<p>I remember looking up the alumni giving rates last year in USNews at Borders because there was a special appeal to alumni for donations as this is one factor the USNews rankings looked at. Northeastern was 10% and BU was essentially the same: 9, 10, 11%, I forget. Neither school’s rate was very impressive. On the other hand BC was in the mid-twenties I believe.</p>
<p>Here is the problem with NEU.
It is very young it comparison to a lot of other universities on the list.
Yes, BU is ranked higher, however BU has both a fantastic med school and an even better law school.
Not to mention their graduate programs are some of the best and the school is much more established allowing higher endowment. </p>
<p>Northeastern needs to do a few things to move up.</p>
<ol>
<li>Lower admissions even more to maybe 38% :this allows the university to claim lower ratio,higher med/law/graduate rates and less of a reputation as a back-up school.Not to mention improve quality of life.</li>
</ol>
<p>2.Build better graduate programs- The truth is that NEU doesn’t have a stand out graduate level program. The reason schools like BU,NYU,Penn State, Illinois and even Purdue is ranked much higher is their fantastic research they pump out. Case-example is Carnegie Mellon. Their CompSci,Business and Engineering is so strong, they are ranked 23. NEU doesn’t attract all-star professors and grad students because of this. Simply as that. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Consider a Med School. It could only help.</p></li>
<li><p>Keep building. Don’t put plans on hold. Don’t say we could do without. A big reason the university has jumped so high is because things like Marino,IV,the West Villages, as well as the new engineering center. If you run out of room, don’t be afraid to expand into the city.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The USNews rankings claim to measure undergraduate programs but you are correct, the peer assessment (15%) is influenced by the overall university, including graduate programs. The acceptance rate for 2010 is 38% BTW.</p>
<p>Highly ranked grad programs are not a requirement to rise high in the rankings though. Boston College is ranked 31 and its grad programs, except for Law, are not exceptionally well known. If Northeastern can raise its freshman retention rate and graduation rate (which is still impacted by the 5 year programs), the university could easily rise into the 40’s.</p>
<p>Again, the graduation rate done by USNews is six years, so a five year program doesn’t affect it. Our retention rate isn’t that great though.</p>
<p>I agree with above that grad programs help attract professors, but they aren’t huge for the undergraduate rankings because of schools like BC. BU is definitely NOT just higher because it has a med school and a law school. </p>
<p>Lower admission rates? As in have less students, aka less tuition? You haven’t even started classes yet. How in the world could you be certain that less students means more resources? And Northeastern’s claim to fame is our career services, and we have an amazing post-graduation job rate. We don’t need less students.</p>
<p>No offense, but “Consider a Med School”? There are four medicial schools in the entire state. Northeastern is surrounded by hospitals that are already attached to medical schools, including BU’s and Harvard’s med schools right down the street. Not to mention the fact that it’d be near impossible for Northeastern to come up with the funds for faculty, staff, land, construction, permits, administration… We’ve already made it clear we aren’t rolling in the dough. It’s not like they just create entire schools and colleges out of thin air in order to bump the rankings some. </p>
<p>Are you aware of what an economic crisis is? Just because the administration wants to build something doesn’t mean they can afford to. We, just like everyone else, took a hit on donations in the past few years. We had to put hold on WVK because of it, and I haven’t heard anything about starting up building for it anytime soon. And expand into the city? What, like we own the place? You aren’t even a student yet, so you have no idea how hard Northeastern tries to work with the neighborhoods around us. We get in a lot of trouble for having so many students in Roxbury and Mission Hill, and a lot of the universities in the area have been hit by fines because we are all way over our student body numbers that the city of Boston approved. Plus when IV was built Roxbury threw a fit. I remember all of the tour guides talking about how the residents were really angry that we were just dumping a thousand students into their land. You can’t just build and expand whenever you want. We are an urban school, so we have to work within the limits of the city. We don’t have the luxury of just buying up the farm next door. And ask any student and they’ll tell you they’d rather be in the city and not get another dorm built than be in the middle of nowhere like massive schools like UF and UConn are.</p>
<p>I am pretty sure BU is ranked higher because of it’s grad programs ,med and law school. These not help endowment, but also reputation which helps a lot. BU is in the news a lot for medical discoveries. 22.5% of score is based on UG program reputation.Which is most likely based off graduate. For example everyone knows UCal has a fantastic physics program because they run two national labs,not because their Physics 101 class is better then any other university. </p>
<p>undergraduate program and improved their graduate programs. Go down the list. With the exception of Boston College, nearly ever</p>
<p>neuchimie: At traditional 4 year schools, the 6 year grad stat gives students a 2 year “grace period” to finish their degrees. At Northeastern it is only a one year grace period for 5 year studentsand no grace period for pharm, arch and PT. The difference might not be large but the grad rate would be a bit higher with that extra year. </p>
<p>They also really need to work on freshman retention, although at 91% it is equal to BU.</p>
<p>Really? 91%? I once heard it was in the 70s, but I might be thinking of the rate of people that apply to transfer schools (but don’t always end up going there). Either way, yeah, it’s low.</p>
<p>Off-topic, but the concept of West Village K arouses my curiosity. A simple google search yielded little beyond a small mention that development was stalled because of the economy on Wikipedia. Do you have any other info to offer regarding its purpose?</p>
<p>West Village K or Building K is actually to be the first building in what will eventually be an East Village. It will be built on the site of Cullinane Hall on the east end of the campus. As planned, it will be a 20 story residence hall housing 600 students. It has already been approved by the City of Boston and is awaiting improvement in the lending market to go ahead. The city is putting pressure on Northeastern to build in order to move students out of the neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Yeah we already have the land (I’m nearly certain), it’s just a matter of the funds to build it.</p>
<p>Is it reasonable to expect that one day there will be a Sky Village, haha? That’s pretty cool. Interestingly to see how fast Northeastern is growing this past decade and into the future. Maybe one year I’ll get to live in East Village. :3</p>
<p>Also off topic, but are there only two duplex rooms on campus? :3</p>
<p>Sky Village, don’t laugh! Northeastern has been negotiating with the state to obtain “air rights” to build over the T Orange Line tracks for over a decade. The state has been cool to the idea but in the future, who knows. </p>
<p>The rest of East Village will be built on the site of the sprawling Gainsborough Street Garage that Northeastern bought a few years ago and on the side parking lot by the Matthews Arena. It will likely be a mix of academic and residential buildings or mixed use buildings.</p>
<p>Really, haha? Is that the big station that cuts through the south part of campus?</p>
<p>Sketch of Building K:
[Northeastern</a> Voice Online – Public process begins on new residence hall](<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/voice/evoice/080918/residence_hall.html]Northeastern”>http://www.northeastern.edu/voice/evoice/080918/residence_hall.html)</p>
<p>The air rights would be over the tracks on the east side of campus.</p>
<p>As for duplexes, not there are not only two. There are 8 in WVF with 6 or 5 people each, for example. Not sure if there are any other dorms with them, and if so, how many. They obviously are rare, but not just one or two.</p>
<p>Oh, that’s good to hear. Maybe I’ll be lucky and get one. </p>
<p>Apologies for derailing your discussion to much. I’ll duck out now. :P</p>