They are not “playing” anything. 96,000 applicants! Your son was deferred. May still get in may not. There are 10’s of thousands of high achieving students applying. 85% wont get in.
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I heard only 5k or so were getting in- so that’s like a 5% acceptance rate or something. I got deferred and was admitted to global scholars, im shocked I was one of the 5k personally
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You can expect at least 2x the number accepted than the actual class size enrolling. Dont know NEU numbers, but i would guess 30% accepted will enroll??
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Do you think the same of all the other schools that deferred him? That those schools are “playing” with him as well? Clearly he applied to many highly selective schools. Also, you mention he has received “likely letters” which implies Ivies. Is NU his first choice school? NU, like most schools, have gotten pretty good at understanding what type of students are more likely to attend an Ivy or elsewhere and they do have to manage their yield like all schools do. Perhaps that is the game your son is “playing” too. I think we all have to remember that this is a two-way street and sadly it is has gotten so competitive in recent years.
Lastly, NU is not “forcing” anyone to go to any campus. They are merely offering seats to folks that they think are a good fit to their programming. The Oakland campus has a certain focus of majors, at least to start, and perhaps his proposed major is not a good fit for them. And as another posted, NU received 96,000 applications this year. Thousands of highly qualified students will unfortunately not be offered a seat at any of the NU programs. I am sure your son will land in a great school, and perhaps still NU!
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From the Common Data Set for this current year (22-23), looks like 38% of those admitted to the Boston campus for Fall enrolled.
https://provost.northeastern.edu/uds/facts/common-data-set/
The CDS also for the first time seems to report the number of students admitted to “part time” programs (presumably NUIN because they attend NU for part of the 22-23 year?) where they admitted 6,191 students and 2,519 chose to enroll. This is my assumption only as there is no definition of what this “part time” enrollment is. This would represent approx 40% who accept their offer. UPDATE: thinking this part time enrollment report is meaningless as it is the exact number of enrollees reported for Boston admits…)
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The only part that I find completely frustrating is that he seems to be one of the few who actually checked off wanting to be at the Oakland campus. I don’t follow this thread that closely any more but it was littered with disappointed parents and students who were relegated to Oakland. So we found it puzzling why an otherwise eligible student, like the thousands of others who applied, BUT who is volunteering to try out their Oakland campus would be immediately deferred. One who paid the school two visits from the midwest showing serious interest to attend and enroll. Seems to me an easy way to get through the piles of apps is to set aside any applicants who checked off any alternate campuses or plans.
At the end of the day perhaps he wasn’t as qualified as we think he was. Who knows. Perhaps they know he won’t be a good fit for NEU. Or perhaps he’ll still get in. All I know is that my son LOVED the school. And he wants to go to college in a major city., which is why checking off Oakland wasn’t a big deal to him. We’ve been there and liked it. All I’m saying is that I find it odd/frustrating/puzzling that he didn’t make that first cut. And based on our experience with deferrals… he’s been rejected from all the schools that deferred him. There was a recent article discussing this exact problem with colleges not being able to keep up with apps. and they admit to sometimes not giving the deferred apps a second look. Jeff Selingo tweeted it a week or so ago.
Of course, you can’t get everything you want. The likely’s he received are from schools in remote or suburban locations. He’s ok with that but not ideal.
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Agreed but just haven’t seen many of these students volunteering to attend the Oakland campus like my son did. That’s the basis of my observation. And the fact that all his deferrals have turned to rejections. He’s moved on.
You have to admit NEU is trying out lots of new things and stirring the pot this year! Definitely has one of the most active threads on CC!
I think they just made a mistake in their reporting. Those are their numbers for full-time enrollment if you look above in the chart.
ETA: Also, I had no idea that Northeastern had almost twice as many female members of the freshman class this year as male! ~1,600 women vs ~900 men
ETA2: OK, one more thing. I think I read that Northeastern has about 5000 students per class? So if 2500 enrolled in the Boston campus this fall, does that mean they were another 2500 in “away“ programs this year? And, if you assume that the yield rate for the away programs is lower than the 1/3 yield rate for the Boston campus, that implies a pretty high percentage of people got some offer last year.
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He’s still waiting on 5 more decisions but they aren’t serious options, particularly for his intended physics major. Right now his top choices are Cornell, Michigan, Case Western, and William & Mary. He received the likely letters from Cornell and W&M which were complete surprises.
What he liked about Oakland was it’s regional location, urban setting, and NEU name. We really didn’t have much else to go on at the time when he applied EA. Are you considering the Oakland campus?
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I think the key is that they are trying new things more than playing a game. They need to figure out the yield after an over-enrollment two years ago and a significant cut in acceptances last year. Then add in Oakland and the change in Global Scholars this year.
I am curious as to whether your son really preferred Oakland or if he was willing to apply/go there because he liked Northeastern and was open to all possibilities to get there. There is always a lot of chatter about NEU and yield protection, so perhaps there is some level of looking at kids who are likely to get offers from other competitive schools and would not ultimately pick Oakland.
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Congratulations, those are all great options.
Still waiting for a decision, trying to find out more about Oakland, more of a what if scenario for us
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Its funny that you mentioned trying new things out. ACTUALLY, it looks like they hired a guy in June 2022 from Tulane to head up admissions. There you go!! Satyajit Dattagupta | Undergraduate Admissions
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All any of us can say is speculation, of course. But with your son’s stats, I think it definitely fits the narrative that they were afraid in the end he would have better options than the Oakland campus, and even though he said he was interested in it would reject it. And also it seems like they would like to have his very good stats for the Boston campus. It would not surprise me if he gets an offer for the Boston campus still.
This is one of the reasons I wish Northeastern had a “why us“ essay, even make it optional! Then students who have a real passion for the school would be able to communicate it. Right now, the only way to show that you are truly excited about Northeastern is to ED, but even with Northeastern‘s financial pre-read in the fall, a lot of people either did not know about it, or felt nervous about making a commitment then.
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In the past two cycles no students were accepted off the waitlist to the Boston campus. Some students last cycle were admitted off the waitlist to NU In.
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Definitely didn’t prefer Oakland over NEU Boston but loved NEU and its co-ops and urban campuses. Not sure what he would have done or will do if the choice is there for either at this point. I don’t think he sees a big difference between the two campuses honestly. To him they are both academically strong Northeastern and both in exciting urban locations.
Good luck with your final decision. It’s hard. We’re trying to plan admitted student visits and it’s very difficult to do with decisions still in the air and availability at these events disappearing, as well as hotel rooms!
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As a review, would someone please tell me the best estimate of the notification date/dates? Are groups being released in batches?
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I’ve heard the next batch will be Wednesday 6pm ET. Just a rumor, though.
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East coast to west as the evening moves on.
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The most likely day for the next batch is tomorrow, March 22. But past patterns no longer apply this cycle.
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