Is Northeastern selective? How well known/prestigious is the university?

@TomSrOfBoston in most schools it’s called studying abroad… most NEU international students start at the oversea campuses.

My D attends there, it’s worked out quite well for her in her opinion. It’s got a good nationwide reputation, and the CS program is a top-20 type of program (if that’s an interest of yours).

@airway1 I agree there is a component of gaming the rankings (unfortunate but people love rankings and USNWR is feeding that demand however misguided) but no one is forcing 62K kids to apply to NEU nor to accept an admit that requires travel abroad the first semester or the first year in order to matriculate to the Boston campus thereafter. If co-ops are in reality equivalent to internships then they should be happy to go another school if the study abroad is the only option. The other way to view it is that this process gives more kids the opportunity to attend these schools…albeit in a less traditional pathway. However, I would respectfully disagree there is equivalency between co-ops and internships because the co-ops are 4-6 months whereas most summer internships are approx 10 weeks.

I have more issues with the transfer option because it seems more disruptive since the student is attending their first college knowing they will be leaving after a year and that’s unfair to both that college and a child who might have accepted that spot and stayed the entire 4 years. At NEU and BU they are part of those schools from the beginning.

By the way coop is not a requirement for graduation

True but then why choose a school where that is a featured benefit?

@airway1 All students are required to do 6 months of experiential learning besides class time. Most do coop, others do research, others do service periods.
https://www.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/

@vpa2019 well look if you look back at the 1970s New York university nearly went bankrupt and had to sell their engineering school (they merged it back via Poly), Boston U was a commuter school with a lot of issues, and most selective schools at that time werent doing too well… times change and schools transform… to me it’s just bad on all these schools who keep trying to get so selective that it’s demoralizing kids who think they just didn’t do enough…

@TomSrOfBoston Can you PM me? Northeastern is on daughter’s final 3, along with W&M and McGill. Decisions, decisions! I’d like to know what your opinion is of all 3. Anyone else, feel free to also comment or advise. Admittedly, Northeastern is the one we know the least about. Probably because we were banking on BU, but that fell through.

@dtrain1027 You are correct in that the stats of the NuIn kids are not included in their admitted students since those kids are not matriculated. Northeastern is definitely a selective school but that’s a bit of a game that NU plays to keep their stats high as the NUIn kids Do have lower stats. It makes them look a bit more competitive than they are.

@airway1 I agree that the whole college process is brutal these days and there are a whole host of reasons contributing to that not the least of which is too many kids chasing too few spots. Sadly college is a business as your examples illustrate but I do think that by using these various admission programs it does allow more kids to ultimately attend schools they might have been flat out rejected by without them.

@vpa2019 and don’t forget common app… penn state last year received 70,000 for all campuses over the year… this year they joined common app and its 100k by Jan 1st and are waitlisting

Last year Michigan state had 33k this year with the common app 65k by Jan … crazy

@airway1 it’s completely insane!

@Missyrud McGill is a large public university in downtown Montreal. It is a fantastic location, but keep in mind that Canadian universities are less selective but very hard and start with very large classes. The drop out rate is much higher. There are more admit then fail students than in the US. As for W&M vs NU, it depends on the program and how valuable coop is to you.

@Totoro66 Actually McGill has a 93% first year retention rate and 85% 6 year graduation rate.

@TomSrOfBoston Good to know. I clearly have old information. I assume then that they have also become much more selective too.

@Totoro66 Not necessarily. McGill’s acceptance rate is around 45% due largely to published minimum requirements.

Not sure why so many people seem to make such a big deal about the NU.IN students SAT/ACT scores “not counting” and making the school look more selective. If NU prepares the students to be successful in life, who cares about all these acceptance percentages and national rankings. Think about students from NU graduating with three co-ops (six months each) and the professional experience they can list on their resumes at graduation. Going to school in the city, spending the first semester abroad or spending $67k/year isn’t for everyone, I get that, but when a new grad goes on their first professional interview, do you really think the hiring manager is going to care if the NU acceptance rate was 24% or 18%…i doubt.

Just a quick note about NU In stats. Not every kid admitted NU IN has low stats. My son completed NU In with a group of kids a few years ago. My son had selected during the app process he was OK with NU In. There was a box to check on the app. He got in and was offered NU In, not surpassingly. He had a 32 ACT, and 3.8UW APs, good ECs, so it’s not like he is a terrible student and would drag their stats down. He was actually excited to go abroad and study. Had no issue with it, came back and is doing fine. He said he met plenty of other kids who also selected NU In as an option and were good students. He also met kids who applied to competitive majors like CS who were offered NU In and they didn’t have cruddy scores, just not 35/36 ACT. They probably had 32/33/34, whatever. It’s not like NEU is taking a boat load of kids with ACT scores of 24 and trying to bury them from their overall stats.

My two cents; My son was selected in 2017 to enter thru the NUin program, with a 34 ACT and 4.4 weighted GPA. I think the university uses NUin as a way to keep the campus full while other students are away on co-op. That said, my son had a life changing experience being overseas as an 18 yo, and is having another such experience on his first co-op right now. As a business major, the NUin and co-op programs offer him and other students an experience that few can get anywhere else. We have other friends whose kids have done semester abroad, and I don’t think their experience is as good - NEU gives the freshmen instant friends, a much more structured environment, and the university follows up with them really well when they return to the Boston campus. As for an “internship” being the same, well no it’s not: the vast majority of college students will not try to find one (try getting your teenager to do something productive like that!), whereas NEU really helps the students find one, and they take a whole half year off to work full time and they get paid for it too! Just another aspect of NEU that helps their students be more mature and ready for life after school. And the campus is really beautiful and right in the center of the great town of Boston.