<p>It doesn’t look like a print error because the # appeared in the 2008 and 2011 edition many times.</p>
<p>b/w 3 years, NEU has moved up 27? how?</p>
<p>What you’re seeing are the results of an ambitious plan put in place 8-9 years ago. How it happened? Through:</p>
<p>Aggressive expansion of campus and faculty
Increasing selectivity which leads to higher scores/grades for incoming freshmen
Generous FA for outstanding students
Increasing geographical diversity which leads to greater national awareness of the school
Declining national economy which makes co-op centric education much more desirable</p>
<p>Plus President Aoun is the man.</p>
<p>Not to denigrate ANY of the comments above; but I thought I heard it was also due to USNEWS changing the way they looked at NEU. In the past, the graduation rate looked bad considering everyone took 5 years to graduate (even though that was the curriculum). Now they take into account the 5 year coop curriculum.</p>
<p>It’s not just that. A decent chunk of the score goes to graduate research, funding, and other school’s thoughts on you. They’ve targeted a lot of those areas to make them more attractive. Plus it’s not just “changing the way they looked at NEU” because all schools got that change. So a kid at USF who takes five years to graduate looks the same as someone from NEU, even though at NEU its normal and at USF it’s because of budget cuts.</p>
<p>I agree it’s not JUST that, Neuchimie. I agree with all the comments earlier and that they have helped improve the scores. </p>
<p>But, I believe the reason for such a large jump in a short time is based on graduation rates. USF is a 4 year school, so if a student takes 5 years to graduate; that is a negative against them as it used to be for NEU. What has changed is that it is no longer a negative when it occurs at NEU.</p>
<p>Check out this thread from 2008 (the year my son and, I think, you too were admitted): <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northeastern-university/477981-why-neu-ranked-low.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northeastern-university/477981-why-neu-ranked-low.html</a></p>
<p>This is the methodology for USNews:</p>
<p>[Methodology:</a> Undergraduate Ranking Criteria and Weights - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/08/17/methodology-undergraduate-ranking-criteria-and-weights-2011]Methodology:”>http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/08/17/methodology-undergraduate-ranking-criteria-and-weights-2011)</p>
<p>The only reference to graduation rate is “The percentage of entering freshmen who graduated within a six-year period or less, averaged over the classes entering from fall 2000 through fall 2003” and then a comparision to see if its better or worse than expected.</p>
<p>USF is a four year school, so someone graduating in five years should be a negative, but it isn’t. We, overall, are considered a five year school, so obviously it shouldn’t be a negative. The rate is measured by 6 years, so it doesn’t affect either school. So the graduation rate is not a significant part of why Northeastern has jumped up. </p>
<p>USNews does not make some kind of exception for special schools that do different programs. Something that is a negative at one school will still be a negative at Northeastern.</p>
<p>The largest part of the rankings (22.5%) is peer assessment. Twenty years ago, Northeastern was a regional unknown school, and ten years ago it was still rare for anyone outside of New England to know about it. But now we’re in papers and have a bunch of government research and have students coming from around the country. Other schools have actually heard about us now. It’s a snowball effect. Get in publications, people hear about you, they rank you better, people see you on rankings and learn about you, so those people rank you better, etc. People just like to jump on the graduation rate bandwagon because it’s an easy way to say that Northeastern was being punished ten years ago.</p>
<p>Neuchimie, I have to give you props for your answers; not only to this topic but all the others on the forum over the past years. I can see why you were accepted to Northeastern.</p>
<p>Much luck in your future endeavors.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>