Is there a source for that understanding? My daughter is trying to decide whether to submit her score, and if there is any verifiable indication from NU not to submit below a certain score, that would be helpful to know,.
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Not twicemama, but just my 2 cents. First, Iād highly doubt that 75% could be true even if there were a source. Their 75% was already 35 ( I am just using ACT as the benchmark here.) How could any school ever possibly only suggest 35 or above being submitted? I would be more inclined to believe it was 50% not 75% or just the whole mid range. Also, I am not sure how to say this correctly ( donāt want to offend anyone here), but here is another perspective that you might want to consider: We belong to the group of over-represented people in higher ED, so my understanding at the time was that it was kind of a āmustā for us to submit the test scores. So my point is that it really depends. It could be optional for some, but a little bit more āmandatoryā for others.
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Thanks, I have many of the same thoughts. Above 75% seems unlikely based on exactly what you noted - that would be only students who have 35s and 36s should submit. And, Iām reluctant to give much credence to an āunderstandingā without a source for it, which is why I asked. My daughter has a 33 on the ACT. Iāve been inclined to recommend that she submit it, and Iām still inclined in that direction, barring some credible intel that would say to do the opposite.
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Good luck, Parent. My son had 34 last year. At the time, the published range was 33-35, but when we went to NEU for school visit, it was 34-35 printed on the handout. We decided to submit, as I thought the range was somehow inflated. Both 33 and 34 are good scores in my opinion. It helps provide a different perspective about the candidate among all other credentials.
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I am no expert, but have watched cycles here for 11 years when my oldest was applying (and went to NU) and through my youngest who just graduated with her masters in 6 years. Def listen to the admissions folks. I just recall many folks on this board saying in recent years that admissions was recommending high scores only should be submittedā¦ to me, those scores were always above the 75% mark it seemed. So I apologize for any confusion Iāve caused. My kids applied when test scores were required and had high 1400s and they have both joked theyād never get in anymore if they were applying today.
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I have to agree on NUs lack of marketing. Weāre from CA and most folks have never heard of the school until someone they know goes there and has a great experience. We came upon NU as a fluke when we had an extra day in Boston on our school trip week and decided to do a tour bc we kept drove by it and thought letās pop in. My older D was most def NOT interested in a large urban school but after the tour and presentations (all on a miserably cold rainy day in April) she was very intrigued by the coops, all the international travel opps, and the fact that NU has a defined campus. The merit package clinched it for her in the end. This put NU on the map at our school ever since. When we mention NU here, people still often think itās in Chicago. Ha
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I do think itās where you live, I doubt anyone in my area of NJ has never heard of northeastern, but Iāve learned of many new to me colleges here on CC.
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My daughterās ACT score was below their middle 50%. She emailed them back in August to get an idea of their thoughts on submitting the scores or not. She got back a pretty generic āthe decision is between you and your counselor,ā but was also told her scores were āvery promising.ā She did not end up submitting them, so we shall see!
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Yep, we are from Midwest. Very few people, almost like none, have heard of NEU before. I have done a lot of research with my older kid on her schools and NEU has never been on our radar, to be honest. Yet, my son has been doing his research on different schools for a long time. He has pulled a lot of information, useful information he thought, from Instagram, reddit and YouTube. He was not much into the ranking, but put more focus on the real feedback from the real students. My son has always been the type of kids knowing what he wants in his life and goes for it. Before I started learning more about NEU, I had a four-hour meeting with him and tried to persuade him to aim for one of the top 20s. No, he didnāt bulge. Well, I have changed my opinion too after I went to visit the school along with BU. It is definitely not the perfect school, but there are many things I like, meeting 100% financial need even though they are need-aware, northeastern promise, the location, the campus, the coop, the flexibility with the study plan/path, the policy about AP transfer, equally strong across many different marketable majors. It seemed to be the right fit for him even though the ranking of the school was not what I hoped for my son, but to be honest, I didnāt really care as much after I saw the school. Also, my son is not one of those tippy-toppy kids. He knows he is in the next tier. He literally told me many times. If he ever got admitted into one of the top 10, he would not go, because he knew it would not be his type.
To me, the usnews ranking is very flawed in terms of putting too much weight on the things like Expert Opinion, social mobility, those kinds of the metrics that may not be very important for everybody. Granted, no ranking is perfect which I totally understand.
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Until the 1960ās Northeastern was a local college, primarily commuter, as were Boston University and Boston College. Then it became a regional college with large numbers of students from New York, Connecticut and that perpetual exporter of 18 year olds, New Jersey. The shift to being a national university started in the late 1990ās. BU and BC had done a similar shift a generation earlier. BU and BC had the advantage of not having to deal with the āWhereās that?ā question. The answer is in their names, although there is still some confusion about which is the Catholic one.
Northeastern has certainly received a lot of attention in California recently because of the merger with Mills College. To the anti-merger alumnae of Mills, Northeastern is an evil institution and the merger is a tragedy of global proportions. (I am paraphrasing a Mills alumna profiled at an anti-merger demonstration.) But as some say there is no such thing as bad publicity.
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I attended Northeastern in the 90s from New Jersey. It had an excellent reputation in New England but not really beyond. It has come a long way in rankings*, name recognition, the campus and global expansion. They recently signed a partnership agreement with a South African university. Itās very selective now with over 90,000 applicants last year. The co-op program was ranked #1 in the country in the 2023 US News rankings, which is well-deserved. I had great co-ops even in the 90s, including in Washington, DC and Alaska. My current NU studentās roommates include young men from Wisconsin and Mexico.
(I find the accusations of āgamingā the rankings to be unfair - they played the game)
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Each admissions cycle I wait to see who is the first person to post a link on CC to that old article. The article itself was very positive for Northeastern, once you get beyond the clickbait headline. The only thing Northeastern did was to convince US News to use the 6-year graduation rate instead of the 4-year rate.
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As someone in the Bay Area/central CA, I can say that the Mills college merger has not received a lot of news except for Berkeley folks who though UCB was taking over Mills only to learn they werenāt. Maybe right in Oakland has NU become more known, or in the Mills circles NU is more known. I do think the NU presence might grow in the Bay Area bc of it, but even here, Mills had a very low key presence (partially bc it was all womens school so it only attracted folks interested in that.)
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Anyone know - will applicants applying ED1 be evaluated on any Senior grades or is it only grades through Junior Year?
Deleted.
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With my S21, all of his EA and ED1 schools did ask for a āmid-semester report.ā So they did take a look at his senior year, first-semester grades as of early-ish October. Iām not 100% if Northeastern will do the same, but if itās an important factor for you to know, you may want to ask.
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@Illinoisparent12 is correct. My apologies, @LR72. I have just double-checked with my son. Yes, they did ask for āmid-semester reportā. I am going to delete my initial response to avoid confusions. You may want to double check with the school as well.
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Does anyone know what NEU means when on the Common App when they ask āWould you be interested in joining the inaugural cohort of undergrads who will pursue their degree at NEU Oakland/London?ā The responses are cryptic too, as they ask if youāre āopen to completing degreeā at Oakland/London"?
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The Oakland campus (Mills College) and the London campus (NCH) are owned by Northeastern. It appears that they are asking if you would consider completing your entire degree program there. That is new this year
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My son received this email today in case anyone is considering ED. We arenāt able to do ED, but itās nice that they really work with you to give an accurate picture of cost before you decide to do ED-and there are some perks as explained in the email. The way I look at ED is that they give you the āworst case scenarioā COA as they canāt estimate any possible scholarships. So if you are ok with that NPC number, it MIGHT go lower, but it shouldnāt go up unless something changed in your income or circumstances or something was submitted incorrectly.
Hereās the email:
I am reaching out to encourage you to consider applying through our Early Decision Program if Northeastern is your unequivocal first choice. You have two Early Decision (ED) options to choose from: ED I (November 1 deadline) or ED II (January 1 deadline).
To recognize that Early Decision applicants make a commitment to us, weāre making a commitment to you by offering additional benefits to those considering applying Early Decision and to those who are ultimately admitted through the Early Decision program.
Before Applying Early Decision
- Early Need-Based Financial Aid Reviews: In order to provide you and your family with the ability to make an informed financial commitment before applying Early Decision, we are committed to providing you with an early estimated need-based financial aid review. In order to receive yours, you must submit the following no later than Friday, October 21:
- Early review applicationāāā
- CSS Profile
- Any additional financial aid documents (such as federal tax returns) that may be required by Student Financial Service
*Please note that early reviews for merit scholarships are not possible, as these are tied to the admission review and selection process.
- Application Fee Waiver: A waiver will be offered to students who apply at Early Decision I or II and apply for financial aid.
Once Admitted Early Decision
- Ability to earn credits through NU Accelerate Scholarship: You can launch your Northeastern academic experience before graduating high school through remote, asynchronous coursework offered by the NU Accelerate: Pre-College Programs. Leveraging coursework curated specifically for first-year students, you will be awarded a scholarship to take up to two courses between the Spring and/or Summer terms.
For more details, please visit the Early Decision Benefits page.
All of this adds up to an edge that can accelerate your degree and create added flexibility in your degree programāplus you will be part of the most powerful learning model with Northeasternās more than a century of practice of experiential education. Early Decision applicants make a commitment to Northeastern, which is why we make a commitment to you when you apply to be among the first members of the class!
I look forward to reviewing your application this year.
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