Northeastern University saw record-breaking numbers of early action applicants for admission to the class of 2026, followed by the lowest acceptance rate in the school’s history – ranking it at even lower than Harvard’s early action acceptance rate.
Northeastern received over 50,000 applicants for the fall 2022 admissions through its early action application and accepted a mere 3,000, pushing Northeastern’s acceptance rate to just 6%, which is 2% lower than Harvard’s 8% early action acceptance rate. Compared to last year’s admissions cycle, this year’s cycle is much more competitive. For fall 2021 admissions, 38,000 students applied early action and 7,500 were accepted, marking a 20% acceptance rate, which is much less competitive compared to this year’s admissions statistics.
However, this trend is to be expected due to the overall increase in applicants every year to Northeastern. There was a 17% increase in applicants between the fall 2020 and fall 2021 admission cycles, and a 21% increase between the fall 2021 and fall 2022 admissions cycles, with over 90,000 applicants to Northeastern this year. Now, colleges must attempt to predict how many students to accept in order to reach the desired number of enrolled students without over-enrolling. As many Northeastern students already know, the class of 2025 was overenrolled by a large margin, leaving little room for error with this year’s accepted class size; one of the possible reasons for the abnormally low acceptance rate.
Northeastern’s over-enrollment of the class of 2025 is relatively surprising considering the school’s admissions history as a lower-ranked commuter school. However, Northeastern has remarkably transformed itself into a prestigious and desirable university that continues to draw students from across the country and around the world. Northeastern is an up-and-coming school, each year showcasing its impressive co-op program, flexible education, and competitive admissions statistics as reasoning for students to continue applying.
Another helping hand to gaining applicants is the University’s rise in the rankings, specifically the U.S. News and World Report’s “Best National University Rankings” list, in which it currently sits at #49. In 1998, the University was ranked at the #162 spot; the large jump which illustrates Northeastern’s efforts to craft a more selective and high-achieving student body that translates into more prestige for the University itself. As long as Northeastern continues to boost its reputation, it will continue to garner applicant interest and acceptance rates will become even more competitive.