As I’ve mentioned above, DS22 was deferred. Applied to engineering. 1550, NMSF, high rigor, good leadership, etc. He understands why he was deferred. The only interest we really showed was a campus visit in Spring 2020. I think the hard part for him is as he waits for his few reaches (academically and financially) to come in, this makes him more nervous. As much as you don’t want to read into this decision you do. He has good affordable to us options (CWRU - with merit where similar to NEU many high stats were deferred, Purdue) so he’s not panicking. Does he sometimes question why he worked so hard, @norik95, sure, but the hard work wasn’t all about getting into college - it was about learning, developing the study skills, etc. I think he’s set up for success and hopefully will land at a place he’s excited about. I might be more anxious as the yesses are geographically far away (we’re from NY) - I miss him now and he’s just at Harvard Model UN for 4 days - but I’ll survive.
Also, @norik95, there’s a good McGill parents facebook group with tons of information. I joined as my DS24 dreams of McGill, but as you mentioned, the handling of COVID seems to have been messy. COVID really makes you think about location when picking a school. Boston would have been ideal, but based on numbers, it looks like RD at NEU will be just as competitive, so DS22 did accept the deferral position but is realistic about the outcome.
My son and I were just talking about this. It feels like a better way, and would probably increase their yield, but then they’d get less applicants which also helps the rankings I believe.
My thoughts are at some point in the future they will do away with EA and just have ED1 and 2. We shall see…
That is all part of their plan to increase the applications - have an easy application with no additional essays. But in doing so they get many candidates that have only luke-warm interest. I know it’s the business of colleges these days, but some schools seem to manage it better than others. I think well-run organizations don’t approach it this way, IMO.
do you guys think demonstrated interest matters that much? I’m an out-of-state applicant so I couldn’t fly to Boston to take the tour of the university T_T
Boston University has not yet announced their application stats, which is surprising. They usually are in sync with Northeastern in terms of number of applications and acceptance rate. BU does not have EA so we won’t see the fallout until March. I suspect it will be similar to Northeastern. They were also overenrolled by about 1000 students this year. And BU, like most colleges this year, is test optional.
The centralized application systems, while good from many angles, has made applying to most schools a 15 minute affair (if you have your basic materials compiled). When one had to actually fill out a form by hand it made you think “do I really want this?”
I recently read a book about how to navigate the admissions insanity, and the author argued - and I would agree - that if the process was significantly harder it would ward off casual applicants. I was actually very surprised that NEU did not require any additional contributions besides what was provided in the Common App. But of course that would decrease total applications which in turn would make institutions appear less selective.
My daughter was accepted to the NEU class of 2022, but we too have felt the sting that others have voiced about deferrals or rejections without any significant basis for said decision. We had a big ED deferral last month and it was rough. BUT: we choose to believe that it will be that institution’s loss, and we are learning - albeit slowly - that the name on the marquee does not get to dictate family well-being. Is it irritating? Yep - very few of us will ever really know how the sausage is made admissions-wise.
My son DS22 was given a fee waiver to NE that came with a nice pocket notebook and a few additional things. (He is NMSF/NMF and has a record similar to those that have posted) Before he received the fee waiver he hadn’t thought about applying. He did reach out to the AO (who took about 3 weeks to respond) about which school he should apply to as he was interested in combining two different areas. When he heard back he submitted his application. However he would not have applied without a fee waiver and if the application required essays.
From what I am reading I am not expecting him to get in. He will be in Boston for a music festival mid-February so he could tour then and send an update that he visited which could help. I wonder how many fee waivers they gave out (all NMSF?) and how that affected number of applicants.
Of his friend group that applied EA only 1 person got in all else deferred (Female TO).
You’re correct, I mistyped. I do think they’ve admitted 3000 in EA as reported and have likely admitted the 880+ a few hundred more from ED2. The rest to come in final round. I think they’ll be very conservative all in all bc of their high overenrollment/yield this past year. (Besides the 1700 overenrolled regular admits, someone on another platform said they heard there were 2000 nuin students this year (as reported by nu to parents) which also seems really high by many hundreds. They never publish those numbers so who knows?)
The admissions process seems like a lottery. I have had 3 daughters apply within 4 years – all from the same public high school in the SF Bay Area. D1 was denied (uw 3.75 GPA, 1440 SAT), D2 waitlisted (uw 3.91, TO, tons of rigor … eg. 5 APs senior year), D3 just admitted to NUin (uw 3.85 GPA 1470, lots of rigor). I did not expect D3 to get in, so big surprise. In the end it all works out. D1 is very happy at BU, D2 happy at UC Berkeley, and D3 … not sure where she will end up.
My kid did not tour in person. But there were lots of online events, including a fall virtual open house with many different sessions, and we attended one live event (kid asked a question about NUin in the chat) and watched the videos of many more–admissions information, student panels, study abroad, co-op (I’m sure they kept track of all this viewing). Kid did not email any of the AO, so that was the extent of the demonstrated interest. Accepted to NUin. 4.0 UW, 1540 SAT, 9AP, 3 college courses, 3 Varsity sports, 2 years VP of class council, lots of volunteer work.
I believe I attended one of the live events back in the fall, and I did watch a few of the pre-recorded videos and did the virtual tour a few times. I emailed as well, but just to the general Northeastern admissions team; however, I got deferred. I think its because I didn’t indicate an interest in NUin or NU Bound, and my stats are weaker. What major did your kid apply for?
Or they could have the best of both worlds and have a couple of optional essays…I believe there are some schools that do that as a way to make sure the application volume is high enough (particularly if there are certain parts of the country or certain majors where volume may tend to be low) while also being able to assess real interest.
Yes, UVM has an optional essay. My son didn’t want to write it at first because the school was a safety for him, and he figured why bother but I convinced him to do it. He wrote a really good and witty essay. He did get in EA as expected, but it seems a lot of kids with good stats were deferred. I think it was really helpful to show he was interested in the school.
Well, that is not clearly the case. My D22 has top stats 4.0/36 (including state level awards, leadership, etc.). Our school doesn’t rank, but kids that got deferred have lower GPA/ACT scores. So I would not insist that kids who got in not really top candidates… Clearly, top kids got deferred and denied left and right, but saying that the ones that got in are not the top ones is really putting dumper on the accepted kids achievements.