@bethanylm291 Oh yeah if it’s for CS those must be very dated then. The CS department here has stellar professors in my experience. Ratemyprofessors probably attracts the very negative, as any positive will be content with TRACE. I also checked out of curiosity and I don’t even recognize most of the names on there. It looks like a lot are old profs from 10-20 years ago. Of the badly rated ones on there, only two are currently here, and one does not deserve them (3 bad reviews) and got them likely for making a class challenging.
I’ve read that some students in Fundies, mostly non-CS majors, start the course expecting it to be a programming/coding course and are surprised and disappointed that it focuses on problem solving.
Is NEU strong in Chemistry? Do you know of pre med students that have had meaningful co-ops? My worry is that NEU is strong for areas like computer science and in engineering but maybe the model falls a little flat for students majoring in chemistry, biology, etc.
Absolutely not, those are certainly strengths in my experience. The medical community of Boston is a huge resource. Merck is a common employer I know of for chemistry type stuff from my friends. I’m not as involved personally in that area so I don’t know as many of the usual suspects, but I know many pre-med types that work in hospitals around Boston on co-op in various positions. That’s a nice thing to have on the resume for anyone going pre-med. Lots of healthcare companies as well.
Here’s a COS co-op stories page:
https://cos.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/students-stories/
At the bottom of the page linked below, there is actually a map of every current student on co-op in the college. It’s a terrible page design, but if you zoom into Boston you can click around a bit. You unfortunately have to know a bit of Boston geography to get meaningful info out of it, but if you zoom in on the Longwood medical area, you’ll see about 25-50 pins in that area alone. The downtown area and Tufts medical center have medical concentrations and another big concentration is in Cambridge along the shore of the Charles.
https://cos.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/co-op/
Some notables I found in looking through:
Merck
Novartis
Pfizer
Claritas Genomics
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
Boston Children’s Hospital
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (Harvard)
Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary
Judge Baker Children’s Center Inc
I tried to pick a decent sampling to show big names and depth/specialty, but that was all from a pass over that map focusing on the medical regions of Boston. I know people personally who have worked at 3 of those listed, and probably more I’m not aware of. Again, pretty small sample size there.
I’d also point out that 50% of students graduate with a full-time job offer from a co-op, so I also know people working full time at a few of these as well.
Generally, Northeastern is very strong in STEM / Business, with other areas of specialty like Criminal Justice, PPE (Politics, Philosophy and Economics), Journalism (many co-op’s at the Boston Globe) and a few others I’m probably forgetting. Given the practicality of the school, many traditional “liberal arts” type majors are usually smaller and more practically focused.
@PengsPhils Wow! Thank you for all of that information. Very helpful and informative.
@PengsPhils @TomSrOfBoston how does scheduling work and how does majoring and minoring work. I’m thinking about doing a combine major in computer science and criminal justice. Will i be able to do a minor and Army ROTC? or will that over load my coursework and interfere with my CO-OP cycle?
Majoring and minoring is the same as any other school. You’ll take 8 semesters of classes, also like any other school, so academic space is no problem.
Scheduling works by having the academic calendar as follows:
Spring (4 Months)
Summer 1 (2 Months)
Summer 2 (2 Months)
Fall (4 Months)
When you go on co-op, you either do Spring or Fall, both for 6 months. You either do summer sessions (2 classes, half of a semester in every way, including tuition), stay for 5 years, or a combination of both. Most people do a 5 year 3 co-op patterns, but it’s really “create your own adventure”. Some people will do 4.5 years, some 4 years, etc. I believe all majors can be completed in 4 years with 2 co-op’s if you take a decent number of summer sessions. Summer sessions are common and have pretty extensive offerings relative to most schools as a result.
You’ll have an academic and co-op advisor to help with all the ins and outs, but you get used to it pretty quickly. The gist is you still take total 8 academic semesters with summers counting for half a semester with some number of co-op’s mixed in over usually 4-5 years.
I can’t speak to ROTC commitments and how those mix together, but it shouldn’t add too much complication.
@EDHDAD No problem! To tie all this into other posts in this forum, the co-op program is an amazing resource and a huge pillar of the school for over 100 years - even though the US News rise, that academic philosophy is always the same. While there certainly has been a focus on rankings, I think the rise is also coming with a shift of academic philosophy for those going to college today. It’s also a part of that Dunkin vs Starbucks, BC vs NEU type metaphors on the EA thread. Northeastern’s roots are as a working-class school, something that academia has very mixed feeling on as a whole.
@PengsPhils Thanks
If deferred from EA, I imagine that pretty much puts one out of the running for Honors College, yes?
@CSinPA No, not at all.
hi! I applied EA and was deferred. NEU is no doubt my top choice school especially because of the co-op and I’m kind of nervous about getting accepted! Do you have any more details about the co-op or any experiences from working there??
Based on your other posts, I think you have a classic case of the college admissions nerves, albeit a bit stronger than others. I’d recommend just relaxing as much as possible, as it sounds like you’re doing everything you can in the process and there’s nothing left to do but wait. Go distract yourself and enjoy senior year 
I love Northeastern and co-op and I’m incredibly happy here. But I think with the process in general, it’s important to not put all your hopes in one school. Don’t forget that no matter what you matter more than the school you go to, and to have good second options, third options, etc.
In addition to a few internships, my personal experience with co-op was working for a tech company in LA for 6 months, and I’ll be going back to the NYC office of that same company this fall for another co-op with them. Co-op is a great way for me personally to get to have a trial run of a new city. I wasn’t a huge fan of LA (was originally planning to stay in Boston for the co-op but got an offer I couldn’t resist) but spent some time in San Francisco while on the west coast and loved it. I’m very excited for NYC and will likely pick NYC, SF, or Boston to work full time in after graduation depending on how my second co-op goes + offers.
Best of luck!
haha you’re right I def am nervous! I did apply to a good net of schools and even got accepted into some already like UMass but still hoping for northeastern! Thanks for all the information, it def helped and I do feel a lot calmer now!
I can’t decide which LLC I want as my top choice for the housing app. I really like the idea behind the Fusion LLC where I would meet people from other majors. Would it be better to do Fusion or would it be more beneficial to do the LLC that is specific to my major?
Hi. Thanks for taking questions. I’m confused about tuition and scholarships. We received a scholarship of 20,000 per year of which they specify 8 semesters. How does tuition and scholarships work with co-ops? I see that many people do summer sessions too. I am trying to figure out if we should plan on the listed yearly cost of tuition (which is already very expensive), or if it actually ends up costing more because of summers. Also, do you lose out on the ability to use your scholarship if you are on co-op? Trying to figure out a budget and what NEU is actually going to cost. Do you pay anything to NEU while on co-op? As a C.S. major, what have you personally made on your co-ops?
You only pay tuition for the semesters you are taking classes. That typically totals 8 semesters, with some breaks for co-ops. Typically you earn money while on co-op depending on the work and/or major. You still pay for your housing etc on co-op. You can live in campus housing if you are co-oping in Boston. Summer is split into two half semesters, summer 1and 2 of which you’d pay 1/2 tuition. Some do this to still graduate in 4 years with coops, etc. some do summer Dialogues of Civilizations which are half semester summer travel classes. These half semesters are two classes. It is a nice break financially when your kid is on coop for half a year bc it breaks up the tuition payments. Most students, or many at least, finish a 4 year degree in 5 years with 8 semesters and two 6 month coops.
Oh, and your scholarship only applies in the 8 semesters of classes, or 1/2 scholarship when it’s a summer half semester. No scholarships apply on coop, bc typically you are making enough to cover living expenses, but not always.
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No scholarships apply on co-op because you’re not paying tuition. You pay your living expenses, but you’d have to do that regardless. CS majors should be able to make low to mid 20’s easily, and some of the better co-ops pay over $30. It doesn’t cost more because you’re still only paying for 8 semesters of school like you would anywhere else.
That sounds like a good choice if nothing else pulls at you. I do recommend picking an LLC different from your major. I was in CS and did the music LLC and was very happy with the variety I got from that.
As mentioned by others, you get scholarship / financial aid while taking classes, and will take the same classes as at any 4-year traditional school model.
As a CS major, you can do very well. Check the table for suggested employer salaries here:
https://www.ccis.northeastern.edu/experiential-learning/employers/
For a second co-op, the middle 50% range for pay is $27-38 an hour. I’ve seen personally as high as $55. This is a special case for CS, though majors such as business and engineering will also see an average of $25 or so an hour.
The general rule is to plan for your co-op pay to pay for your cost of living on co-op, but for higher paying majors it’s not uncommon to get some savings out of it.
As a result, costs should be equal with 4 * COA generally. One benefit of this is that for 5 year patterns, that cost is irregularly spread over 5 years rather than four, which can help some families. The first year and a half will be just like any other school though until co-op starts.
In my experience, most actually do 3 co-ops over this timeline, or at least more than those who do 2.
My DD has gotten EA admission at NEU in Cellular and Molecular Biology major with Deans Scholarship. Her mid term grades are pretty good. Could she email her counselor to reconsider her admission into honors college? (kind of an appeal). My daughter doesn’t want to. So could parents email NEU counselor? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.