Same for my son last night. He was also deferred, CompSci. He was reading it, then he thought it said leave a brief LOCI… and when he checked the RD box the whole page went away. But he’s certain there wasn’t a field to write the LOCI in. Small moment of panic, but I said just think about what highlights you want them to know since November and we’ll send to the admissions email.
He went to school today and said he heard someone from our school got in yesterdday - a girl in the IB program (fun fact she is actually from Germany but family lives here; dad is with a European company nearby). He was just shocked because he didn’t think anyone else even had Northeastern on their radar. A few applied to UMich and Perdue and HPY but hadn’t heard of any others for NU.
And part of the appeal of Northeastern IS Boston. Lots of kids apply to many Boston schools because it’s a great college town. If my son hadn’t gotten into NEU, he might have gone ED2 to Boston University.
All the thousands of students admitted to NUin / Global (and probably London and Oakland?) will appear to be denials on the CDS, because they will show up as applications, but won’t show up as admissions.
It’s the same way with any school that admits some applicants to a spring semester start, but it’s magnified in Northeastern’s case because so many are admitted to its alternative programs.
Edit to add:
This is the magnitude I am talking about:
2022 Boston enrolled freshmen: ~2500 (6,179 admitted with 41% yield)
2022 NUin / NUBound enrolled freshmen: 2416 (with an unknown number admitted, but most likely at least 6000)
Fall 2023 is expected to see more Boston admissions, but probably also more alternative admissions, since these programs are continuing to expand.
BU’s acceptance rate dropped from 42% 10 years ago to 14% last year. The college admissions world has been turned upside in recent years for some schools, and yet others are still sending my daughter mail that reads “there’s still time to apply” or “here is your guaranteed scholarship”.
I realize that but who cares? Seriously. If a kid gets NUin and decides it might be fun to go abroad for a semester and then land at their first choice school in the Spring, does it really matter that their stats don’t show up on the CDS? It’s not like they are publishing the names of the kids. Other schools, the University of Miami for example, just offer Spring admit without the study abroad option. Those numbers don’t show up in the CDS either.
NUin is a great option for lots of kids, and Northeastern is a great school.
In addition to being a great school, Northeastern is also the king of making its numbers look really, really great. Many people are attracted by these numbers, in addition to being attracted by the actual greatness of the school.
I know…it is crazy. My son has two friends who were both denied ED to their first-choice school (Not NEU or BU). They have happily found other schools to love where they were accepted. I have to believe it all works out even if the initial disappointment stings.
I’m glad D23 is my last kid to apply to college, as I think this bumpy ride is going to be around for a while. I get a breather after this cycle, only to pick back up with the stress of med school apps for D22 in a few years!
Probably. Most people know what the admissions options are when they apply. It’s not worth raging against the system. The alternative options are there and they will either work or they will be discontinued. I would guess enough kids were doing NU Bound for them to change it to a Global Scholars program.
This isn’t the true admission rate since it doesn’t include the alternate pathways which Northeastern uses far more than any other school. Nothing wrong with that, but if kids are guaranteed a spot, they should be counted as admitted (same goes for Emory’s Oxford campus). The ED rate as close to 40 percent, which is not comparable to any Ivy.
Question! Daughter was deferred and clicked the link in the deferral letter to choose Regular Decision (instead of ED2). Now when she logs into the portal, it says “Decided” under Status but we can’t get to anything showing the deferral letter again. Is that correct?
I don’t know. I think you could argue it either way. If they include all the pathways, and NEU seems to have more than most schools, it could give a misleading sense of a student’s chances to get admitted to the Boston campus. Look at how many people in this small sample are upset that they were offered an alternative path. Imagine if they thought the acceptance rate was 30%. I also think it would skew the numbers because they probably expect a much lower yield for the alternative programs.
The published rate is how many students are accepted to the Boston campus in the Fall. The fact that NEU has more options than other schools is what makes the analysis murky.
It would probably be better for published information, such as the CDS, to have more detail for all schools that admit to alternate programs, not just Northeastern.
It should ideally show how many students are admitted and enroll to the main campus that they applied for, and also how many are admitted and enroll in alternate programs, spring start, etc.
But it might be difficult to standardize these numbers, because alternate programs vary a lot.
So strange! Hope they can follow-up with additional materials or contact if needed. We like to print & keep paperwork of decisions so this threw us off!
That’s exactly what I was thinking…it’s almost impossible to standardize those numbers with all the variables. I think to say x% of applicants are admitted to the Boston campus is at least consistent.
Lucky! (I’m jealous) I still have a D25 to go after this… and her major and school choices will probably be completely different from her two older siblings - who where both very different! D18 was Chemistry but with a path to Ed/Teaching, and S23 is CompSci but with a opportunity to delve into game design and human application. So many more applications than before covid… without tests everyone has the ‘not throwing away my shot’ mentality!
