This is how Northeastern gamed the system

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

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

I meant to say “. . . excellent explanation . . .” Sorry about the typo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry Northeastern hurt you, OP.

+1

Let it go, OP. Your posting about the same old topic every other week is not going to help your situation. Nor is your ruminating about it. Time to move on.

[Anonymous]

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

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I think you and northeastern should consider couples counseling, op.

+1

[Anonymous]

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

You’re absurd.

[Anonymous]

+1. This is silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Good to hear about registration for classes! Yes, large state schools are worse, and that's why my own DC has no plans to attend any school that big--NEU was pushing the size limit for DC.
Hope she hears about her sophomore dorm situation soon, but I've heard it might not happen until late June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Good to hear about registration for classes! Yes, large state schools are worse, and that's why my own DC has no plans to attend any school that big--NEU was pushing the size limit for DC.
Hope she hears about her sophomore dorm situation soon, but I've heard it might not happen until late June.

Update on the dorm for my DC at Northeastern. My DC is a rising Junior.
DC got into a roommate group of 4 - two rising juniors and two rising sophomores.
(Found it on Reddit Discord or someting online)

They got into one of the nicest buildings. Room arrangement is Single Single Double.
Two juniors will have the Singles. It has a big living room and a kitchen. One shared basthroom for four.
It turned out very well for my DC for the second year - 2022/2023

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Good to hear about registration for classes! Yes, large state schools are worse, and that's why my own DC has no plans to attend any school that big--NEU was pushing the size limit for DC.
Hope she hears about her sophomore dorm situation soon, but I've heard it might not happen until late June.

Update on the dorm for my DC at Northeastern. My DC is a rising Junior.
DC got into a roommate group of 4 - two rising juniors and two rising sophomores.
(Found it on Reddit Discord or someting online)

They got into one of the nicest buildings. Room arrangement is Single Single Double.
Two juniors will have the Singles. It has a big living room and a kitchen. One shared basthroom for four.
It turned out very well for my DC for the second year - 2022/2023

Typo. My DC is a rising Sophomore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Good to hear about registration for classes! Yes, large state schools are worse, and that's why my own DC has no plans to attend any school that big--NEU was pushing the size limit for DC.
Hope she hears about her sophomore dorm situation soon, but I've heard it might not happen until late June.

Update on the dorm for my DC at Northeastern. My DC is a rising Junior.
DC got into a roommate group of 4 - two rising juniors and two rising sophomores.
(Found it on Reddit Discord or someting online)

They got into one of the nicest buildings. Room arrangement is Single Single Double.
Two juniors will have the Singles. It has a big living room and a kitchen. One shared basthroom for four.
It turned out very well for my DC for the second year - 2022/2023

Typo. My DC is a rising Sophomore.

Glad it worked out for your sophomore. I personally cannot imagine waiting until June to know what housing my kid has for August. Just curious what lottery # did you DC use to get this housing

[Anonymous]

Northeastern's good.. great even... all about fit for the right student. But I don't think it's anything special.

Having witnessed three DCs' and their peers' college processes, I'm just not impressed with Northeastern—didn't make it onto any of my DCs' lists.

Sure the acceptance rate is low, but it's not viewed in accordance with that around Boston. TONS of kids from the Boston suburbs go every year, it's not a crazy admit. A lot who go seem kind of basic, nerdy, computer science oriented. Also a lot of nouveau riche, and kids in a very blatantly aspirational pursuit of wealth.

Also, the most blatant yield protection ever—I've seen NEU reject valedictorians but take kids much lower in the high school class who NEU knows will enrol. Then they send hundreds of kids abroad for their first semester or year, and they're technically enrolled in like "professional studies" or some other academic unit of the university where their admits are excluded from the acceptance rate, and their standardized test scores are not reported. So they inflate their numbers, deflate their acceptance rate.

So definitely a great fit for some, and honestly kudos to them. I want everyone to find their best fit! Northeastern seems great, but it doesn't seem like an intellectual place, or one I'm particularly impressed with over other colleges. The acceptance rate doesn't say much when they engineer it so hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Good to hear about registration for classes! Yes, large state schools are worse, and that's why my own DC has no plans to attend any school that big--NEU was pushing the size limit for DC.
Hope she hears about her sophomore dorm situation soon, but I've heard it might not happen until late June.

Update on the dorm for my DC at Northeastern. My DC is a rising Junior.
DC got into a roommate group of 4 - two rising juniors and two rising sophomores.
(Found it on Reddit Discord or someting online)

They got into one of the nicest buildings. Room arrangement is Single Single Double.
Two juniors will have the Singles. It has a big living room and a kitchen. One shared basthroom for four.
It turned out very well for my DC for the second year - 2022/2023

Typo. My DC is a rising Sophomore.

Glad it worked out for your sophomore. I personally cannot imagine waiting until June to know what housing my kid has for August. Just curious what lottery # did you DC use to get this housing

Lottery number was 3000 something so had to wait till end of June also, but DC found the group with a rising Junior who had like 1000 something number.
That was the advantage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern's good.. great even... all about fit for the right student. But I don't think it's anything special.

Having witnessed three DCs' and their peers' college processes, I'm just not impressed with Northeastern—didn't make it onto any of my DCs' lists.

Sure the acceptance rate is low, but it's not viewed in accordance with that around Boston. TONS of kids from the Boston suburbs go every year, it's not a crazy admit. A lot who go seem kind of basic, nerdy, computer science oriented. Also a lot of nouveau riche, and kids in a very blatantly aspirational pursuit of wealth.

Also, the most blatant yield protection ever—I've seen NEU reject valedictorians but take kids much lower in the high school class who NEU knows will enrol. Then they send hundreds of kids abroad for their first semester or year, and they're technically enrolled in like "professional studies" or some other academic unit of the university where their admits are excluded from the acceptance rate, and their standardized test scores are not reported. So they inflate their numbers, deflate their acceptance rate.

So definitely a great fit for some, and honestly kudos to them. I want everyone to find their best fit! Northeastern seems great, but it doesn't seem like an intellectual place, or one I'm particularly impressed with over other colleges. The acceptance rate doesn't say much when they engineer it so hard.

You are right. It's just like any other school.
Don't expect something drastically special.
Any student should be serious about a career.
Your impression is personal and subjective, but you are also wrong on some of the facts, but I wouldn't bother. It was covered 1000 times here.

Northeastern has been gaining big improvements in yield, student quality, acceptance rate altogether at the same time.
That's what every school wants and tries to do. Some even cheat. Again nothing special about Northeastern as you said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Good to hear about registration for classes! Yes, large state schools are worse, and that's why my own DC has no plans to attend any school that big--NEU was pushing the size limit for DC.
Hope she hears about her sophomore dorm situation soon, but I've heard it might not happen until late June.

Update on the dorm for my DC at Northeastern. My DC is a rising Junior.
DC got into a roommate group of 4 - two rising juniors and two rising sophomores.
(Found it on Reddit Discord or someting online)

They got into one of the nicest buildings. Room arrangement is Single Single Double.
Two juniors will have the Singles. It has a big living room and a kitchen. One shared basthroom for four.
It turned out very well for my DC for the second year - 2022/2023

Typo. My DC is a rising Sophomore.

Glad it worked out for your sophomore. I personally cannot imagine waiting until June to know what housing my kid has for August. Just curious what lottery # did you DC use to get this housing

Lottery number was 3000 something so had to wait till end of June also, but DC found the group with a rising Junior who had like 1000 something number.
That was the advantage.

So it's luck that your DC will not be stuck in forced triple with only 60sq ft for each kid.

[Anonymous]

Northeasstern has developed an amazing Co-op program focused on internships, training and GETTING THEIR GRADUATES JOBS.

All colleges should be moving toward this successful model.
They should be ranked high, as should all colleges that focus on getting their graduates profitable jobs in their field.