Fall 2025 Stats and a Not So Humble Brag

Colleges & Universities Northeastern University
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Northeastern Invests a Record $511 Million in Financial Aid

“58% of graduates offered a job by a previous co-op employer” and other statistical tidbits.

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thanks for that! S just got admitted as transfer (likely class of 2029) to DMSB - Finance BSBA.

Parent questions/concerns:

  1. It was a regional commuter school in the 90s. It has a 6% overall acceptance rate now and prestige seemingly at least on par with BU, albeit very unique in coops approach. Seems to use ED similar to Tulane. What happened in the last 30 years in terms of actual substance and quality of education beyond the stats?
  2. 16:1 overall student/teacher ratio; 20-24:1 at DMSB. How do you justify full pay for mostly 40-50 student classes? How is quality and access ensured? S has never had a class larger than 25 students in high school or college (LAC).
  3. Saw the 2024 undergrad employment report; very detailed and well done. For finance, it lists about 50% getting investment banking and investment management jobs but does not say what function at those businesses (real I-banking, sales/PWM or back office). Is there any way to get additional details?
  4. 70+% of DMSB works in NE but seems to also benefit from campuses in DC, CA and Miami. What is the alumni footprint outside Boston/New England?
  5. Do coops become an alternative to traditional summer internships at banks? Presumably with some planning you could still do summer of 4th year if you do coops early and take classes during the spring interview season.

Otherwise looks great in very many respects; place seems well run like a business, location, depth of specialization and breadth to try out hands on, etc.

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  1. BU, BC, NYU and USC were commuter schools until the 1970’s. Most applicants to those schools do not even know that. Northeastern chose to remain committed to its local roots a generation longer.

In the past 30 years Northeastern has greatly expanded the amount of residence space to accommodate students from outside the region. New academic buddings and research labs have been built, research funding has grown dramatically etc. But most importantly the idea of coop, once looked down on by most prestigious institutions, has become very popular.

Northeastern has always emphasized professional and preprofessional education. Again, not a popular thing among the academic elite. Even the humanities and social sciences and fine arts have a preprofessional focus.

Northeastern has always provided high quality professional education while requiring the student get actual experience in their major. That is now “in vogue” among students and families.

  1. Larger class sizes never bothered me. Unlike in some fields, business classes generally do not involve a high level of classroom discussion as such.

  2. Not sure about that.

  3. Until the 1980’s most alumni settled in the northeast. Now alumni are all across the country and to a lesser extent, around the world. The Oakland, London and NYC campuses will make locals there more aware of Northeastern. The other locations offer graduate programs. in fact, the Toronto location is the largest of those locations.

  4. Coops take the place of summer internships. Coop periods are generally 6 months long from January to June or July to December. In DMSB they are all paid coops. No tuition while on coop and no academic credit given, unlike some internships.

The stat I quoted from the article about 58% of students being offered post grad career positions by their coop employers is true. But not all of that 58% actually accept those offers. For some students, they discover while on coop that their dream employer is not what they thought, or that the field they chose is not what they really want. Some change majors after their first coop for example. That is something that a short internship cannot provide the student.

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