Hi,
I know someone with the same stats as me except 1 point higher ACT and they got the scholarship to NEU. My EC’s are also more impressive… Why did this happen? Thanks
Uh Buddy this is the Boston College forum, you might wanna check where you post things.
Wrong forum…
but the truth is …ECs are often meaningless for merit. And one point for the ACT is a LOT. it’s not a minor difference.
Sorry it was an honest mistake.
Dear businessg101 : Some possible reasons include :
[1] Your written essays were not compelling, did not explain your passion for the school, contained grammatical or spelling errors, or were otherwise deficient.
[2] Your extra curriculars were not as impressive as you might believe - three seasons of sports, music, clubs, leadership positions, impact statements, and volunteerism can all demonstrate school spirit which any University will want to see.
[3] Your rank within your class was lower than you believe - and do not recite the “my school does not rank” because every school ranks by decile at a bare minimum.
[4] Your course load was less than the most difficult offered by your school.
[5] You were not taking a full course load in all five major subjects in both your junior and senior years.
This list could go on for some length, so be careful in doing the comparison strictly based on your numbers.
nevermind … i have all of those things
@businessg101:
Your sibling got a scholarship and you didn’t. Only those who were part of reviewing your application at Northeastern know why. It is very likely due to one of the five reasons that scottj noted above, which you’ve seemingly rejected.
The two of you presented yourself to NEU in the best way possible. NEU saw something in your sibling and not in you that made them really want him/her to attend. This is your opportunity to learn and grow from this experience.
Maybe it’s because your friend is wealthier. And, no, I’m not joking.
To be fair NEU provides a lot of full tuition scholarship, so kudos to them. But they also provide many partial scholarships as well. This tactic is called discounting among college admission and financial aid circle. It’s designed to attract affluent students to come to their school by giving them a slight discount on the tuition.
As one famous article a few years puts it: “*f a school offers a single low-income student a full scholarship of $20,000, the school may feel good about itself, but it’s out $20,000. But if it can attract four affluent students to its campus instead, by offering them each a $5,000 discount off full tuition, it can collect the balance in revenue and come out way ahead financially…These colleges are, in other words, providing affirmative action for the wealthy, and the scale has grown very large. During the 1995-96 school year, only 24 percent of first-time, full-time students at private colleges received merit aid; by the 2007-08 school year that number had risen to 44 percent.” [Source: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/september_october_2013/features/merit_aid_madness046453.php?page=all]
I don’t know the exact number, but today, the scale is much larger than just 44 percent of schools using this tactics to attract wealthy students.
Here are more fun readings on the topic:
http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2013/03/14/174320752/colleges-are-offering-big-merit-scholarships-its-a-problem-if-you-dont-get-one
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/26/education/getting-out-of-discount-game-small-colleges-lower-the-price.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
@reddune They are discounting more since 1995 because the sticker price of a private university has more tripled since 1995 - much much more than cost of living. These are ‘fake’ sticker prices that the upper middle class cannot afford to pay. The uber wealthy do not pay attention to discounting, but upper middle class or business owners with fluctuating income do, since in most cases they cannot afford it otherwise. These merit awards entice highly qualified students who have worked hard for top grades to private schools.
another option to add to scottj’s list: choice of college/school/major within NEU. Admissions/merit to Engineering is more about grades/tests scores (particularly in math courses), and merit to the Visual Arts school is more about portfolio…