<p>I wondered whether Northeastern was trying to boost its rep by getting people to confuse it with Northwestern (i.e., by referring to it as “NU”).</p>
<p>From 2012, note that Northeastern is not the only school requiring some freshman to spend the fall semester abroad:</p>
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<p><a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?;
<p>Oh…but it gets better…</p>
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<p>A bit more detail on Northeastern’s program. Looks like the University chooses which freshmen are placed into the program.</p>
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<p><a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/application-information/admissions-deadlines/”>http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/application-information/admissions-deadlines/</a></p>
<p>NUin is a matter of debate even among Northeastern students. The concept isn’t new - before NUin, there were “Jan start” students. Now, instead of just not being in classes the fall semester, they’re abroad. Northeastern also claims that students are selected for this program, but of course it’s about stats, to an extent. The students in NUin/Jan start still fall within the range of typically accepted students, but they’re on the lower end and wouldn’t be receiving merit aid anyway.</p>
<p>Also, how much does the prestigious scholarships issue play into USNWR rankings? (I saw it mentioned for Forbes.) Northeastern is really expanding the fellowships office, and I am being strongly encouraged and getting a ton of support for applying to fellowships.</p>
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Xiggi, Cal has been admitting transfer and spring freshman admits long before USNWR adopted a ranking methodology. You can also point fingers at schools like USC and Emory (with the Oxford campus) who do the same thing…nothing is hidden and a game. That’s how the schools choose to operate.</p>
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You forgot to include the long fingernail visual. </p>
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<p>Why does that matter? Bowdoin was test optional before the USNews unveiled its methodology, but that does not mean that USNews should not make adjustments to the reported numbers, or simply place the schools that do not fit the overall methodology in a special category or at the minimum add an asterisk! </p>
<p>The USNews relies on a system that rearranges the order for each subcategory, and a school that counts every application in the denominator but reports only Fall admitted students is allowed to report FALSE numbers. The comment about ignoring this part is right on the money as Morse has been alerted several times about this! </p>
<p>The schools do NOT have to change their operations; it is up to USNews to correctly report the numbers after adequate adjustments are made – something they are PRETENDING to do. </p>
<p>PS I did not forget the long fingernails but assumed that entering all those fake numbers in the PA might have brought a reasonable length! </p>
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<p>I can’t speak to other families, @ajm202. My white, non-athlete, middle-class son was accepted to a number of very selective private schools (i.e., the ones with the alleged “deep pockets” to make them affordable to middle-class families), and wait-listed and rejected from several others that he had the stats to attend. The only private schools that offered enough to make the COA even remotely in our range, ended up not being a good fit for our son, who wanted to study engineering in a school with a strong liberal arts component. The full scholarship my son received at UA (NOT full ride) covers all four years of attendance, including any tuition increases. He also received an extra $2500 a year to study engineering, which will more than cover his travel costs. He’s been down there in Tuscaloosa for nearly a month and absolutely loves it there. His roommates are from FL, CA, and KY. He’s meeting students from literally every region in the country, not unlike a student at Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Washington & Lee, or Davidson, the “Southern elites.” Are those schools undesirable because of their location in the South, as well?</p>
<p>Even though I’ve met plenty of UA graduates in the Greater Philadelphia area, my son understood that he needed to be prepared that any jobs he’d be offered following graduation would more than likely be in the South, and he had no issues with that. How is that any worse than having to accept a job in the Midwest for a kid who grew up in the Northeast?</p>
<p>Penny wise and pound foolish? How is an ABET-accredited engineering degree with ZERO DEBT from a US News #36 public university a bad bet? What exactly are these privates we missed the boat on? The net price calculators on the CSS-Profile schools my son applied to ranged from $27,000 to $47,000 A YEAR!</p>
<p>I have no idea what schools your twin daughters applied to and are attending, but we were only going to have one kid in college, not two, so I’m not sure why you think the schools your daughters are attending would have offered as much financial aid to my son. Which schools are they? Is the public your state flagship or another school and how much are you paying?</p>
<p>I’m sincerely glad it worked out for your daughters, but don’t pity me! We love the University of Alabama and are ECSTATIC that we never need to apply for FA again!</p>
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<p>Until a couple of years ago NEU gave a full tuition scholarship to NMFs. Now it is $30K.</p>
<p>As of this year they do promise to meet full demonstrated need for all accepted students: <a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2014/04/northeastern-to-invest-more-than-220-million-in-financial-aid/”>http://www.northeastern.edu/news/2014/04/northeastern-to-invest-more-than-220-million-in-financial-aid/</a></p>
<p>^^^ Even though they meet full demonstrated need, it should be pointed out that NEU is not need-blind in admissions, it’s “need-aware”. </p>
<p>@GMTplus7,
I credit USC’s meteoric rise to Steven Sample, USC’s president from 1991 - 2010. The drop in admission rate in 2011 was when USC switched to the common application, I believe. When I met Sample in 2006, he told me that the mean SAT for admitted students at USC was higher than the mean SAT for admitted students at UCLA (my alma mater) which I was defending. Well you could have knocked me down with a feather! It was quite a different USC than I had known in the mid- 1980s.</p>
<p>@ajm202 The nice thing about the UA merit scholarships is how clear cut they are. As an OOS if you get a 32-36 on your ACT and a 3.5 and above GPA you automatically qualify for 4 years of FREE tuition. No hunting and pecking trying to search all over for some college that might give out some merit aid that is guaranteed for all four years.<br>
I won’t be surprised if they raise the minimums on the GPA and ACT scores at some point due to its popularity. </p>
<p>@LucieTheLakie : “ROLL TIDE!” :)</p>
<p>For spring admits at UC Berkeley and USC (students who apply for fall, but are moved over to start in the Spring), the students are not required to do study abroad. Yes, they do start the year knowing that they were the “waiting list” kids, but usually many kids want to go to these schools regardless of how they get in.</p>
<p>"I applaud 'Bama’s efforts to lure out-of-state students but I can’t help but think some families are being penny wise and pound foolish. If you have no intention of living in the south after college, I’m not sure why you’d send your child there. "</p>
<p>Why would someone have “no intention of living in the south”? In this economy, shouldn’t a young twenty something be open to living anywhere for a good job, in the absence of extenuating circumstances such as a medical issue? It seems a little provincial to me. </p>
<p>Provincial or trollish. Hard to tell sometimes.</p>
<p>“He also received an extra $2500 a year to study engineering, which will more than cover his travel costs. He’s been down there in Tuscaloosa for nearly a month and absolutely loves it there. His roommates are from FL, CA, and KY. He’s meeting students from literally every region in the country, not unlike a student at Duke, Vanderbilt, Rice, Washington & Lee, or Davidson, the “Southern elites.” Are those schools undesirable because of their location in the South, as well?”</p>
<p>Since we are talking about regionality, it’s of note that every single college in the top 20 uni AND the top 20 LAC USNWR list skews heavily to its own home region. There are only 2 exceptions - Duke and Oberlin. Don’t even pretend to fool yourself that top schools - yes, including the vaunted Ivies - are regional to their home turf. If someone could advise how to put up a spreadsheet without requiring me to identify myself, I’d happily do so. Bclintonk and I developed this. </p>
<p>Actually, even Duke skews towards the Carolinas, I believe.</p>
<p>OK, I checked, and Duke has a heavy bias towards NC. More students from NC at Duke than from CA, TX, and FL each despite the size difference, which obviously isn’t the case for any other elite private.</p>
<p>Don’t know about Oberlin, but the OH LACs (and Case, so I should say OH privates) draw heavily from the Northeast. Kenyon probably has similar demographics to Oberlin.</p>
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<p>Wouldn’t the “first semester abroad” thing be a dressed up version of spring admission, sometimes used to balance the enrollment across the fall and spring terms (since if everyone starts in the fall, the fall term will be the most heavily enrolled due to early or late graduations)?</p>
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<p>They are not “wait list” students in the usual sense, but are assured admission to start in the spring. Maryland also has a similar spring admission program.</p>
<p>Here is an article on the increasing numbers of spring admits (at U-Maryland in particular). According to this, 20 percent of U-Md’s freshmen do not start until Spring.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-mds-unusual-admissions-approach-one-out-of-every-five-freshmen-start-in-spring-term/2014/01/31/21d99a64-8794-11e3-916e-e01534b1e132_story.html”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/u-mds-unusual-admissions-approach-one-out-of-every-five-freshmen-start-in-spring-term/2014/01/31/21d99a64-8794-11e3-916e-e01534b1e132_story.html</a></p>
<p>“It also helps U-Md. strike a balance between the conflicting goals of selectivity and accessibility, which is always a challenge for a prestigious public university.”</p>
<p>I’ve known kids who applied to Colby, Wheaton (MA), and Middlebury for fall admission, but instead were offered Spring admission. These kids were also given the option to study abroad for the fall semester. </p>