Northeastern University (NU) Academics and Admissions

Academics

Founded in 1898, Northeastern University is a private institution located in Boston’s Avenue of the Arts area, close to Fenway Park, and Boston’s South End. Northeastern is most notable for its co-op system, which provides students with sbustantial work experience as part of a five-year program of learning. Most of the 15,000 undergraduates at Northeastern complete at least one co-op experience before graduation, although today, one in six students opts to graduate from the university in four, rather than five, years. Tuition for the five-year co-op program is the same as a four-year program. Approximately 2,300 employers around the world have provided work experience to Northeastern co-op students.

Typical co-op employers include high-tech companies like Google, hospitals and research companies like Bristol-Meyers Squibb, engineering firms, financial institutions including Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley, non-profits and government like the U.S. Department of Justice, cultural organizations, and arts and entertainment companies, which have included Walt Disney World and Turner Entertainment Networks.

Northeastern offers its students 94 academic programs at nine colleges: the College of Arts, Media and Design, the College of Business Administration, the College of Computer and Information Science, the College of Engineering, the College of Health Services, the College of Professional Studies, the College of Health Sciences, the College of Science, the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and the School of Law. Another 169 programs are offered at the graduate school. All of Northeastern’s classrooms have wireless Internet.

Students at Northeastern are encouraged to participate in service learning as part of the university’s partnerships with schools, agencies in Boston, health clinics, and nonprofit organizations. Students engage in hands-on service projects that are embedded into their course work. Northeastern also encourages its students to volunteer in the community outside of their curriculum, and the university’s Center of Community Service partners with more than 225 community-based agencies and programs.

Students hoping to travel abroad can accomplish that through Northeastern’s international cooperative education program, which offers co-op work positions with potential employers that include multinational corporations and international agencies. In 2009-10, Northeastern students traveled to 160 cities in 69 different countries as part of the international co-op program. Traditional study abroad experiences are also available through the Northeastern international study office, which offers 55 programs in 32 countries.

More than 300 freshmen are enrolled each year through the N.U.in Program, a first-year experience that admits students in the fall into one of Northeastern’s partner institutions overseas, later transitioning them to the Boston campus in the spring semester.

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Information Summary

Ranks 8th in Massachusetts and 62nd overall. See the entire top 2,000 colleges and universities list
Overall Score (about)	96.4
Total Cost On-Campus Attendance	$70,592
Admission Success rate	N/A
ACT / SAT 75%ile scores	34 / 1540
Student Ratio Students-to-Faculty	16 : 1
Retention (full-time / part-time)	97% / N/A
Enrollment Total (all students)	21,627

Admissions

Northeastern University is considered a more selective institution, accepting 41 percent of regular decision applicants and 53 percent of early action applicants. Early action applications usually must be in by November, and regular decision applications are usually due in January. Transfer students can apply on a rolling basis, but are not accepted into the nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, or health sciences programs.

Northeastern provides approximately 53 percent of its undergraduates with need-based financial aid, and the average scholarship or grant is $14,000.

If you’re considering a visit to the Northeastern campus, the university provides plenty of options. One-hour tours are conducted every half-hour by student “Husky Ambassadors” daily. A more intensive two-hour tour of Northeastern, which includes a walking tour and a presentation by an admissions counselor, are also offered daily from 9:30 a.m.to 1:30 p.m. and most Saturdays. You can also book a three-hour extended campus visit, which includes an admissions presentation, and a tour that visits all of Northeastern’s academic buildings, the Curry Student Center, first-year and upper-class residence halls, and the new International Village, a residential complex that houses more than 1,000 undergraduates.

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Financial Aid

It’s important to know that students enrolled in the Northeastern co-op program are not charged tuition while on co-op, but are charged for university housing if they live on campus during their co-op period. Because students enrolled in the co-op program are usually working alternative semesters, tuition is the same for the five-year program as it would be for a four-year program.

Like many U.S. universities, Northeastern offers National Merit and National Achievement Scholarship to incoming freshman who are National Merit or National Achievement scholars. Northeastern also awards its highly competitive Trustee Scholarships, which provide full tuition, room and board, to high achieving applicants who demonstrate extraordinary accomplishments and are usually in the top one percent of the applicant pool. Achievement, Excellence and Dean’s Scholarships range from $5,000 to $20,000 in the first year, and are awarded based on merit to the top 25 percent of admitted freshmen.

Northeastern’s Torch Scholars Program awards scholarships to students, nominated by educators, who have overcome exceptional odds and demonstrate a potential to excel in academics. Before freshman year, students Torch Scholars participate in a Summer Immersion Program. The university also awards full-tuition Boston Public High School Scholarships to students who have graduated from a Boston public high school in the top 10 percent of their high school class and demonstrated academic and personal achievement.

Student Financial Aid Details

Ranks 3545th for the average student loan amount.
Secrets to getting the best scholarships and financial aid in Massachusetts.

Students

Besides being located in one of the best college cities in the U.S., Northeastern offers its students a grassy, green 73-acre campus that feels like a city within the city. There are 40 academic and administrative buildings on this large campus and 37 residential housing facilities.

Freshmen at Northeastern are guaranteed housing for their first three years. Freshman housing includes 10 coed residence halls and a number of Living Learning Communities, where students are housed with others who share similar interests. You can live with fellow business students, engineering students, female engineering students, honors students, pre-med students, criminal justice students, and others.

Other universities might cringe at this, but Northeastern offers its upper-class students the option of choosing “gender-neutral housing,” which gives students the choice to live with another person of a different gender. The housing units are two single bedrooms with a shared bathroom.

If you’re interested in clubs, Northeastern offers more than 260 clubs and organizations, and more than 5,000 students participate. Programs and services also are held at the university’s International Student & Scholar Institute, African American Institute, Latino/a Student Cultural Center, Asian American Center, and other organizations that reflect the cultural and international diversity at Northeastern.

The Northeastern campus has three dining halls and more than 100 vendors that give students plenty of dining variety, including pizza, stir-fry, salads and more. One dining hall has a kitchen where guest chefs teach students how to create their own meals.

Other facilities on the Northeastern campus include the Marino Recreation Center, a three-story fitness center and gathering place equipped with stairclimbers, treadmills, exercise bikes, ellipticals, and a simulated climbing wall. You can sign up for aerobics classes in the exercise studio, lift weights in the training area, or play basketball or volleyball on one of the facility’s three courts. There are also two cafés, a grocery store and ATMs at the recreation center.

Northeastern offers student services including health services, health insurance and tutoring. The school also offers campus safety and security including 24-hour foot and vehicle patrols, late night transportation services, 24-hour emergency telephones, lighted pathways and sidewalks, and controlled key card dormitory access. Northeastern allows students of legal age to have alcohol on the campus.

Northeastern has a number of key stops on the Boston public transportation system, also known as the MBTA, making it easy for students to travel from one end of the campus or to all parts of the city of Boston. The Green Line stops in front of the Marino Center, and the Orange Line stops behind the Snell Library. Students heading out of state can even catch the MBTA from the campus to commuter rail lines.

Student Enrollment Demographics

Student Graduation Demographics

Athletics

Northeastern, home of the Huskies, has more than 19 varsity teams in the NCAA, and more than 40 club sports teams. Varsity sports include baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, men’s and women’s golf, soccer, softball, table tennis, track and field, indoor and outdoor track, men’s and women’s volleyball, and wrestling. Because of poor attendance, the Northeastern football program was ended by the university trustees in 2008.

The Northeastern Crew team often ranks among the top 10 teams in the nation. In the 2008 National Championship, the team made the Grand Finals and placed fourth, beating Princeton University, Brown University, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Northeastern’s club sports include judo, rugby, squash, lacrosse, and ultimate frisbee. In 2005 the women’s rugby team finished third in the nation in Division II, and the men’s rugby team won the largest annual tournament in the United States. In 2008-2009, the Northeastern club field hockey and women’s basketball teams won their National Championships. And in May 2010, the club baseball team defeated Penn State to win the National Club Baseball Association’s Division II World Series, and the national championship.

Bibliography

College Admissions – SAT – University & College Search Tool. The College Board. Web. 12 Apr. 2011.

Northeastern University: a Leader in Global Experiential Learning in Boston, MA. Northeastern University. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.

Northeastern University. Test Prep: GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, and More. The Princeton Review. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.

Northeastern University