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Undergraduate Admissions Uncensored

Early Decision applicants to make up nearly 60% of Boston University’s Class of 2028

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Those students who are being reviewed Regular Decision for Boston University’s Class of 2028 will receive their admissions decisions on Saturday, March 23, 2024. Such first-year applicants will receive emails when their decisions are available within their BU web accounts on the MyBU Applicant Portal.

The news comes as Boston University also announced that it received 78,634 applications for its Class of 2028, and 6,916 applications of these applications were submitted through BU’s binding Early Decision and Early Decision 2 programs. The ED numbers represent a 0.4% increase over last admissions cycle, and BU expects to enroll approximately 58-60% of its first-year class through ED1 or ED2. BU’s enrollment target for the Class of 2028 is now 3,300 students, which is 155 more than last year. For context, over 80,400 students applied to join BU’s Class of 2027, which was made up of 57% of students accepted through ED1 or ED2 and 43% of students accepted through Regular Decision. BU’s overall admit rate will end up at roughly 10.7% this year.

In total, only 42% of BU applicants during the 2023-2024 admissions cycle indicated an interest in having standardized test scores considered. Meanwhile, enrollment of first-generation, low-income, and students from underrepresented groups continues to be a priority for BU, and applications from first-generation college students made up 25% of BU’s applicant pool. International students contributed 15,469 applications to the mix, and these applicants hail from 167 countries.

Boston University offers 3 summer journalism programs to high school students

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High school students interested in pursuing a career in journalism, writing, communications, or photography, may want to research and apply to the Boston University Summer Journalism Academy, hosted by Boston University College of Communication.

According to Ermolande Jean-Simon, Student Programs Manager Boston University Summer Journalism Academy, for fourteen years, BU’s summer program has educated high school students about critical skills in news reporting, interviewing, and writing through courses taught by award-winning working journalists, including Pulitzer Prize winners Lara Salahi and Rochelle Sharpe. Students interested in visual storytelling also have the opportunity to learn from veteran photojournalist Stephen Haines of The Boston Globe.

Regardless of which program students choose, BU’s summer program challenges high school students to step outside their comfort zone and experience life as a working journalist through one of three course pathways:

  1. an on-campus residential program from June 24 to July 12, 2024 (for students with some journalism experience);
  2. an on-campus photojournalism program from June 24 to July 12, 2024 (for students interested in visual storytelling); or
  3. a two-week learn-from-home program for high school students at all experience levels, starting June 17, July 1, and July 15.

Applications for the on-campus session are due on April 19. Applications for learn-at-home sessions starting June 17, July 1, and July 15 are due on May 10. Students who apply, are accepted, and fully registered by March 8 can save $400 off the full fee for the on-campus academy or $200 off the full fee of the learn-from-home academy.

There are limited need-based scholarships and financial aid available to students; students should email BU for more information. For more information about the Summer Journalism Academy, visit www.summerjournalism.org.

Boston University’s Overall Acceptance Rate Drops to 10.7%

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Boston University (BU) will be notifying Regular Decisions applicants tomorrow, Saturday, March 25, 2023.

According to Kelly A. Walter, BU’s Associate Vice President for Enrollment & Dean of Admissions, “It has been the single most challenging admissions cycle of my career given that we received 80,492 applications for just 3,100 seats in our first-year class…we had to make some extraordinarily difficult decisions about who was admitted to the class.”

BU’s overall acceptance rate during the 2022-2023 admissions cycle fell to just 10.7%. Last year, BU got a similar number of applicants but accepted roughly 14% of them.

Walter added that, “since we have been significantly overenrolled for each of the past two years, it was absolutely critical for us to plan for yet another increase in yield. As a result, we had no choice but to significantly decrease the number of students to whom we offered admission.”

BU’s Early Decision acceptance rate was roughly 25% this cycle.

Boston University shares some 2022-2023 admissions statistics

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Boston University admissions officers are just about as busy this year as they were last year after receiving 80,484 applications during the 2022-2023 admissions cycle. During the 2021-2022 admissions cycle BU received a record-breaking 80,797 applications from prospective first-year students.

Kelly A. Walter, BU’s Associate Vice President for Enrollment & Dean of Admissions shares that BU received 6,866 applications for admission through Early Decision (ED) and Early Decision 2 (ED2) rounds earlier this cycle, which represents an 8.8% increase over last year. BU expects to enroll approximately 57% of its first-year class through these two binding programs.

Meanwhile, in total, 41.2% of BU applicants indicated an interest in having standardized test scores considered, while applications from students from what BU calls “underrepresented groups” (URG) increased 5.6% over last year and represent 21% of the applicant pool. First-generation college students make up 25% of BU’s applicant pool. Enrollment of first-generation, low-income, and “URG” students continues to be a priority for BU.

BU’s urban campus in the heart of Boston, MA, USA.

Resources and mentorship from BU’s Newbury Center, a support-hub for first-generation students, along with its College Access & Student Success Office, work to ensure that students from “underrepresented groups” thrive on campus.

BU, being in Boston, is also popular with international applicants. International students submitted 15,788 applications representing 171 countries during the 2022-2023 admissions cycle.

Overall, BU’s enrollment target for the Class of 2027 is 3,100 students. Admission decisions for Regular Decision applicants to the BU Class of 2027 will be released on Saturday, March 25, and students will be alerts of decision availability via email.

Walter also noted that, “This was an especially exciting year as BU opened our new Center for Computing and Data Sciences – a monumental testament to BU’s commitment to innovation, sustainability and collaboration. Housing the faculty of computing and data sciences, which brings together students and faculty with a shared passion for societal impact, the Center is an icon not only for the BU campus, but also for the city of Boston.” Its structure is 100 percent fossil fuel–free, and it is the most environmentally sustainable, energy-efficient building at BU as well as one of the “greenest” buildings in all of New England.

As total application numbers seem to have plateaued, in advance of a Supreme Court decision many observers believe is likely to limit colleges’ ability to consider students’ race in admissions BU has decided to remain test optional for students applying for the fall 2025 and spring 2026 admissions cycles. This is in contrast to nearby MIT, which has already gone back to being test-required for first-year applicants and has made no indication, at least so far, that it will be switching back to test optional.

Boston University to meet 100% of student need

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Boston University’s Associate Vice President for Enrollment & Dean of Admissions, Kelly A. Walter, has announced that BU has a new, expanded financial assistance program, affordableBU, that will meet 100% demonstrated need of any admitted first-year student who is also a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident.

“We understand that now, more than ever, students and families expect a return on their investment when choosing where to apply to college. BU pledges to deliver that…” continued Walter. BU applicants’ financial need is determined based on both the FAFSA and CSS Profile™. Once BU has determined what a family’s expected contribution is, the university subtract that from the full cost of attendance. The difference, what BU refers to as “calculated need,” will be made up by financial aid.

Many selective colleges and universities meet 100% of demonstrated student need for domestic students (BU is now in this group); however, others don’t. Only a rarified few do for international students as well.

If you are interested in BU, be sure to check out its deadlines for when financial assistance applications are due, for the coming year.

Northeastern University wants to remain a safe space to send your $75 application fee

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Trick or treat? How about both? Late on Friday, October 12 (news dump time), Boston’s Northeastern University, in the person of Elizabeth Cheron, Dean of Admissions, sent high school counselors the following note:

Dear Colleague,

I am reaching out today with an update on Northeastern’s application. In setting up our application for Fall 2019, we added a common format short answer question asking a student to explain more about their most important extracurricular activity; our hope was to give applicants an opportunity to expand beyond the activities section and give our admissions committee a bit more information. Many of you probably recognized this question as being very similar to the old “short answer” question from the Common Application.

It was not our intent for this to be a writing supplement or involve the level of preparation that a writing supplement would require of an applicant. In the past few weeks, we have seen that it was causing unnecessary stress in the application process—as such we have chosen to remove the question from Northeastern‘s member-specific questions. As always, applicants to Northeastern can share more information by utilizing the upload feature in the Application Status Check once they have submitted an application. Please be in touch if you or your students have any questions. You can find the counselor who works with students from your school here.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Cheron
Dean of Admissions
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Northeastern University
northeastern.edu/admissions

First, heaven forbid students applying to a university with an all-in retail price of $70,000/year be asked to put forth, “the level of preparation that a writing supplement would require of an applicant” when applying to Northeastern!

Second, putting on our essay editing/detective hat for a moment, we have to ask, who exactly was suffering from “unnecessary stress in the application process” Dean Cheron?

Does the reaction to answering such a prosaic little question as that which was removed from Northeastern’s application last week say a lot about the typical Northeastern applicant and his or her pain tolerance…or is the current Northeastern applicant being used as a scapegoat in this story?

Maybe the “stress” referred to in the email above refers to the stress of individuals in the Northeastern University admissions office who either didn’t want to read more than they have to or who were seeing such a decline (or diminished growth) in application numbers compared to this time last year that the assembled powers that be stooped so low as to change an application mid season? Come on! We’ve seen a lot of application shenanigans in recent years, but a supplemental short answer question disappearing is just ridiculous!

If only we could call Northeastern a cheap date, which it certainly is acting like by making this 11th hour move, but a $75 application fee is hardly cheap. And, again, have you seen Northeastern’s cost of attendance? This is Northeastern we are talking about.

The university, which has become ever more “selective” in recent years, certainly wants to do nothing to scare away international $tudent$, who make up nearly twenty percent of its entering first-year classes, and other typical Northeastern applicants who are accustomed to having to do nothing other than the bare minimum on the Common App to get in – at least to Northeastern. Many of those same students are more than willing to write 500-word essays to other colleges. But apparently not to Northeastern. Planning carefully ahead is clearly not the strong suit of employees at the top of the Northeastern University admissions office.

Either the best of the rest apply to Northeastern, or someone on the inside at Northeastern is trying to pull a fast one on us. Or both!

Meanwhile, Boston University has had supplemental essay/short answer questions for years. BU is also a wonderful school from which to earn an undergraduate degree. That is all.