Should I apply Early Action?

I visited Northeastern and I fell in love with it. I would most likely accept if I got an admission letter. However financial aid is a huge part for my family so we do not want to do early decision. Early action would work but I don’t know if it will be beneficial since they will not see my senior year grades and this is the year I have the most AP courses and I will probably have all As. Wouldn’t this put me at a disadvantage because then my GPA will be lower? And does applying early action give you an advantage in the sense that you are showing demonstrated interest or is that only in Early Decision.

My weighted GPA without first semester senior year grades: 4.28

My estimated weighted GPA with first semester senior year grades: 4.42

Unweighted: 4.0

There is no reason not to apply early action. You have a very good GPA right now that won’t be a barrier to admissions. Good luck!

My daughter is a freshman Business Major at Northeastern. She took 7 APs during high school. The last four were second semester of her senior year, last spring, after already being accepted to Northeastern. She applied Early Action and got into NU with a 4.2 weighted GPA and a 34 on the ACT. She got a $12,000 per year Dean’s Scholarship. She really wanted to apply Early Decision, but my husband said no. I don’t know if she would have gotten the merit aid if she had done ED.

She was able to transfer all 7 APs for college credit and has managed to eliminate almost an entire semester of classes. (She got 4s on all of the AP exams except for a 5 on the AP Psych exam).

Another thing she did, which kills two birds with one stone because it shows interest and helps financially, is to create a raise.me account and list NU as one of her schools. She filled out their raise.me form and earned at least $17,000 in merit aid if she was accepted, and she was. The scholarship she got included this raise.me money, was not in addition to it. That might have helped them offer her a merit scholarship because raise.me kicks in some of the money. I don’t know all of the finances behind it, but it was great!

When considering finances, consider that transferring AP credits will bring down costs if it erases a semester of classes. Also consider that co-ops are paid the large majority of the time. On the tour, the tour guide said the average co-op pays $20 per hour, and if you’re doing that full-time for 6 months, that’s a good chunk of change.

Good luck!

Also, while on co-op, you don’t pay tuition, and you can live wherever you want. We are local, so if she gets a co-op in Boston, she can live at my sister’s apartment for free.