures are at 100% capacity---labs and recitations are but there were still sections with availability. Having already experienced college with 3 older kids, I know how stressful it can be to constantly fight to get the courses you actually need for your major at the times you need them (so you can take the next course in a sequence on time as well). And by fight I'm not talking, "man I don't want to take X at 8am or have any friday classes or have Professor ABC they suck",
I'm talking "I need Y this semester and there is NO space and I'm on the waitlist" or "I registered and have only 2 of the 5 classes I need for Spring semester. I am only registered for 6 credits because everything else is full". I know life is not perfect, but if we are paying $80K/year, I expect my kid to be able to register for meaningful courses when they need them.

My kid is majoring in CS which is one of the most popular majors.
Registration and taking courses turned out very fine.
I think it's at least better than the crowded public schools.

She had to share a double room with two roommages wich was not desireable, but she would have made the same choice of school.
They admitted significantly less students this year, this will resovle majority of the problem, and hope she gets better dorm situation in the 2nd year.

[Anonymous]

I know at least one employer that does not hire NEU grads because they’ve had subpar experiences with NEU interns.