Early Action or Regular Decision for Northeastern?

Colleges and Universities Northeastern University
#1

<p>SAT: 1860(superscore) or 1840(single test) but I plan on taking it once more
GPA: somewhere between 3.2-3.4 with all honors classes
EC's: dance for 12 years, piano for 9, volunteer at an elderly home, pre-college classes(psych, speech, and criminal justice), prom committee, art expo, no sports at my school but I've done recreational softball and track intramural, PHAT (Protecting Humans, Animals, and Trees) club, Free the Children (International Charity), frequent blood donor, and currently working at a dry cleaners</p>

<p>My gpa is pretty low and I'm hoping my first quarter senior year grades will bring it up a bit but my stats still aren't that great. Will I have more chances of getting in early action or regular decision? Also, if you're a current NU student, what were your stats? Do you know any current students that had lower stats than me? </p>

<p>I'm in serious need of some hope right now, NU's my first choice.</p>

#2

<p>AND if there's any advice you have more me to beef up my application please and thank you!</p>

#3

<p>The biggest thing I think you could do boost your application would be to take on leadership roles in the extracurriculars that you're involved in. It's hard to make huge changes to your GPA at this point, and given the score difference for your SAT, unless you do something very different this time, it's likely not going to change much. Have you thought about taking the ACT? Sometimes people do better on that than the SAT.</p>

<p>In terms of early vs. regular decision, I'm not sure it would make a big difference. When you apply early action, if they definitely want to accept you they'll accept you. If they definitely don't, you'll be rejected. But if they're not sure, you could be deferred to the regular decision pool and you'd be no worse off than if you had applied that way in the first place.
The difference could come if the overall applicant pool is different than expected. For example, if they accept EA students based on certain expectations of what the stats of all applicants (EA and RD) will be and the overall pool ends up being more competitive than expected, some students may be admitted EA who wouldn't have been otherwise. Likewise, if the overall stats are lower, some EA students may be rejected when they would have been accepted RD. Given the overall trend of Northeastern, I would expect the first situation to be more likely in terms of the type of applicants they get. They try to avoid this problem by what I mentioned before - deferring borderline EA applicants to RD.
Basically, my take on it is that it won't make a difference when you apply, but since NEU is your first choice, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't apply EA. At best, you'll be accepted and have a weight off your shoulders. At worst, you will know you're not going to Northeastern and have time to critically think about other choices.</p>

#4

<p>Oh, I did think of one aspect that may play a role, though: depending on when your school does grades, if you wait until RD you may be able to have more grades on your transcript to boost your GPA. It would also give you time to bolsters your EC leadership.</p>

<p>Alright, those are definitely some arguments for waiting for RD, so now I've given you reasons to go for both options. Hopefully I've at least given you some things to think about.</p>

#5

<p>I recommend you also read up on the NUin program. This program sends some freshmen abroad first semester. Assuming strong performance, all credits are accepted and hundreds if students start in Boston in the spring. The big caveat is that there is no FA for that semester abroad. I am only recommending you educate yourself since you say NU is by far your first choice, you don't want to be caught off guard if that option is one offered to you.</p>

#6

<p>Yeah I've seen things about the NUin program it's just not an option for me without financial aid. one question though, is that program basically for students who weren't qualified for fall admit?</p>

#7

<p>NU has more qualified students then they can admit for fall. With a significant number of students going on coop this helps even out the population on campus to ensure dorms and classes remain fully utilized.
If your school utilized Naviance, put your stats in and check where they fall for Northeastern. Try your best to boost your test scores and show lots of interest. Good luck!</p>

#8

<p>I think you will have a better chance RD if you do something between then and now to improve your stats both GPA and test scores.</p>