Anonymous
04/06/2026 18:41
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
DS toured NEU. It was all about the co-ops. Pretty lame in terms of actual college experience. Seemed very gimmicky. He passed on applying.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 18:15
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:To be clear. Northeastern has no supplements, is test optional, and admits students to satellite campuses and that is bad
UVA has no supplements, is test optional, and admits students to their satellite campus (Wise), but they are altruistic and the only reason they did that is because of pressure from the DOJ which makes it totally ok and above reproach
Got it
No one gets admitted to UVA Wise. A tiny number - and I mean tiny - like somewhere in the 75 range - do the "Year in Wise."
There is no comparison. NEU does it as an intentional effort of bolstering it's "low acceptance rate" while UVA actually has a low acceptance rate.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 17:49
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
It sad how a school can anger people so much. I know 2 kids going there this year - bright, smart, funny, and dedicated. Endless bashing will get us nowhere. Northeastern is great, admissions politics aside.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 17:39
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:This is all true and NEU been doing this for years. Lucky for them they find a fresh set of gullible parents and students each year.
Believe it or not, there are actually people that compare NEU to Harvard because of the manufactured low acceptance rate.
If the school is actually good then the acceptance rate isn’t a factor in the quality.
If you judge a school based on their rejection rate then congrats you walked right into a trap.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 17:31
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
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%.
Right. But in the same breath as complaining about that lie, the writer went in to say that applicants don’t want the satellites and only want the main campus. For which the admit rate is 10%.
It’s nonsensical to complain about not giving the comprehensive admit rate but then say they only want admissions to the main campus anyway. If that’s true, the admissions rate to the main campus is what matters.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 17:15
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:The recent-ish Northeastern grad I know did two coops, one including one abroad, got a job straight out of college, was quickly promoted, moved on to an even better job a couple years later, and just bought her first apartment in NYC. Granted, this is just one anecdote, but it speaks well to the quality of a Northeastern education.
How so? This story says nothing about the school.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 17:15
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Take it with an obvious grain of salt as this was an Instagram post from a college advisor and quasi-influencer, but I happen to agree with the substance:
Northeastern isn’t a bad school. They just LIE, a lot.
That 5% acceptance rate is completely manufactured. They only count students admitted to the Boston campus. Meanwhile thousands more get accepted into NUin, Global Scholars, London, Oakland, and now NYC. For the class of 2028 alone, only about 2,700 students were admitted to Boston, but over 3,300 more got in through those other programs that conveniently don’t show up in the number. If you count everyone they actually accept, the real rate is way higher than 5%. And be honest, who’s dreaming of spending their freshman year at Northeastern’s Oakland campus? Nobody applied to Northeastern for that.
They’ve rigged the front end too. No supplemental essays. Test optional. Applying to Northeastern is basically a one-click process through the Common App, which is exactly the point. The more unqualified applicants they attract, the lower that rate looks on paper.
Total cost of attendance at Northeastern runs around $90–94K a year. Harvard is about $87K with WAY more aid at Harvard. You’re paying more than Harvard for a degree that no one is that impressed by.
Now I already know the Northeastern crowd is gonna flood my comments bragging about their co-ops. A co-op is an internship. That’s it. The rest of us can apply for internships on our own, graduate on time, and we don’t have to pay $94,000 a year for the privilege.
Now is Northeastern worth going to sometimes? Yes. Of course. If it’s your LOWEST cost option. At least then you’re getting value for your money🤷♂️
This paragraph both complains about the "artificial" acceptance rate for the school because it's just for the Boston campus AND complains that no one wants to go anywhere but to the Boston campus - so to me that acceptance rate is exactly the information that this quasi-influencer says applicants should need. If "nobody" wants to go to any of the other programs NEU is doing applicants a favor by not including that data in their acceptance rate.
My family has no interest in NEU, but they also are no where near the only school who plays these games and charges these dollars.
The notion that NEU is doing this for transparency and altruistic reasons is obviously disingenuous. They are doing it to artificially manipulate rankings while concurrently maximizing revenue from their conscientious strategy of adding capacity outside of Boston for lower-stats, full-pay kids that think they're getting into an incredibly competitive institution. I have no issue with the philosophy of the school - I think the co-op program is great. I am, however, repulsed by the blatantly misleading manipulation of the rankings that should be smarter and more nuanced but are not.
To a tie for 46th in its U.S. News category?
Anonymous
04/06/2026 17:13
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Northeastern and Vandy both do super shady stuff. It does make me wonder what other crappy stuff goes on behind the scenes. Also looking at you USC. It’s fine to attend these schools if you like their location or something else but crazy to do it for their fake rankings
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:53
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
To be clear. Northeastern has no supplements, is test optional, and admits students to satellite campuses and that is bad
UVA has no supplements, is test optional, and admits students to their satellite campus (Wise), but they are altruistic and the only reason they did that is because of pressure from the DOJ which makes it totally ok and above reproach
Got it
UVA has no supplements, is test optional, and admits students to their satellite campus (Wise), but they are altruistic and the only reason they did that is because of pressure from the DOJ which makes it totally ok and above reproach
Got it
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:51
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
The UVA argument is thin. They removed the supplemental essay, which I think was a mistake. It boosted applications and somewhat reduced acceptance rate.
But, they differ in important ways.
1. Unlike NEU and Tulane (and to a lesser extent, Vandy, UChicago, NYU and many SLACS), they don't accept most of their class through ED to lock in the financial commitment under the guise of competitiveness.
2. Most importantly, the don't stash less-than students at alternate campuses to game the numbers. This is the big one. UVA doesn't include other campuses (other Virginia public schools) in their numbers. If they renamed the campuses UVA-Williamsburg, UVA-Harrisonburg, UVA-Fairfax etc...and sent rejected applicants to those campuses while not counting them in the admissions stats, you'd have a fair comparison. But, of course, they don't.
But, they differ in important ways.
1. Unlike NEU and Tulane (and to a lesser extent, Vandy, UChicago, NYU and many SLACS), they don't accept most of their class through ED to lock in the financial commitment under the guise of competitiveness.
2. Most importantly, the don't stash less-than students at alternate campuses to game the numbers. This is the big one. UVA doesn't include other campuses (other Virginia public schools) in their numbers. If they renamed the campuses UVA-Williamsburg, UVA-Harrisonburg, UVA-Fairfax etc...and sent rejected applicants to those campuses while not counting them in the admissions stats, you'd have a fair comparison. But, of course, they don't.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:49
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
I know all of this about the school (don’t love the gaming the rankings but I know all schools are gaming the rankings and it doesn’t bother me that they’re gaming them a bit more-all of if sucks nd obsession with ranking sucks as well.)
Having said that, my very high stats kid chose the school, loved it, and got into a great PhD program that was their first choice.
Having said that, my very high stats kid chose the school, loved it, and got into a great PhD program that was their first choice.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:49
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Great, now do NYU with their international campuses.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:46
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
The recent-ish Northeastern grad I know did two coops, one including one abroad, got a job straight out of college, was quickly promoted, moved on to an even better job a couple years later, and just bought her first apartment in NYC. Granted, this is just one anecdote, but it speaks well to the quality of a Northeastern education.
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:45
Subject: Scathing Summary of Northeastern Admissions
Anonymous wrote:UVa changed to drop supplemental essays only starting this year - and due to pressure from US DoJ. They are likely to switch back with any new Federal administration.
+1 just reiterated that point -I should have read your response first
Anonymous
04/06/2026 16:45
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🤷♂️
The Boston campus IS Northeastern.
It will remain popular and in demand.
Go and take a nap OP.