I am from the Boston area, and have lived here my entire life. When I visited Northeastern I fell in love with it, along with its phenomenal co-op program. I have visited several other schools and have pretty much decided if I get an acceptance letter from Northeastern I would go there. My family is able to afford it to a good extent, letting me graduate with some loans but nothing excruciating. My question is this, would applying Early Decision really boost my chances at admission? I am not interested in the “NU in” program and would like to be accepted to the business school. I am worried as I know NEU is rising in the ranks lately, and becoming more competitive. Would Early Decision help me out? My stats are below.
I am currently a junior, with a 3.5 UW GPA, which is about 4.00 Weighted. I have taken all honors classes and AP classes, which is one of the most rigorous schedules at my school. I am taking the SAT in June, hoping to get my score up to the 2050-2100 range. Currently I sit at a 1930, took it once, got 750M, 630CR, 550W. I didn’t study at all for writing prior to taking it, and on all recent tests have been getting approximately 650 on writing as well as 650-690 on CR. I have pretty good extracurriculars as well, including several leadership positions in clubs.
You need to look at the Common Data Set for the colleges you want and look at the data. Google it with the name of the colllege. It will absolutely increase your chances of getting in but that may or may not be enough depending on whether your score is in range. The only downside is if they reject you outright and then the January applicants are not strong but that is not the trend. You have to be sure you can afford it and you really want to go since you are committed
This is from Fall 2013 (http://www.northeastern.edu/oir/pdfs/CDS%202013-14.pdf) but the basic point still is there. It says level of applicant’s interest is considered but your stats still need to be strong. Get the SAT up.
@onmyownway, you’re on the right track if you can bump up that SAT score.
Northeastern has never been transparent about their early admission rates, and the early decision option was only introduced this past year, so it’s hard to quantify exactly how much of a difference it can make. Generally speaking, early decision will provide admission advantage for a competitive applicant because you’re raising your hand up and telling the school you’re committed to going if accepted. This article should help explain things a bit better:
Applying early decision to Northeastern makes a lot of sense if:
(1) you’re absolutely certain that you’d attend if you were accepted
(2) your academic profile is very competitive relative to last year’s entering students
(3) you don’t have to shop around for financial aid packages
You’re good on (1) and (3) but still need a lot of work on (2), since the mid-50th percentile of entering students from the Class of 2018 scored between 2020-2190 and you’re currently at 1930. The closer you can get to the upper end of the range, the more competitive you’ll be. Here’s the Northeastern admissions profile data (http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/application-information/academic-profile/).
@cbound88 Thank you very much! I am very confident I will be in the 2080ish range at WORST, when I take the SAT again. Assuming I get a 2080, would you consider that “competitive”. Also, I go to one of the best high schools in Massachusetts and take one of the most rigorous schedules with quite good grades, does that make up for my lack of being near a 2200?
Your standardized test score is used as a uniform comparison with all of the other applicants. Therefore, regardless of your high school’s rigorousness or “eliteness”, your low SAT will hurt more than it would benefit. As long as you are above the 75% of the submitted SAT score, I would focus on other aspects of the application.
@viphan True, however, just because my writing and critical reading scores are not “elite”, does not mean I am very good at Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Math. Or am I missing something?
You are right, they are not necessarily correlated. However, generally speaking, students with top GPAs tend to be in the top percentile of the standardized test scores.
@viphan I know 2100 isn’t going to assure her admission, but in general it’s more than respectable and calling it low isn’t fair. I believe (but I could be wrong) it’s around the 70th percentile for NU. Obviously, the higher the better.
@onmyownway It’s hard to find early admission stats for Northeastern, but on the Niche website under student tips it says to apply early. That’s pretty loose help, but it’s something.
@Pheebers That’s why I was leaning toward Early Decision itself. If I were to have an acceptance letter from and ivy as well as NU I would pick NU due to their Co-op program as well as how much I felt like I could “fit in” around the campus.
A 2080 is certainly better than a 1930 but it’s about the average for the entering class, so it’s respectable but not strongly competitive. Best to keep moving that score towards the 75th percentile
Regarding academic rigor vs. test score, the best way to get a feel for this is to check out the Naviance scattergram for Northeastern for your school. You’ll be able to to see (anonymously) the GPA and test score combinations for everyone who applied and got admitted. It’ll give you a sense for what mix of test scores and GPA converted to acceptances at your particular high school. It also can give you a sense for how Northeastern accounts for your school and academic rigor.
