No. Mathematics major. She has gotten accepted in Top 10 schools. Looks like yield protection by NEU.
move on
Iām reading a lot on this forum and forums of similar super-selective schools about yield protection. That may be one reason why some qualified applicants at Northeastern and elsewhere are getting waitlisted or rejected, but it may also be more complicated. Just anecdotally, Iāve seen students with exceptional stats get accepted at NE and Iāve also seen some get waitlisted. Iām also been hearing about valedictorians getting waitlisted at mid-range state āsafety schoolsā that until this year had relatively high acceptance rates. A recent article in NY Magazine Inside the Craziest College-Admissions Season Ever says that this is the most competitive year ever for college admissions, and that while parents and students are often comparing stats, selective colleges are also using other criteria that we are just not aware of to build a student body that they think is a good fit what they are trying to achieve. I know thatās not much comfort for students not getting into their top choices. We just happen to be caught in the middle of a ācrazyā admissions cycle.
I have three children who applied to schools in the New England area in 2019, 2021 and 2024. The choice to apply test optional (2020/2021) and the growing popularity of ED1 & ED2 (for those who can take the risk of not comparing financial aid offers) have made the application process particularly crazy (it was just as crazy in 2021 for us as it is now). Iāve watched application numbers go up and acceptance rates plummet at BC, BU, Northeastern and Tufts. ED1 & ED2 are becoming increasingly popular at many colleges leaving students who need to be able to compare financial aid offers with a difficult situation during RD. Fewer kids, regardless of stats, are getting in during this final round of the application process.
Iāve also been reading about the complex algorithms that many colleges use to figure out if a student will accept their offers. Kids with high stats are getting rejected and waitlisted because schools are making sophisticated guesses about who will enroll. Applying to a multitude of highly selective colleges has led to colleges becoming savvier about who they offer admissions to. In many ways, the consumer is driving the waitlist and rejection beast.
Bringing tests back could make this process less crazy, but is this equitable? I donāt think weāll see the crazy admissions situation change without changes to the test optional policies at selective schools and a change to ED. Iād like to conclude by saying that I really hope this process changes and soon!
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yes it is 5K a year but most fin aid offices run their numbers by semester. This is super common.
This is a great post with a lot of good points.
My first was doing the college process back in 2018, and how much the landscape has changed just in those 6 years is astronomical. Even as recently as 6 years ago, schools were focused a lot more on student merit, and less on the rankings, income, and yield algorithms. My first applied to 10-11 schools, was accepted by all, and was able to compare a wide variety of merit offers, and pick one. This is how it should really be, versus the mess that we have today that favors the very wealthy even more than the system did 5-10 years ago (which was bad enough).
My daughter was in the top 15 or so kids of her class of 550, and she was outright passed on by NEU (kids in lower tiers in her school with significantly lower stats are going to NEU on ED1 and ED2). I have no doubt that the school felt her odds of attending were low, and thus passed on her. We could not (financially) afford ED.
I donāt think the pool of candidates is getting āmore competitiveā. The top 2% of a excellent public school is still the top 2%, itās all relative. Instead, some schools (privates mostly) seem to be focusing more on the cash families (full pay), and ED kids for yield. More families are paying for a college admissions portfolio (advisors, expensive ECs, travel sports programs, summer robotics programs, college experience summer camps, etc). The idea of so many children starting business or charities (probably the parents doing much of the work), traveling to other countries (expensive), SAT training and prep (time and money), engaging in 5-10 after school activities, fabricating additional demonstrated interest for all schools applied to, has these kids bordering on a mental health crisis. Some business schools (Ross is one) are asking kids to put together an entire presentation/project with video and business plan as part of their application - for teenagers, remember, who barely know how the world works or what they want to do.
I donāt blame the schools at all, and I also do not blame the kids and families for employing such tactics. This is what the current system demands from both sides. Itās the system itself that is broken currently, if merit/equality and education is the goal. The goal currently is profit.
Unlike you, I donāt have a lot of faith that standardized tests will go a long way. They are very easily gamed right now, and kids can jump their scores from 1200 to 1520 with some effort and/or family money. If it were a test that couldnāt be trained for, I would be more in agreement.
Iād rather see more interviews used, to try to judge communication skills, ability to think outside the box or on your feet, emotional intelligence, and some of the other traits that are far more important in a career than standardized tests or GPA.
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This is such a good post. I appreciate that you address the money issues (for both families and schools) and that you are not quick to blame. I canāt believe how much the landscape has changed. I am glad that the college application process is over for my children, but feel for the people who still have to go through this process! I want change.
Does anyone know when waitlist decisions could come out?
This might have been asked, whatās the likelyhood getting off the waitlist for Boston only business school application? What could the kids do to improve the odds w/o annoying the AOs? Thanks! 
In the past few cycles, the only students accepted off the waitlist were to the NU In program.
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I got in for the NU program for my first sem, and then Boston campus. I am an intl student with no aid, and I did not expect to get in. I got in for business. Now what I want to know is, is northeastern worth the price it carries? is the co-op certain? does it pay well? and how is the business school
Personally I think the reason why college admissions have gone crazy is largely due to the fact that so many people are applying to so many schools. Common App alone allows 20 applications. The āeaseā of filling out one set of forms that shoots out to 20 schools has contributed to enlarging the denominator of the acceptance rate. This artificial inflation of the number of applicants has forced the schools to focus on ED/EA as an effective strategy to screen applicants. The psych then gets into a bad cycle in which lower acceptance rates drive students to apply to even more schools.
My daughter is accepted into NEU during RD. She was deferred in EA but chose not to do ED2. We didnāt think it was going to be this crazy. But in hindsight EA was not a bad idea.
Itās an expensive school so whether itās worth it is entirely up to you. My son is a senior combined Econ/Business major with a high GPA. He got two co-ops fairly easily. They paid $25 and $27/hour. If you did have trouble finding a co-op you could register for classes and go on co-op the next semester. You might be able to find examples of co-ops for business majors online, like these for CSSH. The business school has a good reputation and a good post-graduation employment rate, but my son enjoyed his economics classes more than his business classes.
How much has he been able to earn so far against 85K ? Because my only inclination to come to NEU would be that I can reduce my family burden by working Co op and paying some stuff on my own.
Not sure. He pays for trips abroad and his food. We pay his rent for a shared apartment , which is not cheap in Boston. You donāt pay tuition while on co-op. There are students called Husky Ambassadors who could answer your questions Good luck with your decision.
Can you please list pros and cons of NEU Econ major ?
My S24 got into Econ and he is also interested in Bio . Thank you
Are u intl by any chance?
For him Econ was a very positive experience. Many students do combined majors , Econ and business or Econ and math, for example. The student could also do a Plus One masterās program. One of the highlights was doing a Dialogue of Civilization (summer study abroad) studying economic development in Rwanda with Professor Dupree.
I think his only frustration was he could not always get the professor he wanted. Also, doing a combined major meant not much opportunity for electives. In his last semester, he got to take a fun class, creative writing, but most of his classes were needed to fulfill the two majors.
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Does NEU send physical mail to accepted students?
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Thatās very impressive stats. I sure he got in a great school nevertheless.
All the best!
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