Northeastern at #42 is about as laughable as it gets.
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Here are links to The Daily Princetonian articles providing some internal insight & analysis. (9/22 & 9/23)
Princeton loses No. 1 spot on U.S. News ranking after 15 years on top
‘We still have pride’: Students and faculty react to U.S. News ranking that placed Princeton second
I actually stopped reading after that sentence… I couldn’t understand the thesis definitionally and felt like it was going to be political… ? I wasn’t even sure which way at this point.
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Love 'em or hate 'em, Northeastern is the ultimate “rankings gamer” school.
And to be honest, it worked for them. Northeastern went from a commuter school to a national brand. Talented kids at our California HS loved Northeastern and applied in droves.
And you had better believe that USNWR rewards the schools (like Northeastern) that totally buy into their rankings system and punishes those that reject it.
A sad state of affairs, IMHO.
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I went to check our Maia as I only knew of one going this year, turns out there are 4. The application numbers show it is fairly popular but well behind a number of other more popular ones. What is interesting to me though is that the acceptance data at our high school show a 74% admit rate…I have seen some noticeable differences before between our school performance and overall admit rates for certain colleges, but this is by far the starkest gap.
Two comments:
Northeastern’s CDS only reflects Boston matriculants, but the application numbers include everyone who applied. Meaning, all the students who applied to non-Boston campuses or who were offered a spot to start abroad or at a domestic non-Boston location are not in the matriculant numbers of the CDS. Hence, the admit rate shows as lower than it actually is.
Second, Northeastern loves full pay applicants.
But presumably not to the extent of 5% vs 75%?
Agree, overall acceptance rate would still not be 75%. But, if the students were full pay and applied ED, that could be the range.
No one (!) applied ED, but it looks like about 2/3 applied EA. No idea about pay status.
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Had to check our CA school as well. 68% with some pretty wild swings and and average SAT just under 1400. Yield is about 20% but a half dozen kids a year go.
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We don’t have Naviance or anything, but my kids reported that literally everyone they knew who had applied to Northeastern was accepted (and almost everyone was accepted to a non-Boston program). Lots of kids applied. A few kids from our school attend each year, but most simply apply because it’s a free app with no essay requirement. I think the true acceptance rate for this school, if you include NUin etc, is not low.
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Of course, a number of other schools do something like this too - is it just that the non-Boston admits at Northeastern are much higher than elsewhere so that it’s the one people focus on?
I don’t know if this is a new thing - I haven’t heard anyone mention them before - but Vanderbilt has started doing this too. One kid in C26’s class is going “to Vandy”, but his first year is overseas somewhere and he has to get certain grades to go to Nashville in sophomore year.
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Yes, they seem to combine a low Boston acceptance rate with a rather high (but unpublished) non-Boston acceptance rate (probably also low non-Boston yield, but we don’t get to see that either) and the difference between the two rates is what is striking.
Yup, and Vandy also has the SF campus thing in the works. Seems like they are doing the thing.
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Northeastern is the unique school.
Our high school uses SCOIR, and it showed in 2024, accepted 31/70, 8 attending. In 2025, accepted 40/80, 6 attending. In 2026, accepted 40/60, not sure how many will attend.
Many people care, including the universities and professors. I was looking over some advice for counselors and it basically said you have to assume families have seen the rankings before you meet with them, especially internationally, where they’re more popular. One recommendation is to let them know it’s a ranking done not by the US government but a private organization.
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U.S. News rankings are so impactful - at least in the colleges mind - that here’s a summary from a regional school - albeit it with a geographically diverse clientele.
I don’t think they’re going this crazy over other rankings.
Of course they’re not being compared against national universities even though students are comparing them vs national schools - 19 of the 21 my daughter applied to are on the national list. Her bff almost went to an SEC public.
But it’s all in the spin.
I wish we still had access to our Maia account!
I think Northeastern is also catching a “generational preference wave.”
At our high school, the kids loved urban schools. The more urban the better.
NYU, Columbia, Northeastern, USC, Drexel, BU, Georgetown, Penn, etc..
The kids didn’t tend to like schools in small towns and rural schools.
Since my daughter was applying mostly to LACs (more small town and rural) she was delighted by the lower level of competition.
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What college does not like full pay applicants?
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I am curious where you got the Boston versus non-Boston acceptance rates since they area not published. It isn’t surprising though since in the Boston area there is still the lingering belief that Northeastern is the safety school it was 30 yeras ago.
With a 97% freshman retention rate and a 91% 6-year graduation rate, students who attend appear to like what Northeastern offers.
Sad state of affairs for sure. Don’t hate the player, hate the game I suppose.
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