Watching the large groups of parents and prospective new students tour campus, it’s interesting to note the newfound level of prestige Northeastern has achieved. It seems that each week, there is a new partnership or climbing statistic to announce.

On Jan. 27, The News published an article about the 15 percent surge of applicants to Northeastern this year (43,000 applications), pushing us above other high-ranking institutions such as Boston University and New York University in the number of applications accepted.

The students accepted each year to Northeastern are progressively more qualified than the last. The number of students scoring over a 1400 on the SAT jumped by 37 percent.

Today, The News published an article about The Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy at Northeastern University and the Bouvé College of Health Sciences being selected to help lead a national health care research initiative.

The increasing prominence of Northeastern is a great thing for students – current and future. It makes us look good when we apply for jobs and get out into the real world. But while our reputation is climbing, there are problems this doesn’t fix. At such a large school, many students still feel lost in the shuffle with no real sense of community.

On Feb. 17, The News published an article about a new requirement, beginning with the incoming freshman class that until after sophomore year, students must live on campus. Part of the reason for this is to increase the sense of community, and maybe this will work, but there are still other obstacles standing in the way.

We have dorms that are fully equipped apartments, but no need to go and say hi to the people next door. We can go an entire semester without ever meeting anyone else on our floor.

We get great co-ops but lose our friends and social lives because we’re working 9 to 5 for six months.
Northeastern has a huge community but still can’t compete with the bustling city of Boston that students prefer over on-campus events.

Northeastern grooms us for the professional world long before our senior year, but we lose something in the unity of our campus in the process. Students have one foot in the classroom and one out the door, ready to walk into the office of a t-shirt company or some other entrepreneurial venture.

From the outside, Northeastern looks ideal, but is it an illusion of grandeur?