Northeastern University is a leading research university with campuses the US, in England, and Canada — but based in Boston, Massachusetts. Northeastern has a very large undergraduate community, with nearly 25,000 students enrolled full-time. They 371 majors including single-subject majors and multi-disciplinary programs, and the most popular programs are in business, computer science, and the health sciences. Northeastern is especially famous for their , an immersive experiential full-time placement that positions undergrads ahead of the pack before graduating. It’s like an internship on steroids, and helps to define the Northeastern culture. They receive the over 100,000 applications, and the acceptance rate is .
Applicants are to submit the SAT or ACT, and only about a third of recent applicants who were accepted and enrolled . However, we counsel our students that strong scores underline an impressive application. A strong SAT for Northeastern is 1500+, while a strong ACT is 34+. They accept applications EDI, Early Action, EDII, and Regular Decision.
Before you start working on the Northeastern application, you should absolutely the different campuses available to undergraduate students. Boston, Oakland, and London all offer unique and exceptional experiences that each offer distinct programs through the Northeastern lens — and none are much easier to get into than the others.
Once you have your campus picked, it’s time to pull your application together. Below, we’ll break down the one supplementary document Northeastern lets you submit. This makes it exceptionally important, so read on.
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Okay, so Northeastern doesn’t really have a supplement. There aren’t any questions for you to answer or examples of writing to submit, but Northeastern does allow you to upload a resume. Since this is the only additional document you are able to submit to Northeastern, we highly recommend creating a customized resume just for Northeastern. Now let’s break down what that means.
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The resume is submitted as an upload, which means that you can upload basically anything. Do not run with that opportunity. We’ve seen far too many students (not our clients) submit wild things under the guise of a ‘resume.’ But a 20-page pdf presentation or something similarly over-the-top does not a resume make, and does two really negative things. First, it dilutes the attention of any person reading your application. They do not have time to read a long upload, so there is no guarantee that they’ll even get past the first page of anything excessive. The other negative is that it illustrates to the admissions officers that you do not understand basic directions. You are applying to college, remember, and following directions is sort of a key piece of the brief for any undergraduate.
So, what should your resume be? It needs to be one page — yes, one. And professionally formatted like you are applying for a job. But this isn’t a job application, it’s a college application. More importantly, a Northeastern application.
To really drive that home, put it right at the top. Include a short “objective” paragraph at the top of your resume that acts as a mini cover letter. This should clearly state that you are a prospective member of the Class of 2030, what you want to study, and one or two reasons why you feel Northeastern is the best place for you to pursue that subject.
Then, you’ll want to have your Education section. This should include your high school, GPA, class rank, and any notable school-specific awards or recognition.
Below that, you’ll need to feature 2-4 experiences that are relevant to your course of study. This could include internships, jobs, and leadership positions. We recommend writing 1-2 sentences describing each instead of using the bullet points many resume templates prescribe. Bullet points simply take up too much space for a one-page resume.
After the handful of experiences, you may have room for including one or two relevant volunteer experiences. Keep these focused towards the field you will be pursuing. This resume isn’t about including everything you’ve done, but instead it’s an opportunity to highlight the heavy hitters in a more curated and in-depth way than the official Activities Section of the Common Application allows.
End the resume with the awards that you are most proud of. These can also go in a vertical column on the right-hand side. What matters is, as always, keeping it trimmed down and focused.
As you finalize this resume, make sure to label it as for Northeastern in the file name so that you don’t submit it to another collect by mistake.
Northeastern cares a lot about where you see yourself in the future, and the resume offers an opportunity to begin charting that future with Northeastern today. Don’t let it be an afterthought. Even a small add-on to an application like this can be immensely impactful as far as outcomes.
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