Their Fee Waiver emails for sure is part of it!
Yup. My son applied and doesn’t even really want to go. Fee waiver, no supplements does the job I guess. I still can’t believe he applied. Oh well.
Part of it might be the tidal wave of positivity about the school over the years.
They are PR masters…because they’re not the only school with app and essay waivers. But their # of apps continues to go to crazy levels.
But I think they get a lot of what @BHammer1895 says - indifference.
But that helps the acceptance rate!!!
When I asked him why, he said “why not? it was just one extra click”. Northeastern is local for us (MA) so a lot of his friends did the same thing, just applied because, why not?
My older son did the same thing for Clemson.
“Domestically, the highest numbers of applications this year came from New York, Massachusetts, California, New Jersey and Texas. Internationally, interest was strongest from China, India, Canada, South Korea and Brazil.”
They have been very active advertising here in the Bay Area. That combined with the cheap and easy application process I’m sure has greatly increased the number from California.
Makes sense on the advertising as they have to fill the Bay Area campus.
I am wondering who and how reviewing all that volume. With free apps they can’t have more people review apps. So is this AI, or here is your GPA, and here is the trash can?
Why wouldn’t they be able to hire additional admission readers to read all of the applications?
Since they track demonstrated interest, just applying is not enough. Also makes it easy for them to see who are the serious applicants.
Just a cost of doing business, and I expect most applicants still pay the $75 app fee. The typical fee for a temp reader is around $20-$25/ hour and hourly reading rate can be up to 10 apps per hour. UCLA uses a lot of app readers, received 175K or so apps and guarantees to read each app twice. It’s not that hard, nor expensive.
Separately, setting aside ways to juice application numbers, NEU has done many really interesting things…expanding by buying campuses and partnering with other campuses, and prioritizing experiential learning via co-ops (article says they have deals w/ 4,000 companies) when many are wanting to see ROI from a college education. They have become leaders in the higher ed space.
Co-op is mentioned as a major draw in the linked article. Do they publish data on how well their co-ops are working? Does the economy and hiring patterns (like the situation people seeking internships in CS are facing) affect the co-op program?
If fee waiver =free apps, would they just increase # of apps without increasing app reading/admission people? What am I missing?
Co-op is part of the draw, but I am guessing that the Boston setting, the school’s size, the diversity of its programs and the recent rise of the school’s place in the rankings/prestige has more to do with it. Most importantly, they have the marketing machine in place to optimize all these factors to draw as many applications as possible.
Actually it’s rank - at least us News - is far below where a school with its selectivity is - #54 this year. Not sure how I it got.
It definitely outpunches its ranking. Payscale salary potential #173. WSJ had it 86 in 2022.
I think the school’s PR machine just runs circles around others.
Several things, probably most or all of which have been mentioned:
- It’s a less selective/more likely option for kids who would prefer to go to T20s – kind of in that lower-reach category for top stat kids. It’s in that Rochester/Case/Lehigh/Tulane group – still a quality private school education and a more likely admit.
- It’s in the Boston area, a popular destination
- Co-ops are a draw for those interested in them
- It’s an easy app
Aren’t they prefer ED?
If that is the case, their fee waivers and easy app is just a fluff for US NEWs to demonstrate how “selective” they are. The rest is 80% waste. Do we have stats how many students get in RD?
It is the most well known and selective of the colleges with co-op-focused curricula, so more pre-professionally oriented students may see it as a top choice.
From Northeastern’s 2023-2024 Common Data Set:
From Section C:
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Total first-time, first-year (degree seeking) who applied: 96,631
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Total first-time, first-year (degree seeking) who were admitted: 5,459
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Total first-time, first-year (degree seeking) enrolled: 2,744
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Number of ED applications received: 3,672
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Number of applicants admitted under ED plan: 1,420
My calculations
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Overall, there’s a 5.6% acceptance rate, 50.3% yield
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For ED, there’s a 38.7% acceptance rate.
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92,959 students applied to Northeastern NOT using ED and 4,039 were admitted who did NOT use ED
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For students who did not apply ED, there is a 4.3% admit rate.
Are you sure you’re not describing Harvard 