<p>ok so we are warming up to the whole Jan start idea. does anyone know the total amount of people who were given Jan Start admittances?</p>
<p>According to the Northeastern Admissions blog, around 500 students.</p>
<p>Read the first two posts:</p>
<p>[Northeastern</a> Admissions](<a href=“http://nuadmissions.typepad.com/ronne/]Northeastern”>http://nuadmissions.typepad.com/ronne/)</p>
<p>im still waiting to receive my admissions packet to read more about this program…idk maybe it isn’t that bad after all</p>
<p>Pros: guaranteed acceptance to NEU
Opportunity to study abroad for 1st semester
Chance to save money by going to a Local College (credit transfer maybe tricky)
Chance to save up money/travel
Chance to become more mature before going to college</p>
<p>Cons: Don’t get full-fledged ideal college experience
Possibility of being 1 semester behind everyone else
Possible hard time making friends
Pushes the start of your career back 4-6 month (unless you make up the missed semester)
Expenses of studying abroad
Nothing to really look forward to in September; no orientation in August (Im not sure about this one)
Friends move on to college; you work/travel/ or go to a local college (not 1st choice college)
Can’t say that you going to NEU this year (technically Jan-start is 2011)
Cant enjoy wonderful fall in Boston (sort of weak, but fall is awesome in Boston)</p>
<p>I was admitted for Jan-start; but you can take as a bad thing or a blessing in disguise. I guess it all matters what you have planned for you life because Jan-Start is not ideal. Good luck to everyone deciding…I know that I’m going to need some in my decision-making process.</p>
<p>I know spring admits who went to different schools for the fall semester because they were cheaper than NU and wanted to give them a shot, knowing that they’d be able to go to NU if they didn’t like it.</p>
<p>Just a brief note on housing- I heard from somebody who enrolled as a Jan-start that they were placed with a roomate whose previous roomate asked to change dorms because they could not put up with them, so Jan-start students potentially could be put with the roomates that nobody wants. Not going to influence my choice in a huge way but kind of a let-down nonetheless</p>
<p>^I have heard of one instance of that happening, but my spring admit friend was put in a single. So I think it’s pretty random. And I believe some spring admits are rooming together.</p>
<p>Alright cool, makes sense I guess. I would be interested to know if they let you pick a spring admit for a roomate while at the orientation in the winter</p>
<p>I really don’t think saying your “career” starts a few months “late” is a big deal. Seriously, once you’re here, you WANT it to start late. First of all everyone always wants to stay in college longer than they have to because it puts off dealing with everything else. Second, starting your “career” in the fall or in the winter is a GOOD thing. Any chance you get to NOT start looking for jobs EXACTLY when every other college graduate is looking is a good thing. Besides unless you are in engineering or applying to med school or becoming an actuary, your job after college will almost never be your “career”. It will be a job that you may or may not enjoy doing. Yeah it could be the springboard that sets you on the track to becoming partner, but most likely it’ll just be a job and in a few years you’ll find one that suits you better.</p>
<p>Also so many people graduate at weird times that you never even notice who came in when. The majority of students do graduate in the spring, yes, but MANY people graduate at the end of the summer and in the winter. </p>
<p>And it’s not your ideal college experience? Why? Because you happen to study somewhere else your first semester? Think of all of the thousands and thousands of transfer students across the nation. Most of them didn’t KNOW they’d want to transfer when they went to their first school. But it’s not like their lives are ruined because they didn’t go to the same school for exactly 4 years. Hate to break it to you, but if you want the perfect “college experience”, Northeastern isn’t a good school for you anyway. Co-op takes you out of class, which is the exact opposite of the normal college experience. It’s still great, but it’s not normal. No one is going to care in ten years.</p>
<p>It kind of sounds like you’re just grabbing at straws for cons. Obviously the tuition cost is a valid one, but a lot of the others seem to just be weak. If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to try and come up with reasons not to. Just don’t do it. You’ve clearly already made up your mind.</p>
<p>
per usual, ditto neuchimie.</p>
<p>Some of the things on your cons list are valid. Study abroad is $$ (so don’t do it, or if you’re interested in some kind of traveling, there are much cheaper ways to do that), and obviously it’s exciting when everyone gets to campus in september so it’s a bummer to put that off. Everything else though… ditto to grabbing at straws.</p>
<p>I understand the hesitation to do january start, but it’s not as bad as everyone’s making it out to be. Falling behind a semester isn’t worth worrying about, harder time making friends isn’t worth worrying about (join a club or something), and pushing your career back 4-6 months deserves a HUGE cross off the list. That probably won’t happen anyway, and as a 22-year-old (ahhhhh!), I can tell you that when you’re a junior/senior, the thought of starting your “career” makes you want to stick forks in your eyeballs. I definitely don’t want it coming any sooner than it already is.</p>
<p>I know graduating high school is really exciting, and everyone’s all set to run off to college and whatever… but there are plenty of really cool things you can do with a free semester, and once you actually get to northeastern people won’t really know/care that you’re a semester off.</p>
<p>I could list a bajillion antedotes of people taking a semester off, starting school later than RIGHT after graduating, etc etc etc, but we’ve all already done that so I don’t need to do it again.</p>
<p>Also, housing is not a valid con either. People transfer, people move home to save money, people move rooms for a variety of reasons, people drop out. The chance of having a terrible roommate as a jan start is probably exactly the same as for a regular start.</p>
<p>Is that true that Jan-Start admitted students are randomly picked? I called the school and they told me so.</p>
<p>Huh? Randomly picked from what group; otherwise denied or waitlisted students? I think you misunderstood.</p>
<p>obviously the chance of having a bad roomate would not be a reason to not enroll into the college you want, but it still seems slightly more likely that you would, if jan-start students are being filled in that way, than fall admits. but of course you could have a bad roomate either way…</p>
<p>The jan admit students I’ve met all were given singles in upperclassmen dorms second semester. So you could get screwed, or you could get really lucky. Just like for fall admits. Why does it seem “more likely”? It’s not like we have a poll taken by ALL jan admits about their roommate situations. </p>
<p>Besides, I haven’t spoken to two of my roommates since December, and I’ve managed just fine. haha You only get to have perfect rooming when you move off campus into a one-bedroom alone (which for most people isn’t happening for many years).</p>
<p>If it’s not too personal, could everyone who got admitted to Spring of 2011 post up your stats? I want to see how I match up with everyone. Thanks!</p>
<p>to jesshehehaha:
Here my stat (applied as an international student currently in US):
SAT 2090 M 750 R 640 WR 700
GPA 2.7UW 3.1 W (5APs senior years)
3 APs ( physics C,Macro, Micro) : 5s
ECs: not much</p>
<p>So how did they pick Jan Start students? Is it because they’re “less qualified”?
Thanks.</p>
<p>I was also accepted to this program and told Northeaster that I was insulted and would not attend. I was enraged that waiting list students who have not even been accepted to the university has the option if accepted to start in the fall. Why don’t they poll accepted spring students to find out if they would want to enter in fall if their is space? Don’t we deserve the chance to begin in the fall before UNACCEPTED students? Is it about money? I was told that I should be proud to be accepted in the spring. I have been accepted to other schools who rank higher than Northeastern and can start in the fall. Why didn’t NU tell us about this possibility during their tours and info sessions. Do they wait until they get your application fee?</p>
<p>^ I did hear about this at an open house we attended. I agree, it does’t seem fair (and my S was waitlisted)</p>
<p>I totally agree with you, enough18. My daughter had great stats, so we were really perplexed as to why she was offered the Jan. start. To top it off, we received $0 in aid, but were given the “opportunity” for her to study abroad for the fall semester at a cost of over $30K. </p>
<p>This seems much less a case of a school that wants a student as part of their community than a business filling a void left by early graduates and transfers. It’s Northeastern’s right to conduct admissions this way certainly, but we, too, were insulted by this “offer” and will be spending our money elsewhere. If we’re expected to pay the full boat then we want the full experience, thanks. </p>
<p>Respectfully, to you posters who say it’s no big deal to do the Jan. start, I notice none of you actually did it. The Admissions’ blog presents it as “You have a number of options for the Fall semester, including work, community services, attending classes at a local college or travel.” Is that really what you had in mind when you sent in your application? In theoretical hindsight you may think it doesn’t matter, but to a lot of kids (mine included) it really is a matter of join the class in the fall, or not at all.</p>
<p>And finally, a note to Northeastern Admissions: Perhaps you could find a way to modify your notification - getting a “You’re Accepted” email only to click through and find out it’s for the Jan. start is rather like a punch in the gut.</p>
<p>Anyway, good luck to all.</p>
<p>^Just for clarification, no I didn’t have a Jan. start, but I know people who did. I know two girls who started at different colleges and just didn’t like them, so having Northeastern to go to second semester was a great option. And they’re both loving it here.</p>