Northeastern [~35k] vs. UMich [?] [in case of wait list admit]

Compare College Acceptances
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Hi, I’m currently set to attend Northeastern this fall (paid deposit). I am also waitlisted at the University of Michigan, however. I originally applied to college wanting to study computer science. I’m now considering a transition to business though (finance, accounting, etc) with maybe a minor in CS.

Net price per year at each college, after applying scholarships and financial aid grants.

Northeastern [~35k]
UMich [No offer as of now of course, but the NPC came back ~60k]. I’ve heard mixed opinions on how accurate the NPC is but I’m OOS.

Maximum parent contribution per year.

$40k

Major/division admitted to at each college, if applicable to the college. Also, any special programs like honors programs or combined degree programs (e.g. BA/BS->MD).

Northeastern - Finance in D’Amore-McKim. Very easy to change major however.
UMich - Applied under Computer Science in LSA. If I were accepted off the waitlist and decided to attend, I would pursue Economics. Then I’d either try to apply to Ross after the first year or do a Ross minor.

If you applied to regular fall term start, specify if you were admitted to start at a different campus, in study abroad, in an online/distance or extension program, or other than in the fall term.

Northeastern - Boston campus

Desired major and post graduation goals (including if pre-med, pre-law, etc.).

Finance, Accounting, or both at Northeastern. Economics at UMich. I’m not taking some kind of engineering off the table either, but I seem to be leaning toward business.

If not a frosh admit finishing high school, indicate status (e.g. sophomore level transfer, junior level transfer, frosh after gap year(s)).

Senior in high school

International or domestic student (and state of residency if domestic).

Domestic resident of Connecticut

Student preferences beyond the above (including weather, class sizes, campus culture, college demographics, fraternities/sororities, distance from home, etc.).

Weather - no preference
Class sizes - would prefer smaller, but UMich would be big obviously. Not really sure if that bothers me though.

Preliminary assessment of each college based on the above.

I applied to other universities and was accepted (UConn, RIT, Bentley, Wesleyan, etc) but I’m between Northeastern and U-M (if accepted off waitlist) at this point. I’m just wondering if I should be going after U-M still if there’s a chance of getting in.

I’ve yet to tour U-M because of the distance but I’m thinking of getting down there for one in order to demonstrate more interest. I’m just wondering if U-M is a better option for finance related careers by doing LSA Econ vs NU Finance. How do the two compare? I’m possibly interested in IB and I know some people who’ve placed into IB out of LSA.

Why did you apply to each college you are considering?

I have family attending Northeastern and it was one of my top choices when I applied. I also know a U-M Alumni which put U-M on my list to begin with. BC was another one of my top choices but I did not get in there.

Sorry for the long post and I appreciate any input! :slight_smile:

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If that is your real name, you might want to change it.

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It’s not. I changed it even more though. Thank you for the heads up.

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Michigan’s WL is apparently moving, so you have a little bit of a chance, but based on what you said your parents would/could contribute, it sounds like , based on your NPC, it will be out of reach without loans.

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Sorry I should have included that in the post. I’m willing to take loans. The dilemma is whether or not Michigan is worth the extra money in terms of job placement and career overall compared to Northeastern.

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A delta of $100K is not pocket change. And please take a minute to read the thread about the limits of “career outcome reports”. Problems and limitations with College career outcome reports: reading between the lines

and you need to make a decision by May 1 . You can stay on the WL and think about it later.. if..

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I’m sorry, but you really don’t have that choice. The chances of getting off UM’s waitlist are very, very small and should not be counted upon.

So you need to commit to NEU if that’s indeed your top choice among schools you’ve been admitted to. Then if you get off of the UMich WL you can make a decision at that point.

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LOL… jinx!! :slight_smile:

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I know. That’s what makes it a tough decision. Thank you for that thread.

I deposited to Northeastern already. I’m just trying to think ahead since I’ll be staying on the waitlist for Michigan, which would likely come back after May 1st if at all.

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I understand. I committed to NEU already. This is all based on if I get off UM’s waitlist sometime later after May 1st. Then I would decide then. I just want to get ahead of any possibilities.

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My suggestion is to fully embrace your decision to attend NEU and start making plans for your time there. At this point, dwelling on UMich is a distraction and counterproductive to having a fulfilling college experience.

If you get off the waitlist (and that’s still a big “if”), you can reassess then. Many students feel differently about their college preferences in late June than they do in late April.

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And don’t visit Michigan unless you get in. That said, several students are reporting that they are being offered a very tight window to decide when a WL offer is made. Agree, don’t go down this rabbit hole. Congrats on NEU!

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Thank you. I think I needed to hear that honestly. I’ll wait to cross that bridge if it does come then.

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Ok understood. Do you mean a tight window to accept an offer off the waitlist? Or..
Thank you. I am excited about NEU too.

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Congrats on an excellent, affordable acceptance. Well done!

I would not think about UM until all of the following occur: 1) you are accepted; 2) the price comes in at or close to $40k (IMO not worth a lot of loans given the strong, affordable acceptance); and 3) you recognize that an internal transfer to Ross is far from a sure thing.

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Thank you!

Alright, that seems to be the consensus. The money is definitely a deciding factor of course, I don’t want too much debt. I have heard that internal transfer to Ross is very competitive, so I’m definitely not banking on that. That’s why I was curious about how LSA Econ stacked up. But I’ll just revisit that if it ever happens.

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That sounds good. Just keep in mind that economics and an undergrad b-school have very different curriculums. Economics is a liberal arts course of study and gets very theoretical at the upper levels. In contrast, in an undergrad b-school students take a business core curriculum with introductory classes in subjects such as accounting, finance, IT, marketing, etc. and then major in a business disipline.

In the meantime, get excited for Northeastern. It’s a great outcome!

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Yes. I am hearing of several, what is referred to as “exploding offers”. In the past I had heard those more commonly with job offers, where an offer would be made but the person had to respond within a day or two. This year I have heard of some WL offers being made, with the requirement that the student accept or decline within a day or so AND put their deposit in before May 1. Obviously that latter part will change after May 1, but it makes me wonder if the schools doing this will try to claim those were acceptances made by May 1, without acknowledging that these were WL offers. That is speculation and a conversation for another thread. To answer your question, yes, some WL offers have come with very tight response requirements.

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Congrats on Northeastern! If you’re questioning your straight-CS major, Northeastern is a terrific place to combine CS and Business!! What I would do, in your position, is submit a request to change into the CS+Business combined major. (You can do this online.)

The combined majors frontload the CS core curriculum so that students have a marketable programming skill-set before their first co-op. This means that

  1. By switching, you’d also get an early taste of accounting and econ, instead of the math classes that the straight-CS majors take in the first year.
  2. By the end of your sophomore fall semester, you’d have completed a CS minor; if you decided that this was enough CS for you, you could switch into a straight business major and have the CS minor all done. Pivoting into Business+Cybersecurity or Business + Data Science would also be possible in the first year or two.
  3. But if you were excited about your CS coursework and wanted to do the full major after all, you could still switch back to the straight CS major. (And a business or econ minor would still be an option.)

For a student with dual interests, undecided about how to balance them, there are few schools as good as Northeastern in terms of giving you a “flow chart” that keeps your options open while you gain experience and figure out what you want.

As for UMich… the flexibility there isn’t terrible, but I don’t think they make the blending and pivoting quite as easy as Northeastern does. But that’s really moot at this point because

  1. you don’t have an actual offer from UMich, and
  2. It seems as if UMich would be wildly more expensive than Northeastern. Unreasonable so, in my opinion. Sure, Ross is a great business school, but there’s a certain irony to making a bad business decision for the sake of going to a good business school. (And getting into Ross wouldn’t even be assured.) It sounds like you’d be looking at a minimum of $80K in undergrad debt, when you could graduate from Northeastern debt-free. Even as a hypothetical option, I don’t see why this should be appealing enough to cause all of this indecision.

Northeastern for $20K total under your parents’ maximum budget is fantastic, especially for what you want to study. Buy the sweatshirt. Be happy. Go Huskies!

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I would normally say UMich but you are waitlisted and even if you get off the WL it sounds like Ross is not guaranteed while D’Amore-McKim is pretty much guaranteed? I would say embrace NEU now and even if you get off the WL since Ross is not a guarantee if you want to change majors into finance and the price tag is significantly less.