Northeastern was undoubtedly the best school that I got accepted to. Boston had always been a dream for me ever since I was young. It was just one visit with my parents that made me see the beauty of this admittedly great city.

Here I am now in Boston, a cold, cold, city this year; wrought with construction and rats. Don’t get me wrong, this is what makes me feel at home. I’m a New Yorker and I’ve had my share of sewer rats cross my path and, trust me, Boston rats don’t have anything on New York sewer rats. But, I digress. Northeastern was a reach school for me and it was by chance that I got accepted. So now I’m here and you are no doubt waiting for me to get to the point.

I’m sure that most of you out there didn’t know that Northeastern has one of the worst retention rates of students across the nation. The administration and President Freeland don’t seem to understand why this is so. Well then let me present to you an idea.

When applying to NU I wanted to be a graphic design major. Now for other schools I applied to I had to submit a portfolio for review. Eventually, I found out that Northeastern has the same policy, yeah about two days before the deadline. So I told the nice guy on the phone to put me in computer science and low and behold I got accepted.

After my winter quarter of computer science, I dropped it like a bad habit. So I wanted to pursue graphic design again. First sentence I received from my advisor was that it would be nearly impossible for me to enter the major because they accepted too many students the previous year. OK, understandable, however, they put me on the slow track to petition to be in the major. Whoa now, I’m giving NU thirty some-odd thousand dollars so that I can pursue an education in an area that I am interested in. Yet, I have to plea before a collection of individuals that I was worthy of the major. OK fine, I like competition.

My first requirement: Obtain a 3.0 QPA. OK well that’s a work in progress. (Did I fail to mention that while a 3.0 QPA is necessary to petition to be in the major, only a minimum of a 2.25 QPA is needed to remain in the major?) Next: Four Art Classes, a grade of B+ or better. So now they have me taking classes, which I want to take and would need to take as prerequisites to following art classes, but I can’t be in my major because there is no room for me in the classes. Makes sense …

So here I am sitting in Kariotis taking a class that was previously blocked from my registration simply because I am an undecided sophomore. Outside my window is all the construction for the new dorms NU is putting up. Now it all becomes clear. Rather than using my money to enhance and build on education, NU would instead accept more students so they can offset the balance of those who withdraw from the university.

You honestly cannot tell me that the school doesn’t know what is going on. It is the bureaucracy that upholds NU as a place for success, which is in fact bringing down the overall quality of education. Thus, turning students away who simply want to pay money, put in the time, and learn about what they want to do with the rest of their lives.

The only piece of advice that I have gotten so far from my college advisor was that I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Well an answer to her statement, I’ve known what I want to do with my life and I try my hardest to achieve my goals, but something just keeps getting in my way. Northeastern.

– Chris Montfort is a sophomore undecided major.