Some of the schools this student is still expecting to hear from will offer summer internships with as good placement and pay as Northeastern (and cznneven offer a stipend to help with rent.)
For those following this thread I think the takeaways are - don’t go into ridiculous debt for any college, don’t count on co-op income to pay tuition (there are just too many variables involved), carefully compare the finances of all of your offers understanding how aid works (financial aid and merit), and there are many roads to success in life (no college has a monopoly on good job offers or good internships).
Once you have all offers in, you can compare bottom line.
The UCs without merit will cost similar to private schools with need based aid or merit (due to EFC being $25k), but you don’t have all acceptances/FA and merit offers yet, so that might change.
For NEU, your assumption of $30k net price is based on COA, or tuition, fees, room & board cost? These costs can rise from year to year, also would you be guaranteed on campus housing for any non coop semesters?
Or would you have to try and get a place off campus? How would that work, would you sign an apt lease for the whole year and then stay there during semesters and have to find someone to sublet to during coop?
When you compare cost of UCs versus NEU, you need to figure in flights to/from LA, maybe health insurance (would NEU accept your CA health insurance coverage?).
Also if you make $1,000 a week for 20 weeks, your take-home pay would be much less than $20k. Maybe $15k.
You need to look at all published costs (which can go up yearly) of regular semester tuition $23,360, summer session tuition $11,680, fees, housing per semester (std double $4,200, semi private suite $4575, upperclassmen apt $5,030), housing for summer (normally 1/2 of semester price), and meal plans (15 meals $3,325, summer price $1,663).
Several of my recent hires have on the order of $75K in college debt, roughly even with their starting salaries, though less than their current salaries. People get raises. They seem to be managing that debt ok. Used cars and living with roommates is the norm. Some even rely on public transportation and bicycles. This is in Boston by the way.
$100K is considerably more and you should proceed with caution, though I wouldn’t catastrophize the consequences of that debt into a lifetime of poverty. I think you can likely find a better deal, but keep in mind that if you’re moderately successful in your career, your overall earnings over the course of your career in today’s dollars should be on the order of $4 million dollars, and could be substantially more. When comparing less expensive alternatives, consider whether they offer comparable opportunities.
I’m am not advocating throwing caution to the wind because borrowing this much money is quite risky, but I am not recommending rejecting the idea outright like some people are.
“also would you be guaranteed on campus housing for any non coop semesters?”
I asked this question when I visited. I think the response I got was that for coops in Boston, say for a second semester sophomore on a coop, the student keeps his/her dorm room and commutes to the coop every day.
Northeastern guarantees on campus housing (new the past couple of years) for all 5 years. Many take advantage of it because of the convenience when you may be spending 6 months out of town (which would require a sub-let of an off campus apartment). The guarantee is also good for co-op semseters in Boston.
Upperclass housing has kitchens so no meal plan is required those semesters (assume last three years) - this doesn’t mean you don’t need to budget for food - you still need to eat but you can eat cheaper.
^but then the student still has room and board costs for the coop semester, but if OP would want to do coop at home they might lose their housing.
So if OP earned $15k net during coop, they would need about $8k up front to pay for room/meal plan
No you are misunderstanding - you don’t pay for housing if you go out of state for co-op (a mater of fact it is the one easy way to cancel your on-campus housing agreement). But if you co-op in Boston you get housing.
@suzyQ7 I have 2 AP credit courses I can bring in as of now. (Lots of 3s fresh and soph. year). I can bring in up to 7 more classes from my senior year courses.
@ptkid16 @kiddie Yes the Northeastern promise is a HUGE deal for me. Knowing that im financially secure all four years and that my aid will increase with inflation is a big deal. Also even with the fact that NEU is in the city of Boston, I will have guranteed housing for all 5 years. That is a great advantage compared to other institutitions.
I would work hard to get 4s on those APs senior year. You can shave off an entire semester (meaning no summer tuition/room board to pay).
@mommdc for me it would be roughly 30k with tuition +room and board. not sure about insurance but my mom has plenty of airline points from her job so flying wouldn’t be an issue. I would definitely plan to live on campus as much as possible.
Thank you for all of the direct numbers those will be very useful to me when examining total cost. Did you also hear about the Northeastern Promise? We mentioned in the other posts.
@ClassicRockerDad thank you this insight. It is very encouraging. I think my title was a tad misleading. Im really looking at an overall cost of 100k for NEU. Not neccesarily of 100k of loans to be paid post grad. I think with diligent application for scholaships throughout my undergraduate carreer, some help from co-op, and maybe a bit of help from my mother, we will be able to get the cost down to maybe 50-70k.
That is amazing that they have 5 year guaranteed housing. And yes, with campus apt the food expenses should be able to be reduced in later years, compared to a meal plan.
Definitely examine all costs carefully when it comes time to compare offers.
@mommdc Yes, I will definitely have to. Thank you for all of your help!! <3
AP policy is 4s and 5s only - Students are allowed to use up to 32 credits of AP credit towards their degree requirements. If you have earned more than 32 credits, your academic advisor can help you decide which credits would be the most beneficial for you to use. AP credit equivalencies can be found here on the Northeastern University Admissions website. https://neubos3ss375v.nunet.neu.edu/transfercredit/TransferCreditevaluatedstudent2.asp#_ga=1.155684283.162052319.1485749691
Yes, if you can shave the summer semesters off with AP credit that would definitely save a lot, also you could then work at home during summers.
@kiddie wrote
An additional factor to think about is if you take 5 years to graduate, you are taking yourself out of the earning pool for that year. In other words, you could have made 60k+ out the gate in year #5 and started to build your career, but you’re still in school doing a co-op. That can be a factor that may be mitigated by the fact that your first job out of college is better because of your co-op connections, though.
Another consideration I haven’t seen mentioned is what if you change your major? Before you say oh, I definitely know that I want to do cs, I can say right back that not a lot of women graduate with a degree in CS, and a lot of them try and change their majors. If you end up changing your major from CS to, say, econ or microbiology, your prospects for co-op will also change.
@kiddie Yes. I am aware. Thats why I only have two classes that I would be able to turn in right now for credit. AP Environmental Science and AP Language and Compsition. My freshman and sophmore year were mostly 3s so I cannot turn those in for credit. I will defintely be taking my senior
@MotherOfDragons Yes. I am aware of the dropout rate. This is why I am very interested in attending Northeastern. Because although I may be able to get into Top Tier institutions, I truly believe that Northeastern curriculum for CS, community, and support will give me ample support and encouragement to continue to pursue a degree in CS. For example, I would love to stay in CS LLC, freshman year and getting to live and become ingrained into a world of CS will allow me to stay motivated. Not to mention, that living with other CS girls who would be able to help me with HW, projects, etc would be a tremendously positive opportunity.