<p>Hello!</p>
<p>I've done a lot of research in the past couple days looking at Northeastern and the amazing program they have built. This university looks amazing with everything they have to offer, but one of the things that makes me feel unsure is the huge price tag. At around $50,000 a year, Northeastern is no bargain.</p>
<p>Regarding financial aid: I have looked at many sources, such as College board, and all say that Northeastern tries its best accommodate as much financial need as possible. Since financial aid will mostly be a major deciding factor for me, I was wondering what financial aid packages you all got from Northeastern and what financial backgrounds you come from?</p>
<p>I was also wondering how high school grades and scores have to be to get a decent merit scholarship. Did anyone receive any merit money and if so, what were your high school grades like?</p>
<p>Thanks so much!</p>
<p>They cut off the Football program recently, so the school’s been generous lately regarding scholarships. At least, that’s why I think someone like me could receive around 30k of scholarship/grants</p>
<p>Unless you are in the top 2% of applicants, the maximum merit grant from Northeastern is about $17,000/year.</p>
<p>It’s not the top 2%, it’s more than that- especially considering that not all students who are offered half and full scholarships accept them and go to northeastern.</p>
<p>Location might matter, but I don’t think it’s a hugely significant factor. I had higher stats and gpa than the person above did (my SAT was above 1500) and I was an IB student from Florida, and I got 14k. A lot of things go into calculating your scholarship and no one but the people who do it can truly explain the exact details (and I’d bet they don’t stick to their rules all the time). Personally I think some of my scholarship went down cause it didn’t appear like I’d go here and it was more prudent for admissions to offer a lower scholarship than to offer a higher one if I wasn’t going to accept.</p>
<p>Also there are scholarships based on other things than grades and scores. A friend has a full ride even though he didn’t get very good grades or scores, but he did do about two thousand hours of community service in high school.</p>
<p>Here’s all the info about their scholarships:</p>
<p>[NU</a> Scholarships – Northeastern University Student Financial Services](<a href=“http://www.financialaid.neu.edu/grants/merit/NU_scholarships.php]NU”>http://www.financialaid.neu.edu/grants/merit/NU_scholarships.php)</p>
<p>Personally, I got the BPHS Scholarship, so if you go to one of the Boston Public Schools, you should look into that. The Torch program is open to everybody so that’s another great opportunity if you meet their criteria.</p>
<p>May I ask what your grades were like?</p>
<p>I had a 3.86 W GPA. Mostly As and Bs with 1 or 2 Cs senior year. 1350/2020 SAT.</p>
<p>Not too bad, but nothing to gloat over either.
I didn’t get into honors or any of the merit scholarships btw. I think the key with the “educational opportunity scholarships” is to show the committee another side of you that stats don’t do justice, unlike the merit scholarships.</p>
<p>It is not solely based on grades or scores, although they do play parts in it. I got in with a 3.0 GPA but a 31 ACT. I also had a lot of experience with the subject I was going into and wrote a compelling essay that took me quite a while. I am going to receive $5000 a year. I think that if you prove yourself an interesting student, one that Northeastern would really enjoy having at their school, you will be rewarded.</p>
<p>There is a nice full tuition scholarship for National Merit Finalists
[Northeastern</a> University Undergraduate Admissions > Costs & Financial Aid > Scholarships](<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/costs/scholarships.html]Northeastern”>http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/costs/scholarships.html)</p>
<p>The link also mentions full scholarship, but I think that those are pretty rare. </p>
<p>It seems that I’ve read of some $17K (about half tuition) merit scholarships on these threads. If you show threads for past year and read or do searches you can learn more.</p>
<p>My son initially got the 17,000 scholarship and was placed in contention for the Trustee (full tuition, room, and board). He was notified he got that in March. His letter said that 25 were awarded this year from 38,000 applications. </p>
<p>His stats were: 4.0 UW, 4.7 W, 2270/1540 SAT (National Merit Scholar), 35 ACT, 4 AP’s, all honors courses and 36 hours of college credit from a major university. He also had two years as a research intern at a major government research laboratory and 2 year scholarship/appointment at a Governor’s academy and lived at the University for his last 2 years of high school. I think his real hook was that he was trained in a dyslexia remediation program and volunteered teaching adults and underprivileged kids to read in the summer. Along with that, his goal is to research learning disabilities. He also wrote a great essay about his tutoring and how he wants to make a difference in the world.</p>
<p>I agree with what most of the others have to say. My son got several full tuition/full ride offers that I think can be largely attributed to his essay. I think if you can communicate your passion, many schools will be very interested. There are just so many kids with terrific stats out there that you have to set yourself apart.</p>
<p>I’ll just post what my application was like to give you some sort of idea of what it takes.</p>
<p>Northeastern was the only school I applied to, I applied early action. I got in with the $17,000 a year merit scholarship, and was accepted into the honors program. I was absolutely shocked that I got anything, let alone the highest “Dean’s scholarship” available.</p>
<p>My GPA is non-weighted, and calculated on a 100-point scale. So my whole GPA over the first three years of high school (no senior grades were sent) was 88.8 I believe. Except for 2 random classes sophomore year, all of my classes were honors, high honors (math), or AP. I was in 2 AP classes junior year, and wrote on my application that I was taking 4 more senior year.</p>
<p>I think what probably impressed them was my ACT scores, I got a 35, which is equivalent to around 2300 on the SAT’s. I had a pretty good essay, and decent extra curriculars, but nothing special.</p>
<p>I think Northeastern tends to give a lot more partial scholarships than other schools, so that might be why. I don’t really care why I got it, I’m just happy that I did.</p>
<p>Wow, thats a ton of money! And I’m sure you got financial aid along with that too?</p>
<p>It seems you get a lot more consideration if you apply early action. My son got a nice scholarship also, honors program plus financial aid package. unweighted gpa 3.5 with full IB, 31 ACT and equivalent SAT. If you are really interested in NEU get your application in as early as you can in the early action cycle.</p>
<p>Another thought just came to mind… do the different colleges give out scholarships or is it all through the university? For example, I will be applying to go to the College of Engineering. Would that affect scholarships offered to me?</p>
<p>Also, it says on the website that the top 25% of applicants are offered between 5k and 17k. Is this guaranteed if you are in the top 25%. Also, what would be considered a top 25% applicant. ACT range on Collegeboard is 27-31. Since 31 is the 75 percentile, would that mean a 31+ on the ACT would be considered top 25%?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>They don’t base their rankings of applicants solely on test scores. They factor in other aspects like community service, grades, class rank, and other things. At least that’s what they told us.</p>
<p>I got a 31 on my ACT and I’m receiving 15k plus a little bit in University Grant, i was top 10 percent. It’s hard to really judge and you shouldn’t be too caught up on the formula aspect of the whole thing.</p>