Northeastern’s arc from a commuter school to a highly-sought after university with a global presence has caught eyes across higher education. But what underlies the attention is the record-high demand for admission, with the fall 2025 application cycle soaring over 100,000 undergraduate applicants. And amid historically competitive college applications, more and more students are opting into early decision.
Accepted early decision, or ED, applicants for Northeastern’s Class of 2029 for ED I and II received their acceptances in December and February, respectively. However, ED — an admissions option which allows individuals to apply and hear back early from the institution — requires students to attend if accepted into their most preferred program. Students who were accepted into the university but not into their top program through early decision have the ability to opt out of the otherwise binding agreement.
About 39% — 1,420 out of 3,672 students, per the university’s common data set — of ED applicants were admitted through early decision for the fall 2023 applicants. Northeastern says on its admissions website that ED applicants receive “exclusive review for needs-based financial aid” and access to the NU Accelerate Scholarship, which includes two asynchronous Northeastern courses at no cost prior to matriculation at Northeastern.
Applying via ED has become an increasingly popular option for students applying to Northeastern. Since 2015, the number of early decision applicants has grown by 660%, according to Northeastern Chancellor and Senior Vice President for Learning Ken Henderson’s annual report.
This uptick in early decision applicants has been seen beyond Northeastern. Rod Lembvem, an admissions counselor at IvyWise, a college admissions consulting company, said he has seen an increasing number of high school students opt for early decision.
“I think one of the reasons that more students have been opting for ED is that the college admissions landscape continues to be more and more competitive. I know Northeastern is one of the extreme examples,” Lembvem said of the university’s all-time low acceptance rate of 5.2% of applicants accepted to the Boston campus for fall 2024.
To prospective Northeastern students, applying ED granted them a sense of security in an increasingly competitive college admissions landscape. Northeastern’s test-optional and supplement-free application also make for a less intensive application process than many other universities. This provides a lower barrier for entry, allowing for a less time-intensive application process as compared to other universities.
Catherine Kelly, a Northeastern ED applicant who is currently attending school in Germany, applied to Northeastern London as her first choice and will attend after she graduates high school with her International Baccalaureate diploma.
“I was very, very pleased with my [acceptance],” Kelly said. “I [applied ED] because I thought the school was somewhat of a reach … and I was just over the moon when I was accepted.”
Students accepted into Northeastern have the potential to be placed into several different programs that vary in location and timeframe. Prospective students can be admitted to Northeastern’s flagship Boston campus, Northeastern University Oakland, the London Scholars Program or the university’s N.U.in program. And, as Northeastern works to finalize its merger with Marymount Manhattan College, the university is accepting students for the first time into its new New York City Scholars program for fall 2025.
By admitting students to other campuses, Northeastern is able to enroll more students who can then come to Boston their second semester. For the class of 2028, there were 2,759 first-year undergraduates admitted to the Boston campus, 635 in London, 460 students enrolled in Oakland, 703 students enrolled as Global Scholars and 1,537 students in the N.U.in program.
Aishwarya Hariharan, a high school senior from Randolph, New Jersey, received an acceptance through early decision to Northeastern University’s Oakland campus. While Hariharan ranked Northeastern’s Boston campus as her top choice on her application, she said she was still “overjoyed to be accepted into Northeastern’s prestigious program.”
“My first reaction when I saw … ‘Congratulations on your acceptance,’ … I was like, ‘Okay, well, thank God I got in,’” she said. “Then I read the Oakland part and I got a little nervous because I was worried that it was a soft rejection at first.”
Mia Schoen, a high school senior from San Francisco, will be attending the Boston campus in the fall. She said she plans to major in environmental and sustainability sciences and chose to ED to Northeastern in hopes of improving her chance of being accepted.
“I was jumping around and screaming and [I] went around and ran and told everybody,” Schoen said of reading her acceptance letter. “It was a really good time.”
News staff Eli Curwin contributed reporting.
