I drove through the UML campus today and wondered how you were doing! 
I’m sure other people will have better insight, but I wanted to address the “not graduating in 4 years.” If you don’t graduate in four years at NU it is probably because you are doing co-ops NOT because you take more than 8 semesters to graduate.
Put another way, you would be paying tuition for the same number of semesters as any other school because you don’t pay tuition when you are on Co-op. In fact, for engineering when you are doing co-ops you are earning money, which can help pay for your tuition the semesters you are taking classes.
Did you graduate from a high school actually in the city of Boston? I know BU does give some preference to kids who do, but I don’t know about NE, and I don’t know if they would as a transfer.
@TomSrOfBoston has a lot of knowledge about Northeastern and might be able to give you some good info.