Jan-Start Program

<p>Got my admissions decision to Northeastern today and I was happy that I got in, but extremely upset that I did not get a Fall admit, i was placed into the Jan Start Program. They expect me to either study abroad ($35,000 when i can barely afford tuition as it is) or do community service in my area. They have almost NO info about this program on their site, so I was wondering how they decide who gets fall admit and who gets into this stupid wait till spring program? Is it just random, or is it that I was not as qualified as the kids who were admitted for the fall?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

<p>Spring admit is a bummer, but I know a few people who have done it and did some cool things with their semester off, so if the school is your top choice it’s worth thinking about… but it’s obviously not ideal.</p>

<p>Unless they’ve changed things, you aren’t required to do anything with that open semester, they just offer the study abroad so they can make some $$ off you. The school generally loses a small population of the freshman class who transfer/drop out/whatever after first semester so it’s a good way for the school to fill those spots with interested (and qualified) students who didn’t quite make the cut for fall admit.</p>

<p>@Emily
Have you ever heard of someone who was offered Jan admission(spring), and then later offered September(fall) admission?</p>

<p>my daughter just got her acceptance into the Jan Start program. She applied as an International Affairs major. I was wondering if her major was the reason for the delayed start and if anyone knew if you could get the university to change their mind and make it a fall semester admission</p>

<p>I don’t think that the major is the problem because I was put in the Jan-Start program and I’m a political science major. Its probably because they have too many kids, or if they are expecting a better yield this year; who knows? Im also interested in hearing if you could get the university ot change their mind.</p>

<p>Initially I thought is was a better thing because a Jan admit is guaranteed admission. But are the waitlisted people who come off the waitlist offered fall admit? So now I’m not sure.</p>

<p>I applied to the College of Arts and Science as a Linguistics major.
They divided the College of Arts and Science into three separate colleges:

  • College of Science
  • College of Arts, Media and Design
  • College of Social Sciences and Humanities
    Does anyone know why Lingustics would be a part of the College of Sciences instead of the College of Social Sciences and Humanities? (It says College of Sciences in my online decision letter.)</p>

<p>Anyway, I got into the Jan-Start Program as well.
I would have never thought that Linguistics was so extremely sought after that Northeastern would have to push our admissions to the spring semester.</p>

<p>I am also interested in changing from the spring semester to the fall semester. Help?</p>

<p>This seems a bit weird. Have they ever done this in years past? I too was accepted into the Jan-Start program as a neurobiology major. However, it seems unfair if waitlisted candidates, who have NOT YET been accepted, may get into fall semester over us who have been accepted, but for January. Can any one help us out on changing to fall semester or giving us some insight? Thanks.</p>

<p>Yeah, I applied undeclared and was put into the Jan-Start program? Is that just code word for “select wait-list”? Does anyone know if I can re-apply to be selected for the fall semester? Also what do they mean by you can do community service in my neighborhood? How will that help enrich my college education?</p>

<p>I don’t think so…i had a friend a few years ago who did it. basically you just start second semester</p>

<p>Read the paragraph on NUin.
[Northeastern</a> University Undergraduate Admissions > Academics > Specialized Entry Programs](<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/academics/specializedentryprograms.html]Northeastern”>http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/academics/specializedentryprograms.html)</p>

<p>I think I read somewhere on CC that someone called and asked to be admitted as a fall admit, rather than a spring admit, and admissions said no.</p>

<p>It’s expensive, but a friend of mine was a spring admit and spent her first semester in Greece, and it was the most amazing few months of her life. She still is best friends with all the people she met there and once a day she references something she found/saw/ate in Greece.</p>

<p>I got into NU early admission with a hefty scholarship. I have some friends who got into the Jan start thing with literally a couple of k of financial aid! are these the students that NU kind of didn’t really want and hope they don’t come? I’m wondering about how everyone in my school seemed to get in even though some of them are certainly not too bright…</p>

<p>It’s not students they “kind of didn’t want”. They don’t accept those students. It’s for students who are qualified but who didn’t quite make the cut for whatever reason.</p>

<p>As far as I know, they won’t switch jan admits into fall admits. They’ve been doing spring admission for at least as long as I’ve been here… a few other schools do it also (I think middlebury is one). </p>

<p>I’d be ****ed too, and think NU should really make more of a mention about the possibility of spring admission when people apply, but like neuchimie said, there are some really cool ways to spend that semester off.</p>

<p>@laurenp;
What is your major? Some programs at NU have a 10% acceptance rate, approaching ivy league standards (physical therapy, pharmacy, architecture maybe) while others may have a 60% acceptance rate (humanities and social sciences?). If your classmates applied to different programs than you did, that could explain it.</p>

<p>my daughter got Jan-Start Acceptance. Spoke to Admissions Officer this morning, this is the scoop…if a spot opens up in your college for fall, the Fall Wait Listed WILL get a seat over a Jan-Start person. Jan-Start’s will NOT be moved to Fall Waitlists or given preference over Fall Wait Listed. I was told Jan-Start is the over-flow of about 500 who were accepted, also told by NEU it was better than being rejected!</p>

<p>That really doesn’t seem right. The Jan admits are the preferred applicants, but the waitlisted, while not guaranteed admission, are given a preferential fall slot. That doesn’t seem right to me.</p>

<p>BTW, my S was waitlisted-</p>

<p>@tomsrofboston
I’m a bio major who is on the pre-med track. I have one friend who applied to music business and one who applied to psych. It’s just strange- they got deferred then put in this. :\ It seems that NU is doing way more denying/waitlisting/jan-starting than just regular fall-accepting this year??</p>

<p>@laurenp
I think your friends’ majors are high demand majors.</p>

<p>This whole Jan Admit program seems counterintuitive. It’s no secret that Northeastern is working to improve its image and rankings. Two measures of that are low acceptance rate and high yield. (Low yield = safety school). By admitting supposedly “less qualified” students to Jan Admit, NU is raising its acceptance rate and lowering its yield as many Jan Admit students will likely go elsewhere. Odd!</p>

<p>I also received my January admission today. At my school there are two students, that I know of, that have been admitted, and they were admitted for fall. They are both B and C students, which made me feel like I would get in as well. So you can probably imagine that I was pretty surprised when I was only offered spring admission. I have a 3.8 (my school doesn’t weight grades) and a 30 on my ACT. I’m kind of perplexed, but at the same time I’m not because college admission often doesn’t make a lot of sense.</p>