Northeastern Voice

More students apply themselves — to Northeastern

With days to go before the deadline, undergraduate applications are already up 20 percent over last year.

“This is going to be a great admissions year,” said Philomena Mantella, senior vice president for enrollment management. “We have more than 30,000 applications already and we’re still four days away from the deadline.”

Applicants for early acceptance are up significantly as well, Mantella said, and the percentage of those students already making deposits for a place in fall 2008 has risen sharply.

“This is a very competitive admissions cycle overall,” she noted. Mantella attributed the rise both to the admissions team, under Dean Ronné Turner, and the university’s broad appeal.

“All the special aspects of Northeastern really resonate with today’s high-school students, including the urban campus, the wide array of academic offerings and experiential learning,” she said.

“And we have had a much more aggressive (recruitment) campaign in a much broader geographic region.” She said admissions staff had reached out to “many more high schools” than in past years.

“We are excited at the response reflected in this great applicant growth,” Mantella said.

— Jim Chiavelli