How Did Northeastern Get So Hard to Get Into?
Even though I've been a college advisor for 21+ years, I admit that I still have a hard time understanding how things got so topsy turvy.
It's rare for a week to go by without a parent commenting to me, "When did things get so complicated?"
College costs are out of hand. And college admissions are kah-ray-zee!
There's no rhyme or reason. Yesterday's "Safety Schools" are today's Impossible Dreams.
Case in point: Northeastern University.
When I was a wee lad growing up in the 1980's in the Boston suburbs, Northeastern admitted 90% of its applicants. I hate to say it but here I go:
That's where you went if you couldn't get into any other college!
Last year: 6.7% acceptance rate.
You read that right, it wasn't a typo. How did this happen?
In a word, "marketing." Northeastern gamed the system, specifically US News and World Report, to rush the charts and become highly ranked.
They didn't invent this reverse engineering of rank strategy. Northeastern pulled a page out of the playbook of John Silber, president of Boston University, who oversaw BU's transformation from a crappy urban, local college to a super-expensive, highly desirable private college in the 1970s and 80's.
Plenty of other colleges use the same playbook -- using tactics such as hiring high profile professors, building attractive amenities and offering merit scholarships to affluent families -- to attract applications, students and an aura of exclusivity.
What does it take to get into -- and pay for -- a decent college today? How can my kid get into a great college that we can afford, you ask? (Did you ask?)
We'll answer those questions tonight on a new, free webinar, The New Rules of College Admissions and Financial Aid.
Here are some of the topics we'll cover:
- How six figure-earning families can ā€‹qualify for tuition discounts of 56.2% even If their child did not crush the SAT, bribe a proctor or cure a pandemic over the summer
- The strange reason an expensive private college can cost LESS than a “cheaper” state university
- How ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence will affect college admissions for our college-bound teens
- The inconvenient truth about what admissions officers at competitive and elite colleges REALLY want to see beyond GPA and SAT/ACT scores (hint: it’s not on Naviance, nor is it membership in 25 clubs or a three day service trip/teen tour to a Third World country)
- The 529: “Friend” or “Foe?”
- Negotiation Secrets: How a mild-mannered college advisor helped his client into a “windfall” of an ā€‹additional $30,022 from an elite college AFTER its “final,” stingy award
- The closely-guarded truth about test-optional policies
- Financial aid rules' "tectonic" changes for families with siblings in college, business owners, divorced families
More, especially your questions. Pearl and I will be live in chat.
Please forward this invitation to anyone who needs it :)
- Andy "On The Air" Lockwood
P.S. Here are some other ways we can help you:
