Wow, I wonder if there is any chance if she called and explained the situation that they would allow her to apply late. Probably not at this point, but it seems a real pity, especially because she is strong student and it seems like it would be a good fit…
A month ago, she would have totally applied. At this point, she has two solid acceptances in hand and is burnt out from applications and essay writing 
So the ship has sailed - but if she had been told about this option in the fall, she would have definitely applied and there’s a good chance that she would have given it very serious consideration - based on location and NEU’s overall reputation and rigor, this likely could have been a top choice for her. And I’m sure there are other students just like her who would have been interested and qualified. But there was zero info about it at her school. I don’t think a single student applied.
They are currently only offering 4 majors (plus “undecided”) at the Oakland campus. I can imagine that might not be attractive to many high stats students.
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That could be part of why there seems to be so much silence. Maybe they are trying to first build out their academic offerings before they do a publicity push?
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A couple years from now the programs offered in Oakland will be much broader. If they had a publicity push now many potential applicants would dismiss it due to the limited offerings.
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Perhaps so. So maybe they’re strategically keeping a low profile for now in order to launch something exciting a few years from now?
There is a giant billboard at the intersection of College and Broadway, although it does seem to be geared toward graduate education. I’ve also seen a minibus tooling around Rockridge with both the Mills and NEU names on it.
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I don’t think there is a program through which you could stay local at Mills, though. It’s intended to be a waypoint on the trip to Boston & internship locations. I actually quite feel for the students who were originally Mills students, and I bet the culture/climate is quite different under NEU. I know a few people who got undergraduate degrees there but even more who have earned masters degrees and PhDs in education-related fields. It was a very special place, and I can understand why the remaining students feel jolted by the transition. This will not be an issue after a couple of years because they will all have graduated. But I do think the loss of the graduate education programs is sad. Obviously this is better than the campus having been shut down completely, but I wish that the merger with UCB had gone through. I don’t know why it fell through – they were clearly planning it to be a UCB freshman offshoot campus for Fall 21 as it was a waitlist option for UCB when my S21 was waitlisted), but something must have gone wrong). I feel like that would have been better than the NEU collaboration.
I hadn’t heard that - that would have been fantastic! And there are dorms associated with the campus, yes? UCB could have REALLY benefited from the additional housing.
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Starting with students admitted for Fall 2023 some students are being admitted for 4 years at the Oakland campus.
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Here was the program with UCB during the 2021-2022 academic year:
Historically, UCB has rented space in Mills dorms in the past (also rented space in Holy Names University dorms in the past), and has had a cross registration agreement with Mills in the past.
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Interesting - I never knew that!
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Oh interesting – thanks! Neither of my kids thus far have considered NEU so I wasn’t paying close attention. I guess that’s a positive? But I hope they will really treat that campus with some care (as it sounds like they are trying per the Globe article). It was a unique place and very different from the way I think of NEU in terms of overall vibe.
Exactly – that was what it was called. The Changemaker program. It was one of the choices he could have opted into in terms of the waitlist along with the other one that has you starting courses at the Extension school campus, then integrating into the normal program in Spring. He wasn’t interested in either and happily committed to UCLA instead, but I thought the Changemaker idea sounded neat. I’m sad it didn’t stick long term, especially since UCB really needs the housing!!
What is the general Oakland area like? Is the Mills/NU area the same or different?
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The UC Berkeley merger would have still required Mills to become coed, a complaint of many Mills alumnae/students against the Northeastern merger.
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For sure. And as I mentioned above, the connection with NEU is better than Mills closing entirely. But I still think it’s reasonable to believe that the tenor of a merger with UCB might have felt different. We will never know.
A lot of people are negative about Oakland - it is a diverse urban area with all the good and bad that goes along with that (for the bad, there’s a sizable homeless population, there are some sketchy areas, there’s crime, drugs, etc). But it also has so much to offer! There are fantastic restaurants serving just about every kind of food imaginable, there’s a great zoo, concerts at both Fox Theater and the Oakland Coliseum , sports - especially baseball, an ice skating rink, Lake Merritt, events of every kind (you never need be bored!), clubs, yoga, historical streets, Chinatown…It has just about everything and, if that’s still not enough, it’s a 20 minute Bart ride from downtown San Francisco.
I think the negativity is not about Oakland, but rather is about the isolated location of the Mills Campus within Oakland. Mills is not close to any of the Oakland attractions and amenities you mention. It is about as far from any BART station as geographically possible within Oakland city limits. It is a completely “suburban campus” type of experience, but in an unattractive neighborhood that has a fairly high crime rate.
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It is on a direct bus line to downtown, I believe? I personally kind of the like the idea of “the best of both worlds” (suburban experience in an urban setting), but might not be for everyone. It would be interesting to check the crime report for campus - that should be publicly available and would give a better sense of student safety.