true I just think they have gotten extremely competitive this year–also on common app it says their application is due Jan 1 for both regular and early.
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I am also looking at GW-would you say that I would have a better chance there, or is it becoming just as competitive?
I think GW is less competitive than NU and they offered my son more merit aid. One of the things we didn’t like about GW was no dining hall, but they are building one.
Gws acceptance rate is 40%. The new dining hall will be on the Foggy Bottom campus in time for fall 2022 freshmen.
What would you say are some better things about GW than Northeastern?
I am much more familiar with Northeastern since I am an alum and my son goes there. Some of the appealing things about GW are it’s in a great location in D.C. close to the National Mall, less snow and a nicer subway system than Boston, D.C. is a wonderful city with many restaurants and cultural opportunities (many free museums and performances at the Kennedy Center) and GW has a strong internship program, especially if you are interested in politics. I think posters here have been positive about the Mount Vernon campus, which has more green space. Our tour took us inside the engineering building which is beautiful. I know a few alums of the school (engineering and political science) and they were happy with their experiences.
Scoir has Northeastern’s acceptance rate at 18% and GW’s at 41%. Northeastern’s freshman class is overenrolled, which makes for crowded dorms and a crowded campus. Also, NU has shorter breaks than other colleges due to the co-op system.
would you say Northeastern is better? What are some things that are more appealing about it?
which would you think is a better university overall?
The question is which is the better choice for you personally. The unique things about Northeastern are the co-op program and their dedication to really trying to provide a safe in-person experience during the pandemic. The co-ops require some flexibility. If you want to work outside Boston you may need to sublet your apartment if you are off-campus. My son was undecided when he started NU and the Explore Program for undeclared students was excellent, including the advising. I have heard complaints about other advisors and some parents think there are not enough organized social events. You need to be somewhat independent in finding your friends and fun. There seem to be a lot of clubs.
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is the academic rigor very hard? Also, doesn’t NE consider your whole profile more than GW? (meaning, looking beyond GPA more)
Academically, for political science GW would be better due to its location in DC and the connections that the faculty no doubt have. For engineering, business and computer science Northeastern would be better hands down.
I’m just excited to see if my D22 is accepted to either of these schools. I really like them both. She has RD’d to them.
It depends what you are studying. I think engineering and Computer Science are probably the hardest. My son is an Economics and Business major. He gets good grades but also works very hard.
Northeastern’s handling of the covid pandemic has overall been alot better than GW. GW was totally online for the entire year last year (fall 2020 & spring 2021), in addition to the normal closures in March 2020 that all schools did.
GW just announced they will start spring of 2022 online also, but northeastern has moved onto behavior that shows this is an edemic virus and all on person learning will continue in 2022.
If you think Covid is here forever (like I do) this is something you may want to consider.
One of Northeasterns statements (more below)
It is important to monitor all Covid trends, but in a fully vaccinated and boosted community, positive cases are no longer the best metric to influence our strategy. It’s time to shift our focus to the prevention of severe illness and hospitalization. Before vaccines became available, it was anathema to compare Covid to the flu or the common cold. Now, in a population that’s fully vaccinated and boosted, the data shows that many people who get infected will be asymptomatic or exhibit only mild symptoms.
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And they’ve used the word endemic strategically so they can get back to whatever is the new normal. If the community, and this includes the faculty, keep the word pandemic swirling about, they will jump to remote learning every chance they get. The leaders there know that’s not what they want.
I think schools like NEU that have high overenrollment this past year might be pushing more to ED to manage their yield. I thought I had heard that NEU had overenrolled by 800 (regular fall admits) this past year, but their common data set was just recently posted and it shows an over enrollment by around 1700! (Normal target for fall frosh has been around 2800 total each fall, this fall was around 4,500!) this does not include NUIN bc they are not fall admits. @TomSrOfBoston do these numbers make sense? could they possible be adding in NUin numbers now?
common data set
https://provost.northeastern.edu/uds/cds/2021-2022/
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I am surprised that the CDS has been published as it usually comes out in March!
Those enrolment figures are very shocking. They show a yield of 33% which is way higher than last year’s yield of 25% or so. Northeastern has said that yield was far higher than in past years but the number of new students is staggering. They have never included NU In or NU Bound in the past so I assume they are not included here. But that is an assumption.
Reports of an 800 student over enrolment are from second party sites, not from the university.
If correct, I imagine that EA and RD acceptance figures will be low and this fall’s freshman class will be small. The bargain rate hotel rooms they have been using will not be available next fall.
The figures also show a female to male imbalance. In the past the female/male enrolment was close to 50/50.
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The NUin site in Boston was new this year, correct? And didn’t the NUin Boston students take classes on NU’s campus? It would be hard to justify not including the NUin Boston group in the CDS numbers.
No, the NUin Boston location was added in the fall of 2020 as students could not travel to most of the international sites due to Covid-19 with the exception of Dublin. In 2020 the NUin students stayed at the Westin Hotel. In the fall of 2021 NUin Boston continued with students living at the Sheraton and the Westin hotels, although NUin students also studied in Greece, Italy, England and Ireland. I don’t know where the NUin Boston students take classes.