Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:44
Subject: Re:Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not necessarily a Northeastern fan but let's not pretend other schools don't do similar things. UVA was no supplemental and test optional this year too.
Yep. I was going to chime in to say UVA, and others, do the same.
I do think it’s egregious to mislead the acceptance rate.
UVA did that this year in direct response to Trump attacking them. They stripped it to scores and gpa pretty much. He is looking for a way to challenge admissions. It’s also why many elite schools took so many rural and first gen this year…admin was on them for that too…
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:41
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Serious question, what does it matter what their acceptance rate is? Are people really choosing a school based on it's acceptance rate?
Why does it matter? What kind of question is that. If someone lies about one data point, what else are they lying about? Transparency is essential.
Well, it seems that they aren't lying. Everyone here knows the numbers are for their Boston campus. If you Google their admissions numbers, it tells you it's for their Boston campus. It's not lying just because most people don't read the fine print
Having "fine print" that most don't know they have to read because they don't expect there to be fine print, is misleading.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:41
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Serious question, what does it matter what their acceptance rate is? Are people really choosing a school based on it's acceptance rate?
It seems like some parents weren't familiar with Northeastern and became attracted by the low published acceptance rate. Then when they finally got a clue they got all butthurt about it and now trash the school any chance they get.
+1
I am flabbergasted how parents can agree to sink significant money into this school without even doing basic research on the history/trajectory of a school. I'm no expert, but even I googled NEU and read Selingo's excellent chapter on how they artificially climbed the rankings by gaming class size (essentially creating numerous classes of 1-2 students only that few students had heard of or knew about) when class size was an important metric for USNWR rankings. When USNWR dropped that criteria, they stopped those fake tiny classes. Now to game admission rate, they hide half their accepted students and label them as rejected for purposes of calculating the rate so that they can seem so desirable.
My advice to prospective students and parents is DO YOUR RESEARCH before spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on any college. And if you find out something you don't like after accepting, it's not irrevocable. You can transfer or switch.
Be informed everyone.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:35
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Serious question, what does it matter what their acceptance rate is? Are people really choosing a school based on it's acceptance rate?
Why does it matter? What kind of question is that. If someone lies about one data point, what else are they lying about? Transparency is essential.
Well, it seems that they aren't lying. Everyone here knows the numbers are for their Boston campus. If you Google their admissions numbers, it tells you it's for their Boston campus. It's not lying just because most people don't read the fine print
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:35
Subject: Re:Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:I don't get it. If a kid applies to a school and he gets admitted (whether to the main or another alternative campus), the kid is admitted, period. You can't pretend he was rejected.
Well for purposes of calculating their public-facing admission rate, that is essentially what NEU does. They pretend that half of their admitted class was rejected by hiding them at other campuses, hoping a lower admission rate makes them seem more desirable to future classes and will artificially raise their prestige.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:32
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Weird take — writer is upset that they LIE because they only give the main campus numbers and so many more are accepted to other programs, but goes on to say no one wants those other programs when they apply. Well, if applicants only want the main campus, then that 5% or whatever stat isn’t a lie, is it?
NP yeah, it is.
Using easy number, if 20,000 apply and 2000 are admitted to the main campus and 4000 are admitted to satellite campuses, their acceptance rate is 30% but they report it at 10%.
You all don’t complain like this when NYU and USC do spring admits, Vanderbilt gives Verto, and Cornell gives GT offers. None of that factors into the acceptance rate despite being virtually the same as NU.In
Do these programs functionally DOUBLE the size of the class?
Not for USC. They squeeze in 10% more (500 students roughly) into a delayed start Spring semester when they anticipate space available on campus due to study abroads, taking off a term, study away, drop-outs etc. It's to make money by never having less than 100% capacity.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:28
Subject: Re:Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
I don't get it. If a kid applies to a school and he gets admitted (whether to the main or another alternative campus), the kid is admitted, period. You can't pretend he was rejected.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:25
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:The issue is that Northeastern counts the total applicant count in the denominator but not the numerator, which is, at best, misleading and realistically, an outward lie.
All of the full-pay admits to their portfolio of campuses around the world are not calculated in their admission rate. In fact, they are misleadingly considered rejected in the calculation (and the GPA, test scores of the non-Boston admits aren't incorporated either).
facts
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:25
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Weird take — writer is upset that they LIE because they only give the main campus numbers and so many more are accepted to other programs, but goes on to say no one wants those other programs when they apply. Well, if applicants only want the main campus, then that 5% or whatever stat isn’t a lie, is it?
NP yeah, it is.
Using easy number, if 20,000 apply and 2000 are admitted to the main campus and 4000 are admitted to satellite campuses, their acceptance rate is 30% but they report it at 10%.
You all don’t complain like this when NYU and USC do spring admits, Vanderbilt gives Verto, and Cornell gives GT offers. None of that factors into the acceptance rate despite being virtually the same as NU.In
Actually many of us do. There are recent threads pointing out this about Vandy, USC, BU and NYU. Personally, I don't trust the acceptance rate of any college that has multiple satellite campuses and/or delayed start. They're hiding information about their selectivity to rise in the USNWR rankings and to artificially reduce their overall admission rate to court desirability.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:25
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Serious question, what does it matter what their acceptance rate is? Are people really choosing a school based on it's acceptance rate?
Why does it matter? What kind of question is that. If someone lies about one data point, what else are they lying about? Transparency is essential.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:20
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Take it with an obvious grain of salt as this was an Instagram post from a college advisor and quasi-influencer, but I happen to agree with the substance:
Northeastern isn’t a bad school. They just LIE, a lot.
That 5% acceptance rate is completely manufactured. They only count students admitted to the Boston campus. Meanwhile thousands more get accepted into NUin, Global Scholars, London, Oakland, and now NYC. For the class of 2028 alone, only about 2,700 students were admitted to Boston, but over 3,300 more got in through those other programs that conveniently don’t show up in the number. If you count everyone they actually accept, the real rate is way higher than 5%. And be honest, who’s dreaming of spending their freshman year at Northeastern’s Oakland campus? Nobody applied to Northeastern for that.
They’ve rigged the front end too. No supplemental essays. Test optional. Applying to Northeastern is basically a one-click process through the Common App, which is exactly the point. The more unqualified applicants they attract, the lower that rate looks on paper.
Total cost of attendance at Northeastern runs around $90–94K a year. Harvard is about $87K with WAY more aid at Harvard. You’re paying more than Harvard for a degree that no one is that impressed by.
Now I already know the Northeastern crowd is gonna flood my comments bragging about their co-ops. A co-op is an internship. That’s it. The rest of us can apply for internships on our own, graduate on time, and we don’t have to pay $94,000 a year for the privilege.
Now is Northeastern worth going to sometimes? Yes. Of course. If it’s your LOWEST cost option. At least then you’re getting value for your money🤷♂️
I agree with this mostly as well. Northeastern isn't terrible but it has a strategy and intent to be misleading. They've been gaming the USNWR rankings methodology for 5 years (there's a whole chapter on their shenanigans in Selingo's "Who Gets In" book) which enabled them to jump 40 places in a short, short time and this strategy culminated with them overpaying for the shrewd but also somewhat shady former Head of Admissions at Tulane to come over to NU and replicate his heavy handed and misleading urgency tactics that pressed a lot of kids to apply, apply ED and commit to Tulane (also featured in Selingo's book as a cautionary tale and red flag). There's no question they have aggressive sales tactics, and massively benefit from kids wanting to study in the Boston area but being unable to get into Harvard, MIT, Tufts, Wellesley, BU/BC etc. It's not illegal, but some of their tactics are shady and exploit student immaturity and admissions anxiety. So I'm not a fan, and I strongly discouraged my kid from applying.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:16
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Serious question, what does it matter what their acceptance rate is? Are people really choosing a school based on it's acceptance rate?
It seems like some parents weren't familiar with Northeastern and became attracted by the low published acceptance rate. Then when they finally got a clue they got all butthurt about it and now trash the school any chance they get.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:08
Subject: Re:Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Not necessarily a Northeastern fan but let's not pretend other schools don't do similar things. UVA was no supplemental and test optional this year too.
Yep. I was going to chime in to say UVA, and others, do the same.
I do think it’s egregious to mislead the acceptance rate.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 15:56
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
I.domt even know why some parents let their kids apply to that crappy school. It's really weird!
Anonymous
04/06/2026 15:53
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Serious question, what does it matter what their acceptance rate is? Are people really choosing a school based on it's acceptance rate?