The estimated cost of attendance for the 2024-25 school year at Northeastern University’s Boston campus includes tuition, fees, housing, meal plan and “estimated indirect costs.” All of that comes out to a whopping $90,250 — more than double the average cost of tuition and fees for private colleges in the U.S., according to U.S. News. 

Northeastern advertises a range of student life experiences to get potential students hooked, but things don’t always shape up to be what they seem. 

First of all, housing. College tour guides proudly lead students through Stetson East, showcasing residence halls in decent condition and close proximity to multiple dining locations, large common rooms and small study spaces, even a pool table, talking up the convenience of the facilities, seeking both parent and student approval. 

It’s normal for tours to only show the best, but it can still result in frustration.

Not all residence halls look like Stetson East. Many are in worse condition or are more inconvenient, and are glossed over during information sessions. For example, 60 Belvidere St., or the Sheraton Boston Hotel, now partially owned by Northeastern, is farther away from campus than other residence halls.  Many incoming students can go in with the expectation that they’ll be housed in a residence hall like they were shown on their campus tour, but then can get placed in a building with fewer amenities, less upkeep and a further distance from the rest of campus. 

Plus, many of the residence halls continue to become forced doubles and triples, with students paying more and more every year for what continues to devolve into less and less space. 

For students who choose All Gender Housing, options are even more limited. “Placement in All Gender Housing is subject to availability, and no student is guaranteed All Gender Housing,” the university’s policy reads. Students who need all-gender housing — whether it is for comfort, safety or both — can be denied a spot because there simply aren’t enough All Gender Housing options available.

Then there’s the issue of dining halls, where availability — whether of time or food options — is not a strong suit. Meal swipes, the system on which Northeastern’s meal plans operate, are only taken at Social House, The Eatery, Outtakes and United Table at International Village, or IV.

The Eatery opens at 7 a.m. on weekdays — the earliest option of the four dining halls. IV doesn’t open until 8 a.m. Getting breakfast on time for students with 8 a.m. classes can be a near-impossible task, especially if the dining hall gets overcrowded. 

As a result, students on the meal plans usually have to spend even more money to keep breakfast options in their residence halls on those days of early classes or have to skip breakfast altogether. 

Most first-year residence halls don’t have kitchens, so students housed there are forced onto a dining plan. Having to plan a schedule more around dining hall hours rather than fitting meals into your schedule can be highly frustrating. 

The dining halls can be difficult to navigate for people with allergies or food restrictions. While there are “allergy-friendly” stations, they’re not quite allergy-free, which can be a problem for many students, including myself. Northeastern’s online dining hall guide, “What’s on the Menu,” can be useful, but for many items, clicking on “nutritional info” doesn’t provide a specific list of ingredients either. There’s no way to know if the allergy labels are entirely trustworthy or if cross-contamination happens accidentally.

Next, all undergraduate students have to pay a Campus Recreation Fee of $62 per in-school full semester. This fee covers admission to home athletic events, the Marino Recreation Center, SquashBusters (which I had never heard of before now), the Cabot Center and the Barletta Natatorium — which most students don’t even know exists — as well as “supporting the future construction of athletic fields and facilities.”

Except, most of the “future construction” is set to be finished after you graduate. Not all students will use these facilities, built or unbuilt, and Marino is known amongst students for being chronically overfilled at nearly all hours of the day.

Marino isn’t the only place known for being overcrowded. Snell Library also has this issue, and the renovations that seemed like they’d never end had put at least one floor out of commission since the year began. Now, all floors are open, but the renovations are still continuing. It can be nearly impossible to find a seat in Snell, especially one with an outlet. And somehow, the elevator inspections still haven’t been updated since their expiration in May 2023.

The university also charges an additional Student Activity Fee of $174 to support student clubs — clubs that not all students will participate in. For the 2023-24 academic year, that fee was $163; the year before that, only $148.

So why do fees keep climbing? Inflation may be one factor, but as we’re seeing Northeastern’s rapid expansion, buying more colleges and building new campuses instead of paying attention to its existing campuses, it feels like we’re funding that expansion more than we’re funding our own lives here.

That being said, there are still many wonderful services that are provided. We have access to a variety of informational sources and databases, support resources like the LGBTQA+ Resource Center, a range of clubs and the Northeastern University Student Health Plan.

But still, not all our wallets are as big as Northeastern seems to think they are. This so-called “art of living” feels overhyped and falsely advertised. 

Either we need more, or it needs to cost less. 

Antaine Anhalt is a first-year communication studies major. He can be reached at [email protected].