Boston University and Northeastern in Boston.
Were not so competitive years ago when I was a student, but now very competitive.
As an alumni, expected my S to get admitted to BU, waitlisted.
NU was a safety compared to BU years ago, but kids there now claim they could not get in today,
based on difference in SAT/grades vs just 2-3 years ago.
U Rochester and Northeastern were actually quite generous with need-based aid, but U Rochester also kicked in a 17K a year music scholarship for my son. My son didn’t get the 5K a year music scholarship at Northeastern. They both would have been about the same out of pocket. And the selectivity of Northeastern has definitely increased. I agree with MamaBear16; SCU and Pitzer, Pitzer in particular, are a lot more selective than when I first began working as a college consultant back in 2012.
@blevine, if a kid has a top test score and shows interest in NEU, I don’t think it’s that hard to get in to.
And even of they don’t have the numbers, NEU may still offer a spot; just abroad first or spring semester, so that the kid’s stats doesn’t hurt NEU’s rankings-climbing efforts (this happened to a kid I know with a mediocre SAT score and lots of good ECs who got in to Cal, BU, and some others).
@TomSrOfBoston you don’t have to be super blunt/direct 100% of the time. It was pretty easy to infer it. But I also made sure to drive this point home:
And this:
And this:
Especially this!
On Northeastern, I have heard a lot of conflicting things via demonstrated interest - some cases I’ve heard people from the school say that it isn’t a factor at all. I honestly don’t have any idea what the official policy is there.
“Level of applicant’s interest” is “considered” by Northeastern, according to http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=456 .
@quietdesperation I agree with Tulane. I have a hypothesis that some of these schools that have become much more selective are so because they are perceived (rightly or wrongly) as similar back-ups for much more selective schools. Therefore, is Tulane just seen as a close match for Duke, Vandy and maybe Rice/Emory applicants? Similarly, Northeastern for BC/BU/Tufts? Villanova for BC/GU? UCSB for UCLA, etc?
@1Dreamer , UCLA came in at number 1 on Business Insiders Most Dangerous Colleges list for having the most violent crimes, so I didn’t pull that out of a hat. Who knows how accurate their list is, but they explain their methodology by using Clery reports and FBI stats.
I know two excellent students, both deferred from NEU. One was admitted RD, with 10k a year for the last three years. The other was offered diddly, with the first semester abroad. NEU does consider interest, but they also really game the USNWR rankings.
@londondad, that might be true in some circumstances (Tufts) but NEU has a lower acceptance rate than both BC and BU so doesn’t fit that criteria.
BU is interesting, because it has the College of General Studies, which accepts kids with lower stats. I suspect this is somewhat offset by the College of Engineering and perhaps the allied health professions school (used to be called Sargent), but I don’t know if it’s completely offset. Some kids with really low stats from our school got in to BU CGS.
@Momofmrb Boston University has cut the size of its September freshman class in recent years from 4100 to 3500. Most of this cut was in CGS. Previously there were 700 September CGS admits. Now there are 300 September CGS admits and 300 January CGS admits. Of course the January admits’ stats are not reported to USNews. The January admits spend the following summer in London where they somehow manage to complete 16 credits in eight weeks while exploring London and England!
Sounds like “gaming” the rankings to me.
Wow @TomSrOfBoston ! That’s a lot of data. Yeah, they’re all gaming the data. Son applied there as a double legacy, and did get in to the College of Engineering, but they gave him zero dollars. He treated it as a safety (counting on the double legacy), though I’m not sure it really was a safety looking at it with 20/20 hindsight. Regardless, neither of his parents is a big fan (Silber years), so we didn’t talk it up or anything. It was just a “I could go here if I had to” kind of a thing.
@Momofmrb LOL I researched the data on the BU website. Northeastern gets a lot of grief for “gaming” the rankings but BU and many other schools do the same.
I guess if the magic number is 30%, then NEU (28.1%), BC (29%), and BU (29%%) have all succeeded in the game. LOL
I remember the good old days, when BU was a dump, Tufts was worse, and Northeastern was worse than that. Oh, and BC was the land of Irish Catholic girls with big fat butts. Should clarify that I’m an Irish Catholic girl so people don’t get too mad at me.
^ I went to school just a few blocks from NEU in the 70s and I remember people looking down on it. We were cautioned to stay out of that part of Boston and certainly not use the T-stop nearest the school (can’t remember the name right now).
@NEPatsGirl Was it Symphony?
@NEPatsGirl Good point! However, my son was admitted to NEU with a really nice scholarship but waitlisted at BC. Anyway, I just Googled them and Google has BC/BU at 29% and NEU at 28.5% admit rates.
I believe it might have been. There was a rundown hotel called “Midtown” I believe that was used to dorm kids from various colleges in the area. It was a big pull for weekend parties. If I remember correctly, this was all in the area of a newly built church (maybe a Scientology venue?) You’d think I’d know the area better, I still live in MA but even when we are in Boston, we generally visit the theatre district or waterfront area.