@airway1 I would like to know if you or anyone else who is so indignant about this “gaming the system” issue has ever researched every type of admissions option used by universities now? It seems to me that offering students a variety of acceptance pathways is a growing trend among so many schools. To say these students are actually rejected is wrong. With the number of qualified applicants greater than seats available, many schools might just want to change the way they structure the admissions process to reach desirable candidates. If you actually speak to students who have chose to attend NUin programs you will find 1. they are very accomplished, 2. don’t consider themselves rejected, and 3. actually enjoy this experience.
The now outdated Boston Magazine article you and others continue to refer to was, as pointed out, complimentary to NEU. You seem fixated on BU and NEU, wanting to punish institutions for thinking differently, or not the way you want them to. There is a failure to acknowledge that many schools seem to be utilizing similar methods. It feels like you are saying “stay in your place, you’re not elite” to schools who try to change with the times and reinvent themselves. All I hear on this board is “don’t pay attention to rankings, they’re meaningless.” Yet it is an obsession for almost everyone here.
There are greater issues in higher education to be indignant about instead of whether including/not including certain data improves their standings on US News list. Don’t worry, BU and NEU probably won’t crack the top 20/30. But rest assured, scrappy Bostonians/New Englanders don’t give up the fight and just sit there while the world is changing…remember they were the original rebels!!