Anonymous wrote:How to Game the College Rankings

Northeastern University executed one of the most dramatic turnarounds in higher education. Its recipe for success? A single-minded focus on just one list.

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/

This more than a decade old article basically says NU followed rules and transparent about it.
It actually improved significantly in the areas considered important while other schools have secretly cheated.

Some of the high profile examples beside of the ones listed in the article,
- UCBerkeley: https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/uc-berkeley-booted-from-u-s-news-best-college-list-misreporting/

- Emory: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/emory-university-false-academic-data-sent-ranking-groups-flna950476

- Columbia: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-07-01/columbia-to-pay-9-million-to-settle-lawsuit-over-us-news-college-ranking

Anonymous wrote:How to Game the College Rankings

Northeastern University executed one of the most dramatic turnarounds in higher education. Its recipe for success? A single-minded focus on just one list.

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/

Freeland swept into Northeastern with a brand-new mantra: recalibrate the school to climb up the ranks. “There’s no question that the system invites gaming,” Freeland tells me. “We made a systematic effort to influence [the outcome].” He directed university researchers to break the U.S. News code and replicate its formulas. He spoke about the rankings all the time—in hallways and at board meetings, illustrating his points with charts. He spent his days trying to figure out how to get the biggest bump up the charts for his buck. He worked the goal into the school’s strategic plan. “We had to get into the top 100,” Freeland says. “That was a life-or-death matter for Northeastern.”

So this is a university where ranking is a life-or-death matter!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How to Game the College Rankings

Northeastern University executed one of the most dramatic turnarounds in higher education. Its recipe for success? A single-minded focus on just one list.

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/

And the most unoriginal post goes to ^^^^^

Yet (inexplicably) none of the Northeastern boosters seem to have actually read the article…

Anonymous wrote:How to Game the College Rankings

Northeastern University executed one of the most dramatic turnarounds in higher education. Its recipe for success? A single-minded focus on just one list.

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/

And the most unoriginal post goes to ^^^^^

How to Game the College Rankings

Northeastern University executed one of the most dramatic turnarounds in higher education. Its recipe for success? A single-minded focus on just one list.

https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2014/08/26/how-northeastern-gamed-the-college-rankings/

Anonymous wrote:I know it may be shocking, but not all kids want school spirit in the rah rah way. Mine does not and deliberately chose urban schools with little to no Greek life and no major sports teams (preferred a school without a football team, as well).

Not shcoking at all, tons and tons of students prefer urban/city setting rather than heavy greek or big sports setting these days.

I know it may be shocking, but not all kids want school spirit in the rah rah way. Mine does not and deliberately chose urban schools with little to no Greek life and no major sports teams (preferred a school without a football team, as well).

Anonymous wrote:

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

+1 agree

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

That’s because they are separate applications to different locations. The college park figures are for applicants only to college park. At Northeastern you have a single application.

Anonymous wrote:How do sports teams work at Northeastern with kids going away on coops? I’m guessing they take extra students on teams so they can shuffle the roster if some of the team is away. The coop program must affect school spirit. Is the school low on school spirit?

There are some myths about coop in Northeastern.
Coop is not required. What is required is one experiential education which includes coop and also, study abroad, Summer cultural immersion program, research, etc.

Coop is an added program/service/support by the school. It's an enhanced version of internship with more flexibility and better support from the school. So instead of Summer only, you can do the internship in the Spring or Fall. Course offerings and the whole academic structure is designed to support that with plenty of Summer courses.

NU has 19 NCAA DI sports teams, and ice hockey is big.
Also aren't there seasons for each sport?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVnpEQMuSFk

Anonymous wrote:I live in boston and I still don’t get northeastern

The northeastern people I know are all young women from rich families

They all have pretty ho-hum jobs…

It’s def a good school for stem but outside of that, I don’t get how it’s so popular besides being in boston.

Tons of rich foreign students as well just pouring money into a “degree”

A weird place - outside of stem

Northeastern is a meets need school. Not everyone is rich!

Anonymous wrote:I live in boston and I still don’t get northeastern

The northeastern people I know are all young women from rich families

They all have pretty ho-hum jobs…

It’s def a good school for stem but outside of that, I don’t get how it’s so popular besides being in boston.

Tons of rich foreign students as well just pouring money into a “degree”

A weird place - outside of stem

You have a very limited grasp.
It's also good for business, pre-med, design & applied art, etc.,
It's overall outcome rivals many of the T20 T30 schools.
https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?167358-Northeastern-University

Again, they’ve done a great job of falsely marketing it as super competitive and there are plenty of people who want to say that their kid goes to a school that is tough to get into. It’s the same as a not terribly cool club creating a line out the door to create a perception of exclusivity.

I live in boston and I still don’t get northeastern

The northeastern people I know are all young women from rich families

They all have pretty ho-hum jobs…

It’s def a good school for stem but outside of that, I don’t get how it’s so popular besides being in boston.

Tons of rich foreign students as well just pouring money into a “degree”

A weird place - outside of stem

How do sports teams work at Northeastern with kids going away on coops? I’m guessing they take extra students on teams so they can shuffle the roster if some of the team is away. The coop program must affect school spirit. Is the school low on school spirit?

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

So it's more of a vocational school?

Seems like it. I've come across no reviews from my research students that describe it as intellectual, rigorous or stimulating. Just a lot of info on co-ops and how to go about getting them. I think it has a more practical, vocational spirit?

Students at Northeastern are descrobed as bright, motivational, intellectual, and independent.

It might be helpful to have stats on ALL admitted students, instead of just Boston. Why not publicized those?

Because it would expose the school and reduce their ranking. They don't want to be a 30-40% acceptance rate school and go to absurd lengths to build that illusion.

30-40% acceptance rate is physically mathematically not possible if you have a brain.

When casting aspersions, you may want to refrain from using descriptors like “Physically mathematically”.