My son was accepted into NU in. It is our understanding that it’s for students that are not strong enough candidates for regular admission. If this is the case, I’m very surprised that he didn’t get in for regular fall admission. He has a 4.04 GPA, 1480 on his SATs, perfect score on his US history subject test, a 5 on US History AP test and a 4 on his AP Latin test. He’s a member of the national honor society and is in the Century Club for outstanding students. In addition, he is a varsity hockey player for a team that made it to the Super 8 two years in a row and finished their season ranked #5 in the state. Several other students from his high school were accepted regular decision and were not even close to his academic record. I’m very confused and am looking for guidance.
Contrary to what some claim here Northeastern is holistic in evaluating applications. If they only cared about high test scores he would have been offered fall Boston admission. What was the nature of his essay? Other EC’s? Was there something in his application that indicated that he considered Northeastern his safety school?
There is a thread here by an NUIn alumnus that shows it is not merely a “consolation prize”.
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/northeastern-university/1972330-nu-in-admission-details-northeastern-university-in.html#latest
Thank you for the thread. His essay was about overcoming a life altering injury and how it led him to want to pursue a career in science research and medicine. It was beautifully written and from the heart. He also founded a charitable organization at his high school and participated in a program that introduces special needs children to sports which were otherwise not available to them. He’s a well rounded and high achieving candidate. He applied to Northeastern because of the research opportunities that it offered. International travel sounds amazing but it’s hard enough to acclimate to college your freshman year and starting off in another country may make it more difficult. Thanks for you response.
See my post in another NEU thread; here is an excerpt:
Truthfully, sometimes there is no good explanation, and you can make yourself crazy asking “why?” This happened to my son at another college - he had a very strong application and we were really surprised that he didn’t get in. (and yet he got a great offer from NEU) It’s frustrating but there’s not always a good explanation for an individual decision, and sometimes you just have to say, “It’s their loss.”
Except in your case, you actually have what I view as a great option (except for possibly higher cost).
It’s also worth noting that Northeastern does not consider subject tests and AP scores are ranked towards the less important side. Agreed with what @TexasMom2017 and TomSr said as well too, it’s really a bit of a crapshoot in college admissions, and a rejection in no way means the student wasn’t qualified, just that there was not space and other factors were not what they were looking for. And again, NU.in is not a rejection, and can actually be a really great option for some/many if you can afford the extra cost first semester 
Another thing to consider: What did your son mark to the NU.in preference question on the application?