In past year’s decision date is last Weds of each month, similar to Georgia Tech. Decisions get posted in geographical waves starting at 4 or 5 in New England with other geographical areas following. They post on social media first then the waves start. Apparantly portal gets updated first and email follows soon after.
On decision day, waves are released hourly on the hour, loosely by geography. Here are some estimated time ranges:
New England: 4-6PM EST
NY: 5-6PM EST
PA, NJ, MD, VA: 6-8PM EST
Southern States: 7-9PM EST
Midwest: 6-9PM EST
West Coast: 8-10PM EST
International: Varies
More and more schools play that SAT game by sending students to other places the first semester, using online school (UF) or restricting when you can take classes (UMCP).
My daughter is a current student at Northeastern, and she shared last week that one of her professors stated that this cycle Northeastern received more than 100,000 applicants. Hoping that percentage increase (almost 10%) isn’t true for all of the colleges on my D23’s list!
Maybe, For the 2022-2023 academic year, Northeastern University is test-optional and does not require applicants to submit standardized testing to be considered for admission.
IMO, this is based on several factors including TO, no required supp. essays and volume of fee waivers that are being emailed to students who haven’t shown any demonstrated interest.
Some other schools in addition to NEU choose similar strategies since more applicants =lower the acceptance rate= more selective in USWNR rankings.
While acceptance rate was never more than a tiny portion of each college’s score it was the first column shown in the rankings detail that US News published. And obviously it was a factor for many applicants.
The rise in the number of applications at many private universities seems to have taken on a life of its own. “Hot” schools like Northeastern, Boston University, NYU, USC etc. have become widely known in high schools and “everyone” wants to apply to them. The push to get students to apply ED allows each school to choose applicants who really want to go there as a first or a least second choice, as opposed to students using them as a more or less safety.
As for a change in strategy in the future, it may be a case of “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”.
“No required supp essays” might be a valid factor, but I am not sure about TO and volume of fee waivers. TO is almost everywhere, except for MIT and those schools in GA, if I remember correctly. Do you know what is the exact “volume of fee waivers” from Northeastern? My kid got no-app-fee invitation from Yale, Northwestern, Chicago and a few other more prestigious schools too where she has never shown any interest.
It’s really a shame for those kids who are in the financial “donut hole” where parents make too much money to get a good NPC result, but cannot commit to an ED college without first seeing what merit aid is offered. Yield protection is another factor that shuts out high-stat kids who look like these schools are on their safety list, but reality is that they can’t apply ED because they need to see merit first.
My high stat/great ECs D22 was all-in on her first-choice school last year who put her on the wait list after deferring her from EA to RD, and I can’t help but wonder if our non-response to their last-minute ED2 push hurt her chances (even after a compelling essay of continued interest after the EA deferral).
My son has received several of those emails (multiple ones from some schools) about switching from EA/RD to ED2. I would like to think they are general emails sent to all applicants and not specific to my son. What’s the general consensus on those emails?
Those emails definitely go to everyone. But those who respond and move up to ED get a big boost in their acceptance chances, assuming they fit the profile that the school admits. The school wins because they know that student will commit to attending, and the student wins because they get a better chance of acceptance. By not moving to ED, you lose an admissions advantage that makes you stand out in a crowd of very qualified RD applicants.
