Northeastern University Fall 2015

[onedayslp]

Just saw on the portal that I was accepted! Yay!

Has anyone heard about funding or know how the process works there? 

[phaedra]

Just saw on the portal that I was accepted! Yay!

Has anyone heard about funding or know how the process works there?

When I asked over email, Dr. O'Neil said funding decisions would start late March/early April and continue throughout the summer. However, when I visited at the open house last weekend, she basically said that they only give funding to people once they have committed to going there. So, perhaps if you accept the offer by late March, you could hear as early as then. One of the grad students there said she heard in the summer that she would receive a scholarship. Dr. O'Neil said they don't want to give scholarships to people who will end up turning down the offer since that money is "wasted" (I think this philosophy is a little silly, as you could just redistribute the money). She said that Northeastern is not unusual in this and a lot of grad programs do it this way (which I personally haven't found that to be the case at least for the schools I applied to). She also stressed that they spread the money around by giving small amounts of money to a larger amount of people (maybe 25% of the class? I don't remember), rather than large amounts to only a few people.

This is for the departmental scholarships. I think it may be possible to hear about a scholarship from the general graduate school (I know there are some available) before committing, though I don't know for sure. However, I basically have crossed Northeastern off my list, because while I think it is a great program, I've gotten funding elsewhere, so I don't think it would make much sense to take a gamble on it.

Anyone else who was at the open house, please chime in if I've made an error, I was a little confused by it all!

Edited March 19, 2015 by phaedra

[onedayslp]

Thanks for that info! It's so frustrating that these schools expect us to make decisions without hearing about funding first. It seems like my schools are split on this issue--all the other Boston schools have notified about funding already. Then I have a couple acceptances at places where I need to send my deposit in first. Definitely makes the decision process more confusing.

[Lyra1960]

When I asked over email, Dr. O'Neil said funding decisions would start late March/early April and continue throughout the summer. However, when I visited at the open house last weekend, she basically said that they only give funding to people once they have committed to going there. So, perhaps if you accept the offer by late March, you could hear as early as then. One of the grad students there said she heard in the summer that she would receive a scholarship. Dr. O'Neil said they don't want to give scholarships to people who will end up turning down the offer since that money is "wasted" (I think this philosophy is a little silly, as you could just redistribute the money). She said that Northeastern is not unusual in this and a lot of grad programs do it this way (which I personally haven't found that to be the case at least for the schools I applied to). She also stressed that they spread the money around by giving small amounts of money to a larger amount of people (maybe 25% of the class? I don't remember), rather than large amounts to only a few people.

This is for the departmental scholarships. I think it may be possible to hear about a scholarship from the general graduate school (I know there are some available) before committing, though I don't know for sure. However, I basically have crossed Northeastern off my list, because while I think it is a great program, I've gotten funding elsewhere, so I don't think it would make much sense to take a gamble on it.

Anyone else who was at the open house, please chime in if I've made an error, I was a little confused by it all!

 

 

I was also at the open house and totally agree. Basically, my interpretation was that funding is very limited and will only be given out after the deadline for acceptance. It's basically merit based scholarships (around the top 25-30 percent can expect something), but they are given in credits. For example, they will wave five credits of tuition, so you don't have to pay for those credits. It sounds like even if you are the candidate with the highest scores/gres this is the best you can expect from the SLP department itself (don't know about other sources). As said above, she said they like spread the money around as opposed to giving a large sum to a few individuals, so I think if you are hoping for a complete or even significant scholarship, this is not the school for you. There are GA positions, but, as I understand, at Northeastern's SLP program, they do not give a tuition waiver and stipend as most do, ONLY a stipend. (She said something like SGA positions give tuition remission, but the department does not offer them.) As for only letting know students in the summer, I think this is actually pretty common, but some other schools certainly do a lot better with telling there students before the deadline. It is true though that many schools only let their departments know their budgets in the summer, so many don't like to commit before then. I had one school offer me a medium size scholarship and say there was a possibility of full tuition remission but they could not say for certain. 

 

My general impressions went like this:

 

Pro: 

-UMMM  it's in BOSTON

-Building and Clinic are nice (though small clinician room)

-overall nice atmosphere 

- relatively well know school with lower mid level ranking slp program (if you care about that stuff)

- buddy system, paired with a second year student mentor, seems like a great idea to me!

 

Cons:

-Tuition, it's very high with not good prospects for funding   

-You need a car IN BOSTON ugh

-application process: I got my admission very early, but some still haven't found out! they were very unapologetic about this and said it was basically random. I got lucky, but how can students plan to attend an open house when they don't even know they were admitted. I wouldn't. It just seems both lazy and insensitive on the department's part to me.   

-Cons for me (but not necessarily for others):

              -not very research based (only about 10% of students complete a thesis- and since tuition is by credit, you might have                   to pay more to complete a thesis)

              - a lot of adjunct teaching, she tried to view this as a positive aspect, saying that this way teachers were currently                           practicing, but for me it's negative

              - somewhat larger program from an SLP perspective 

              -only 20 hours of onsite clinic time before being sent offsite, (pretty sure most schools do a lot more onsite first)

 

To sum up: I think if you can afford it, it's seems like a solid program in a nice area. Can totally see who you could have a BLAST while getting a really solid education. For me, however, the cost of living and tuition with little prospect of really significant funding combined with it's lack of research cause me to cross it off my list. So glad I visited though, I can see how it could be a great choice for someone if its the right fit.

 

Hope that helps people, just my personal impressions, please correct me if anything is wrong.

[phaedra]

Hope that helps people, just my personal impressions, please correct me if anything is wrong.

 

Thanks for the insight! I would just say the ranking is relatively high at #52 rather than "lower mid level"... but I guess that depends on what schools you're comparing it to, as the other Boston schools are higher.

 

What other schools are you considering, Lyra?

[AnxiousAlice]

Is there a facebook group for accepted students? Would love to be able to discuss some of these things there!

[Lyra1960]

Thanks for the insight! I would just say the ranking is relatively high at #52 rather than "lower mid level"... but I guess that depends on what schools you're comparing it to, as the other Boston schools are higher.

 

What other schools are you considering, Lyra?

I think you're completely right about the ranking, that was more of a personal view point that takes into consideration that research is a factor I  probably consider more heavily than most. As mentioned above, I think it's a solid program. I guess essentially all programs theoretically SHOULD be really solid, even the lowest ranked program, because of the pretty stringent requirements ASHA has for accreditation. I think graduating from any program should give you pretty equal job placement opportunities based upon the fact all programs report almost 100% employment. Given that fact, I'd be completely lying to say there's not a bit of pure vanity in my wanting to go to a school that has a "high ranking".  While I do think the rankings a rough but good idea of programs' strengths, the system used is pretty non scientific anyways. I'm pretty sure it just a survey sent out the professors, so it needs to be taken to a grain of salt.

 

I'm from New Jersey, so I applied to a lot of programs on the east coast, but I'm actually leaning more towards programs further away. So far, I've gotten good news from Northeastern, UConn, Hofstra (NJ), and Montclair (NJ), Utah State University, and Purdue (IN). I'm pretty sure it's between USU (just finishing my post bacc there) and Purdue for me. Northeastern and Hofstra are just a little too big and expensive for me, and Montclair is a little too close to home lol. UConn seemed interesting, but they basically said there is no chance of funding for students (from the department at least, no idea about outside sources) and (just from my personal correspondence) haven't seemed overly receptive to visits (ie, no open houses for admitted students, I emailed the director and got a nice but kindof distracted type of response). Still, it's probably a great program for some, but I have good fortune of being able to be a little picky with programs. (The deeper I get into this process, the more I realized how lucky/spoiled I've been with being accepted. The first two responses I got were rejections, and I panicked, but since then it's been very rewarding).  

 

Haha, I think I'm so glad I had not idea how stressful this process was before I started it, else I might never have dared try to go through it. How about you? Wishing you the best!     

[phaedra]

I think you're completely right about the ranking, that was more of a personal view point that takes into consideration that research is a factor I  probably consider more heavily than most. As mentioned above, I think it's a solid program. I guess essentially all programs theoretically SHOULD be really solid, even the lowest ranked program, because of the pretty stringent requirements ASHA has for accreditation. I think graduating from any program should give you pretty equal job placement opportunities based upon the fact all programs report almost 100% employment. Given that fact, I'd be completely lying to say there's not a bit of pure vanity in my wanting to go to a school that has a "high ranking".  While I do think the rankings a rough but good idea of programs' strengths, the system used is pretty non scientific anyways. I'm pretty sure it just a survey sent out the professors, so it needs to be taken to a grain of salt.

 

I'm from New Jersey, so I applied to a lot of programs on the east coast, but I'm actually leaning more towards programs further away. So far, I've gotten good news from Northeastern, UConn, Hofstra (NJ), and Montclair (NJ), Utah State University, and Purdue (IN). I'm pretty sure it's between USU (just finishing my post bacc there) and Purdue for me. Northeastern and Hofstra are just a little too big and expensive for me, and Montclair is a little too close to home lol. UConn seemed interesting, but they basically said there is no chance of funding for students (from the department at least, no idea about outside sources) and (just from my personal correspondence) haven't seemed overly receptive to visits (ie, no open houses for admitted students, I emailed the director and got a nice but kindof distracted type of response). Still, it's probably a great program for some, but I have good fortune of being able to be a little picky with programs. (The deeper I get into this process, the more I realized how lucky/spoiled I've been with being accepted. The first two responses I got were rejections, and I panicked, but since then it's been very rewarding).  

 

Haha, I think I'm so glad I had not idea how stressful this process was before I started it, else I might never have dared try to go through it. How about you? Wishing you the best!     

I am also lucky enough to be picky so I've narrowed it down to the schools that gave me funding/were super cheap: MGH, University of Rhode Island and Worcester State. I'm from Mass and am in undergrad in RI right now and wanted to stay close. But can't decide whether I want a rural or urban environment. Even with funding there's still a $30,000 difference between MGH and Worcester, not including cost of living... The rankings also eat at me. I'm not sure how I can turn down a #25 school for a #154 or #181 even though I don't think I'm interested in research. I'm so torn...

 

I realize we are hijacking this Northeastern thread right now, so I'll stop there... good luck to you! 

[atrochemoche]

Anyone else out there still received no word from Northeastern? I'm mulling over accepting a permanent job offer and I'd hate to start just to have to leave in September...

[maddieg]

I still have yet to hear and I myself am thinking this means that the rest of us are waitlisted and they are waiting to tell us until April 15th. That is just my guess as I have heard other schools putting people on a "waitlist" while waiting to hear from the first round of accepted applicants. 

[onedayslp]

I just got accepted last week! Keep checking your portals, they are still accepting people.

 

atrochemoche -- your stats are really great and you have quite a bit of relevant experience. I'd be surprised if NU didn't admit you!

[dc2bslp]

I found out I was accepted today - it looks like they're still reviewing applications, so don't give up!

[maddieg]

Anyone want to make an accepted students page on Facebook with me??

Edited March 29, 2015 by maddieg

[AnxiousAlice]

Yes! Accepted students page please!!

[maddieg]

Hey Everyone! This is the facebook page for Northeastern Accepted Students! https://www.facebook.com/groups/849116385177003/