Son from international school in Japan also deferred with comparable stats. Difficult to understand the rationale. Although its understandable for NE to manage it’s yield to ensure slots go to those who will attend, it is far more difficult for international students to attend visits, attend presentations and otherwise show a high level of interest. Seems as if the common application is resulting in students submitting many applications and the colleges receiving a higher ratio of applications from highly deserving students- leading to more deferrals to enable those students to demonstrate their high level of interest. I would expect that ED will likewise grow very quickly in future years.
dont worry northeastern is a bottom feeder school, lower tier, not worth stressing about
I’m an international student in Japan and I was deferred as well. After receiving my deferral I checked their admissions website and found out that not only do they not require SAT/ACT scores for international students, they don’t review them either. Not sure if that specifically is what hurt my application but it seems like it may have been a factor in addition to yield protection. This policy doesn’t really make sense to me and I’m considering emailing the admissions counselors to ask about the reasoning behind it. 
Good luck to your son in the RD round!
@EDHDAD, we’re also one of those families who have an open mind and no single “top choice”. In my mind there’s too many great options out there to commit unconditionally to any one school before even knowing the terms of the offers of all schools we’ve applied to. I don’t think it’s being wishy-washy, it’s a smart approach. Schools are big business and we’re a tiny customer doing our homework to hopefully get the most bang for our buck.
@18caronp, I see the logic in not considering standardized test scores for international students. Those standards might be less effective to evaluate internationals since some of those schoolsystems do not cater very well to prepare their students for these tests. In the US many kids start preparing for them since grade 8 while international students had completely different things to do. Colleges bring international students in because they enrich the student body with a diverse perspective, not because they aced a standard test…
I think the “top choice” list is about picking schools that you would equally be happy at and comparing the financial packages to layer in cost as a consideration. In this uncertain college process, you could apply to two equally ranked schools and get accepted at one, and deferred or rejected at another. As an example: My son 36 ACT, 3.9 UW GPA, decent ECs, unique essay - accepted to NEU ranked 40 with acceptance rate of 29%, deferred at Case ranked 37 with an acceptance rate of 35%. He liked NEU better, but Case is more likely to give better merit awards. He would be happy at either.
I think if all schools cost the same and acceptance was less of a mystery, it would be much easier to say “X” is my top choice.
Is it worth going ~38k in debt for northeastern engineering? My other choice is OSU, and that would be (almost) free.
@WilliamNYC - I totally agree with you - college for us could cost $200K+ as not likely to get any FA. That is a huge investment in our Ds future so all options are on the table and no decision can be made without all the details considered - my D is clear that no final decision is possible before all financials are available to us - likely April. We have 11 colleges in play right now - 5 acceptances, 2 deferrals (including NEU) and 4 RDs coming in March, no rejections yet - all are great options. Whilst our D has a clear top 3 - Fordham, NEU and Pitt we have to consider all colleges on our list and will be visiting several of the acceptances again in the next few weeks.
My advice to students and their families is unless you have been accepted ED to your #1 college then hold on a final decision until all facts are on the table and you have visited your top options.
[ size=4][ color=green][ b]Decision: Accepted **[/color][/size]
NMHR Scholarship
[ b]Objective:[/b
]
SAT I (breakdown M/CR/W/Essay): 770/740
ACT superscore (breakdown): 35
SAT II (subject, score): Math II (790) Physics (770) Spanish (740)
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Weighted GPA: 4.5
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): school does not rank
AP (place score in parentheses): 11 courses (Physics 1, Physics 2, Physics C: Mech, Government, Literature, Language, Spanish Lang, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Calculus, Statistics)
Senior Year Course Load: 6 AP classes, 1 Honors
Number of other EA applicants in your school: None (I’m first one ever at my school to get in!!! 
)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel, etc.): NMSF, NHMR, few state and national math awards, State Quarterfinalist in speech
[ b]Subjective:**
Extracurriculars (name, grade levels, leadership, description): Band (Section Leader for two years), Chemistry Club (Co-President, Co-Founder), Speech (Varsity)
Job/Work Experience: Counselor at Art Camp
Volunteer/Community Service: Translator at food pantry, daycare worker
Summer Experience: Few engineering summer camps including Rose Hulman’s OC
[ b]Writing (Subject, 1-10 rating, details):**
Essays: I’ve been working on my Common App since my junior year, but ended up writing about an experience I had a summer before senior year. The idea will come to you!
Teacher Recommendation #1: Good
Teacher Recommendation #2: Good as well
Counselor Rec: Good
Additional Info/Rec:
Interview: N/A
Art Supplement:
[ b]Other**
Date Submitted App: I think in Oct.
U.S. State/Territory or Country: Midwest
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Gender: F
Income Bracket Range:
Hooks (URM, first generation, recruited athelete, development): URM
[ b]Reflection**
Strengths: I think the fact that i got National Merit in Hispanic and the Semifinalist really helped. Also, I developed good relationships with my teachers and counselors which prob helped me get a good scholarship and helped me stand out.
Weaknesses: My summer experiences. I wish I had done more, but due to my location, I had a very limited amount of opportunities.
Why you think you were accepted/deferred/rejected:
What would you have done differently?:
Where else did you apply? Case Western (Accepted), U of M (Accepted), Trine (Accepted), Purdue (Accepted), Georgia Tech (deferred), MIT (deferred)
[ b]General Comments & Advice:**
To all those deferred or denied, good luck!! Y’all are smart and wonderful people and you guys can get into anywhere! Don’t give up!
To all those accepted, Congrats!! Hopefully we’ll be Huskies 2022!
My child was accepted with 34 ACT (super score), 4.3 gpa, incredibly diverse EC’s as well as leadership, and strong recommendations. Received a 20K merit but no honors. Honestly, we are disappointed in the lack of honors designation but more baffled by the financial aid offer. NEU actually tells you what they feel your families financial contribution is from the CSS profile. NEU’s number was $40,000 higher than our FAFSA EFC. We are completely baffled as our over 25K EFC was a stretch with another child in college (essentially EFC is doubled with two kids so they think we can pay 25K per kid). How in the world did NEU come up with this number? It is more than we make in a year. Is anyone else surprised with their financial aid package? We do not own a business, and our only asset is a house with a smaller mortgage because we have been paying for over 20 years. Our home value is higher than other regions of the country, but so is the cost of living. We would honestly have to sell our house and live on the street in order to send our child here because NEU thinks we are full pay.
All those who are deffered need to know that the difference in family contribution from FAFSA and CSS may be a deal breaker and staggering.
Are we the only ones who received a financial aid offer like this?
@WilliamNYC & @stepl100 That’s exactly the approach we are taking too so I understand. My observation was just that Northeastern seems to be absent of a diehard fanbase. I think it’s smart not to get too wrapped around the axle on a single college, but as I’m sure you are aware, most schools in this selectivity bracket have a ton of folks that name it as their absolute choice. Boston College and Boston University for example have that type of following.
@MaizeScream that is a question only you can answer as it is personal. Don’t only consider the amount of debt but also what other sacrifices maybe need to be made (i.e. spending of savings which could go to other things like a retirement fund or grad school).
@EDHDAD A 97% retention rate and 87% 6 year graduation rate indicates that those who enroll are quite satisfied to stay at Northeastern.
LOL at BC is Starbucks and NEU is Dunkin.
My son had visited both schools and he just did not dig the vibe at BC. He said too much LL Bean and Vineyard Vines crap, lol. He also said " it’s not really in the city". This was big for him, he really wanted city living.
I’ve always though of BC as the East Coast Notre Dame. If you’re Irish and probably Catholic this is your Mecca.
I live in a fairy well to do suburb just outside of the city and this stereotype is amazingly accurate.
I haven’t found a big difference in who applies to BU vs NEU from our high school. Those 2 seem to be getting more similar in my opinion, maybe BU is a little more diverse and less focused on career prep.
@EDHDAD . Maybe the perceived lack of a diehard core is because NEU caters to people with a clear-eyed focus on what matters more than a passionate school spirit: How well it prepares you for a job later on.
@WilliamNYC So you are saying NEU is more of a means to an end then it is a true college experience. The pragmatic part of me can appreciate that. @TomSrOfBoston I am aware of the stats and not doubting at all that it’s a great school. I would not have had my son apply if it were not. The response from @WilliamNYC makes sense to me.
@RightCoaster We visited BC and my son’s comment was, “Very nice campus, but too religious.” :)) Our tour guide spoke so much about how you don’t have to be religious that it really overemphasized the religious aspect of the school and turned my son off. Honestly, I think he would enjoy a Religious Studies class, but he could not get past the feeling he had. The fact that it is not in Boston was also a big no for him.
@EDHDAD Northeastern President Joseph Aoun has implemented an academic plan based on “humanics” at Northeastern that dovetails well with what the university has always been about.
Northeastern is not the “traditional college experience”, it never has been, never wanted to be.
This is probably a big factor in my experience. People here love and are passionate about many things. The school possesses many of said things. But there’s not an overwhelming school spirit really. What binds the student body together is usually a shared academic philosophy of practicality / experiential learning (read co-op). While a lot of people will read that as “pre-professional”, I don’t think it really is that when you dig down to it. I think one of the really underrated benefits of co-op is that you can test drive your career or even three different flavors of your career (or even switch fields entirely), in an attempt to find the best one. Usually not based on money, but on what makes you happy (and then within that making a good living doesn’t hurt 
). I’m all for learning as much as possible, but if you go through and take 4 years to learn something only to find out you’re miserable doing it to make a living, something went wrong I think. The goal obviously is to find something with the best mix of academic and career enjoyment.
The simple answer is that it makes sense that a practical school has practical applicants. Apologies for the big tangent above. Practical applicants aren’t likely to be head over heels for any one school. If you had talked to me at this point in the process, I’m super happy and it’s my #1 acceptance but I’m waiting on Stanford and Harvey Mudd just in case as super-reaches. After being on CC for the past 4 years since, I know now that I would have been decently unhappy with Mudd for various reasons, and Stanford is too far from a city for me. Still, the point is that while Northeastern was always one of my top options, it wasn’t a #1/dream school in the application process. I have trouble imagining one I’d be happier at now, though.
@TomSrOfBoston I was aware of the co-op programs but that article sheds light on what they are trying to accomplish. Do you have anything on them relating to chemistry or pre-med?