Ask a current Northeastern student!

<p>Actually, there is a different between buildings like 319 Hunt, which are just dorms in old buildings, and leased buidings. Douglas Park is leased via Northeastern, but regular people live there and you pay your own bills (cable, etc).</p>

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>Is there Greek life/houses on campus? The website does not indicate any and my daughter is interested in joining a Sorority.
Please advise. Thanks!</p>

<p>Thanks for your inputs!!!</p>

<p>I have some questions too.

  1. Is there really a big difference between the Honors Program and the Non-Honors program?
  2. I’m planning to be an Engineer major, how large are the classes in the freshmen year? Maybe even list the classes you’re taking and how large they are.
  3. Do most people do the 5 year or 4 year program?
  4. How is the tutoring and advising? How easy is it to find the teachers?
  5. How are dorms assigned?</p>

<p>In some classes the honors sections are very different from non. My daughter is in an honors econ with only 20 kids, the non-honors section for the same class goes up to 200 students (with a separate recitation section each week).
If you choose a three co-op program in engineering - they set you up right in freshman year as BB or AB or AA (I think those are the names) and they dictate which semesters you work and what you do each summer also.
In engineering I think most kids do the 5 year program - it varies for other majors
All the teachers have posted office hours where they see kids
Honors dorms are in IV for freshman year - you can also pick another LLC or otherwise you just get assigned a freshman dorm.</p>

<p>Members of the honors program live in their own building. Do you find this at all isolating from the rest of the student body? It seems like there’s an obvious line drawn between honors and non-honors students in the living situation, and I wonder if that extends to all aspects of social life. Do you interact with students outside of the honors program?</p>

<p>To Strafer -

  1. Answered above. Also answered on a million threads. Just search for honors program.
  2. Classes range from less than 20 to maybe around 50 for hard sciences. You typically won’t find any 200 person class for math, science, etc. However you might take at least one core class that is that large (note: I never did, all of mine were 45 or less).
  3. It is very difficult to graduate in four years in engineering and still do two co-ops. Nearly everyone does five years.
  4. Most colleges/majors have tutoring programs set up with grad students or upperclassmen where they will have open hours, I assume engineering is the same. Office hours, as stated above, is in two or three blocks during the week when the professor is available. Nearly all professors will allow you to book time outside of office hours if you seriously can’t make those times.
  5. First year students get assigned based on a preference list and when they put in their housing deposit. Honors is all in one dorm together. Upperclassmen either get a lottery number to choose their own room, or they have to move off campus.</p>

<p>To jammminjen -
There is greek life, yes. It is hovering around 9 or 10% of the student body, so it small. However my friends that did it absolutely loved it, so it’s really up to the person. We do NOT have any houses affliated with the school, and the only (legal) “house” not directly associated with the school is a fraternity that was grandfathered into Boston housing rules putting a max of 4 undergraduates to an apartment. A lot of sisters/brothers will choose to live in normal apartments together though.</p>

<p>My freshman daughter who is in honors has a core group of friends of which some are not in honors - these non-honors kids travel from their dorms to hang out and eat in IV with their honors friends. The kids are not at all judgmental about some of their friends not being in honors. Most of your classes will not be honors (there are not honors sections for every class - rather the opposite - honors sections are only for the most popular classes) so you will meet lots of non-honors kids in your day to day life.</p>

<p>@neuchimie</p>

<p>Thanks I have a few more questions.

  1. Can non-honor students take some of the classes that honor students take?
  2. On top of the Engineering curriculum, if I might be interested in minoring in something, how many free electives/classes can you take per semester?
  3. I notice that as an Engineer major, you’re required to take an Arts/Humanities Elective. Would taking an art, painting, or music class fulfill this requirement?</p>

<ol>
<li><p>No, they can’t. You have to have an Honors title on your record to sign up for any Honors class. This includes Honors sections of regular classes, as well as Honors-only seminars.</p></li>
<li><p>Typically only one. Some semesters, you might not be able to take any. Engineering is one of the toughest majors to schedule.</p></li>
<li><p>Arts/Humanities is one of the core. Since engineering is a BS, you only have to take one, not both (so an art OR a humanity). Most art, painting, music, etc class would fill it, as would many humanities. The courses are tagged with “core” in the registrar if they count, so it’s very easy to tell which ones you can use. Keep in mind though that apart from very very basic Intro to Music, a lot of art/music classes are hard to get into. There will only be one or two a semester, and they fill up fast. Many classes beyond the first level are also limited to Majors only, unfortunately.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Hey, I have some questions too.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>How involved is the student body in extracurricular activities and clubs?</p></li>
<li><p>I know it’s not suppose to be a small liberal arts college, but is there a community feel where you really get to know your peers well?</p></li>
<li><p>How is the student to teacher interaction? In other words, can students ask a lot of questions in class? Does the teacher know the students individually?</p></li>
<li><p>I know they have a 4 year and a 5 year plan, but do you have to choose whether you want to graduate in 4 or 5 years when you enter? Can you switch later on?</p></li>
<li><p>How is class registration? Are classes really easily filled?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>How hard is it to change major once you’re a student there?</p>

<p>(Ex: Pharm >>> something else)</p>

<p>How generous was Northeastern with need-based financial aid?
Thanks :)</p>

<p>"Hey, I have some questions too.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>How involved is the student body in extracurricular activities and clubs?</p></li>
<li><p>I know it’s not suppose to be a small liberal arts college, but is there a community feel where you really get to know your peers well?</p></li>
<li><p>How is the student to teacher interaction? In other words, can students ask a lot of questions in class? Does the teacher know the students individually?</p></li>
<li><p>I know they have a 4 year and a 5 year plan, but do you have to choose whether you want to graduate in 4 or 5 years when you enter? Can you switch later on?</p></li>
<li><p>How is class registration? Are classes really easily filled?"</p></li>
</ol>

<p>I am also a Northeastern freshman so let me answer some of your questions as well:</p>

<p>1: There are people in numerous clubs, holding positions of leadership, and also on sports teams with 4.0 GPAs. There are also people with no extracurricular participation. Its a large school so you will find some of every type of people. The average person however is involved in something outside of classes.</p>

<p>2: Yes and No. I am not even close to knowing even half the people who are just freshman here. However, you get close with people who have similar interests. For example, I know everyone in my major, I know everyone in the clubs I participate in, and everyone I know somehow knows somebody else that I know and you see all those connections which can make it feel like a smaller more intimate student body. </p>

<p>3: For me, almost all of my first year classes were large lecture style classes. The teachers did not know everyone in their class, however everyone was encourage to ask questions and go to office hours. It’s really what you make it. Also, after this year I will have no more large lecture classes for the rest of my college experience, so don’t let that first year of boring classes turn you away, you will get that almost anywhere.</p>

<p>4: What I’ve noticed about the 4/5 year programs is that generally you don’t need to pick right away what you are going to do. If you are majoring in something like Engineering, Computer Science, etc. then you will need to know freshman year your plan for the entire 4 or 5 years. For the rest of the majors, its more of a you graduate when you’re done type of thing. You can do as many coops as you wish, when you wish. If you decide to take summer classes one year you can and possibly graduate a little earlier, or if you decide not to take summer classes that’s not going to make or break your graduation date (generally). Very few majors have to decide at the beginning exactly when to graduate and with how many coops or other learning experiences.</p>

<p>5: I thought class registration was going to be much more difficult and obnoxious. I will be honest, what should have taken 20 minutes took about 5 hours to finish, but I ended up in the classes I wanted at the times I wanted so I really can’t complain.</p>

<p>Switching majors within the same college/school=easy
Switching majors in different schools=significantly more complicated but still easy</p>

<p>LightNaruto</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I would say most people are fairly involved with clubs/activities, but it really depends on the person. Most of my friends were actively involved with something on campus, anything from a club/intramural sport, to NUCALLs language club, to a work-study job like Marino where work is pretty social. I didn’t know many people who didn’t want to participate in some kind of campus activity. I met some great friends through campus-organized activities, especially my club sport and Alternative Spring Break.</p></li>
<li><p>You aren’t going to know all the people around you when you go into the dining hall or into the library (and honestly, all my LAC friends enjoyed this the first year or two of college, but after that it was like “is there anyone new to meet? have I maxed out?”), but you will find a niche eventually (how long it takes depends on how involved you are in things on campus and how social you are), and you will have that “community feel” within your dorm, within your group of friends and their larger social network, within your major, etc. Like any bigger school, your community is whoever you meet and spend time with, not the 2000 kids who also go to your college.</p></li>
<li><p>Profs will always encourage asking questions. Student/Prof interaction totally depends on the class. Some large lectures will mean you need to go in for office hours, whereas smaller classes will mean more in-class discussion.</p></li>
<li><p>You can change your mind (usually) on how many years you want to do. Maybe you think you won’t do co-op, but then as a third year, decide “hey, everyone really likes co-op, it might be awesome” (happened to my pre-med roommate). Or maybe your first co-op is so incredible that you decide to aim to graduate in 4 years and just go work at your company. The schedule is pretty flexible, although some programs have more strict requirements, so this doesn’t go for everyone.</p></li>
<li><p>Totally depends on the class. You get priority as you get older. Seniors get first pick, freshman get last. This will annoy you as a first/second year student, but it’s important because older students need to ensure they can get into classes they need for graduation (and they have seniority!!). So, as a freshman you probably won’t always get first pick, and the popular classes will fill up before you can get into it. But generally, people find a way to take the classes they need, and things work out. If a class you need to take is full, your advisor can figure out how to help.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Edit: jinx, swimhockey!</p>

<p>Switching majors between programs depends on the program. I definitely wouldn’t call it easy. Getting into business has a minimum GPA and is very competitive, so even good students sometimes can’t. Getting into engineering is only possible if you’ve got a bunch of requirements already done. Getting into nursing is near impossible, unless you somehow have an AMAZING story for why you suddenly want to be a nurse. And PharmD is impossible-- they don’t accept transfers.</p>

<p>Hey Thanks for answering my questions,</p>

<p>So I have a few more.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>So based on what your saying for class registration, does that mean that if I take Calculus III and maybe a Level 1 version of a language, there is a chance I may not be able to take Calculus IV or the next level of my language for the next semester, just because my class got full?
Is it possible to avoid this by registering online the second they let you? </p></li>
<li><p>How enthusiastic would you say are the teachers into their teaching, especially in the math/science classes?</p></li>
<li><p>How is the grading system, is it like one of those bell curves?</p></li>
</ol>

<ol>
<li><p>Correct (although there is no Calc 4, btw-- it’s diffeq or linear algebra next). Languages usually either have a lot of courses or they aren’t very popular. I wouldn’t be that concerned about it. Not getting into classes mainly is about electives or when you have a choice of five, but you kind of wanted one particular one (so you can still take classes, just not in your favorite). Obviously signing up as soon as possible is better, but seniors go days before second-semester first years.</p></li>
<li><p>I loved most of my math professors. Younger usually was better, because they can explain it better. But don’t except linear algebra to suddenly become the most fun class you’ve taken.</p></li>
<li><p>Depends on professor. Math will often curve up based on the highest grade (highest = 70%, turns into a 100%) or not curve at all. Science will bell up, but not down (so set the average at 80% or something, but it’s not like getting 90% means you’re at risk of getting lower).</p></li>
</ol>

<p>If a student is in the honors program, about what percentage of classes taken are honors classes? Or does it vary a lot by major?</p>