<p>As the title says, I'm currently a freshman in the honors program and CCIS at Northeastern. I'm here if anyone wants to ask questions :)</p>
<p>MODERATOR'S NOTE: Anyone is free to ask or answer questions in this thread.</p>
<p>How I’m a prospective kid looking at northeastern. I was wondering how hard is it to get admissions for ccis for computer science?</p>
<p>My gpa and sat compared to te average is lower. 90.85 gpa unweighted 1360 math reading highest combined </p>
<p>Also is comp sci a big major?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Admissions are getting harder every year, so it’s hard to quite say. I know that last year the bar for admission overall for early action was somewhere around 2150 (three-part), so if we extrapolate we get 1430 for the two part. I don’t want to speculate much and lead you astray since I don’t know that much about admissions, but you might be fine, perhaps especially for regular decision.</p>
<p>Comp sci isn’t a huge major, but it’s definitely growing. This year the major has a little over 200 students, and that’s up several dozen from just a few years ago. My Fundamentals I lecture had around 70 students, though that was the honors section. Not quite sure about regular, but I would imagine it’s similar. Northeastern wants to keep class sizes small to boost its rankings as much as possible. They are hiring new faculty all the time to compensate for the increased load.</p>
<p>Holy cow that’s a whole 700 points higher than my scores…well game over. still going to try. probably not making it.</p>
<p>Gratz to everyone who made it. I love this school but it’s over.</p>
<p>@jcfsox, I’m so glad you started this thread and your international village website. My son was just accepted to NEU (business) and the Honors program. We did see IV and the dining hall when we visited but it was exam period and we couldn’t see dorms or anything else. We have a lot of questions for you: What do you like best about Honors? How helpful is the extra advising? Do most students stay in honors throughout their time at NEU? What are the downsides to Honors? Have you heard anything about how business majors like the Honors experience? I’m wondering how many business courses are offered in honors and if it’s hard to meet the 6 honors course requirement if you’ve filled a lot of gen ed requirements with APs, etc. What are the other requirements for Honors beyond the 6 honors classes? How does the meal plan work at IV? (Is it all you can eat?) Thanks for making yourself available!</p>
<p>@AimlessTom make sure you notice the difference between the two and three part SAT scores. I mentioned one of both, and your two-part isn’t very far below the one I put. Sorry for the confusion.</p>
<p>@Putterer hi! I’m a current Honors business freshman at NU. I’ll let jcfsox answer too, but I know when I was deciding the more opinions the better, so I’ll try and answer these:</p>
<p>1.) IV is a huuuuuge perk for being in Honors. Air conditioning was a godsend the first few weeks of school, and with the exception of classes I technically don’t really need to leave…dining hall, gym, laundry, all in the building (not that I recommend being a hermit, it’s just nice in the winter to be able to walk downstairs in my PJ’s for cereal). AND THE PRIVATE BATHROOM!!!</p>
<p>2.) I haven’t had a ton of experience with the Honors advising yet, but that’s mainly because I haven’t particularly felt the need. I know personally the business school advisors can be busy, so it’s nice to have another advising option if I need it. I’ve had 1 meeting with my advisor, and she explained a lot of the requirements for the program so that was nice.</p>
<p>3.) I don’t have statistics for the amount of people that stay in Honors, but I would guess most do. You need a cumulative 3.5 to have Honors designation on the diploma, I think a 3.0 by the end of freshman year at least. A good amount transfer into the program, from what I can tell, but not a ton. There is Honors designation, which is graduating from the school being in the Honors program, and then there’s Honors in the Discipline, which is like a longer project/thesis/research- I think that’s separate from the Honors program, but many Honors kids do both.</p>
<p>4.) Downsides to Honors, I don’t think there are many…the most annoying part, probably, is that all the other freshman will ask you “where do you live?” and when you answer “IV”, they’ll roll their eyes and call you pretentious. The non-Honors kids can get pretty jealous, especially when our air conditioning is so valued early on. Also, some people talk about the “IV bubble”; basically, IV kids tend to be friends with other IV kids, while the non-Honors freshman tend to socialize amongst all the other freshman residence halls. This is usually just because we don’t want to walk across campus in the cold/dark/rain, lol. Most of my friends live in IV- on my floor, actually, we’re pretty much a family- but we have friends outside IV, too. It’s not a problem if you don’t want it to be.
Also, the “tangible” perks of the Honors program (basically, living in IV) fade after freshman year, so it’s not a huge deal after that.</p>
<p>5.) I’m a business major, and I love being in Honors. My Honors classes were about 20 kids each, compared to 40 in non-Honors. Freshman business majors do a semester long project, leading up to basically a final presentation of top teams. I think 5/7 of this year’s top teams were Honors section groups (I was in the top 12 of 150 groups!). I think it’ll be a huge asset for co-op, too, just to have that resume boost over my peers to say “Honors student”.</p>
<p>6.) I took 3/6 of my Honors classes this semester- Business Stats, BUSN1101, and our 1-credit mandatory Honors class. However, I’m not registered for any next semester… they can be harder to find when you bring in a lot of AP credit, just because a lot of the Honors classes are intro-level courses (first year writing, calc, core requirements, etc.) I think 2 more are satisfied by my major, so I only have to find 1 more Honors class before I graduate, which shouldn’t be too big of a challenge.</p>
<p>7.) That’s basically it for Honors requirements, except for maintaining this thing called an e-Portfolio, which is sort of a dynamic resume in a sense. They show you exactly how to use it and what you should add, so don’t stress. Basically, you add things each year like from our Honors class, any special projects you may have done, your Honors projects from later years, etc. I know one of my Honors class advisors actually got a job offer from her e-Portfolio, so it’s not too bad.</p>
<p>8.) Meal plan at all the residence hall dining options are totally unlimited (watch the freshman 15!)- that’s IV, and then Stetson East and Stetson West. You can use up to 3 meal swipes a day at Outtakes, which is basically a way to salvage any unused meal swipes, trading a swipe for 8 points, which can get you sodas/drinks for the microfridge, some hot food, cereal, etc.; or, at Rebecca’s Cafe, popular for breakfast and lunch, where again a meal swipe is a pre-set amount of food (a good portion, though; a sandwich and chips/fruit and a drink, or a hot entree and a drink, etc…) I have the 15 meal plan and usually end up using just under that for the week. Most people I know with 19 meals don’t use them all, but for people that like eating breakfast that’s an option. I almost always sleep through breakfast so I was happy with 2 meals a day, 7 days a week. My roommate has the 10 meals a week option because she “likes to eat out” (??? we’re broke college kids), and she has to use swipes sparingly/usually runs out and orders in Chinese food (she complains about being broke a lot).</p>
<p>Wow, that’s a lot. Let me know if you have any more questions!</p>
<p>@Putterer </p>
<p>The things I like best about Honors are living in IV and getting to be in the honors sections of classes. IV speaks for itself 
Mostly the honors classes are just special, i.e. smaller class sizes and more attention from the professors. I took Fundamentals of Computer Science 1 honors this past fall, and that class is known to be one of the only where the honors section is “harder.” Also, being in honors you’re surrounded by the most talented students at an already very talented university, and it’s generally a really supportive and encouraging environment.</p>
<p>I have been to see my honors advisor once this semester. I have a regular computer science professor aimed at academic advising, and the honors advisor is extra, as you mentioned. I can’t speak for the Business honors advisor, but the comp sci guy was really cool and really took a special interest in what I was up to and answered all my questions thoroughly. It’s a recurring theme in the honors program: you’re part of a special group at the university and are treated accordingly.</p>
<p>As for retention in the honors program, I wouldn’t imagine anyone drops out purposefully. You need to maintain a 3.0 GPA to remain in the program and a 3.5 to stay in good standing and receive many of the program’s benefits. They go easy on freshmen as far as these requirements are concerned.</p>
<p>There really aren’t any drawbacks as far as I know. I don’t know about business students specifically, but as far as the honors program goes, there shouldn’t be any major differences.</p>
<p>Meeting the 6 honors courses requirement is not difficult. During your freshman year you take Enhancing Honors, which counts for one of them, and it’s only a 1 credit course. Additionally, the program offers special inquiry courses (<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/honors/academics/honors-courses/honors-first-year-inquiry-series/”>http://www.northeastern.edu/honors/academics/honors-courses/honors-first-year-inquiry-series/</a>) only available to honors freshmen. Many of the first year courses at the department level have honors sections. Take a peek at the course catalogue: <a href=“Dynamic Schedule”>https://wl11gp.neu.edu/udcprod8/NEUCLSS.p_class_select</a> Try searching for classes from last fall and select the “Honors” attribute in the “Attribute Type” list.</p>
<p>An additional honors requirement is to complete an e-portfolio of your work as you go along, but that’s not a huge concern. A major purpose of the required Enhancing Honors course is to introduce you to this requirement. The honors advisors will do a great job to help you meet any and all honors requirements.</p>
<p>Northeastern has several meal plan options that are typically on a metered meal per week basis. Freshmen must get at least 10 meals/week. More information here: <a href=“Dine On Campus”>Dine On Campus; Unused meals at the end of each week can be redeemed at Outtakes, typically for non-perishable food items.</p>
<p>Don’t hesitate if you think of anything else!</p>
<p>@Putterer @novafan1225 Just to add/comment on a few things!</p>
<p>1) No kidding about being a hermit! There were seriously some Sunday nights I realized I hadn’t been outside since Friday… but I hadn’t missed anything. It had still been a fun weekend of hanging out with people and whatnot… it’s just all at IV!</p>
<p>4) All of my close friends are in honors. I know a few people outside, but I usually only see them by chance. IV does seem to have somewhat of a pretentious stature, being so nice and towering above the rest of campus, but it is what it is.</p>
<p>8) Just to clarify, it’s unlimited in the sense that you can use as many a day as you want, and once you’re inside you can eat as much as you want, but you have a limited number for the week. I had 15 this semester and usually had 3-4 left for Outtakes each week. I’m dropping to 10 next semester to explore other food options.</p>
<p>I eat breakfast every day and was perfectly fine with the 10 meal plan. The meal plans include dining dollars, which I used to get bagels/yogurt/PB for breakfast, then I’d usually get more than one metal’s worth of food with a swipe at outtakes for times I didn’t feel like going to the dining hall. I had a 15 meal plan first semester and it was overkill and definitely caused me to put on some weight!</p>
<p>Okay, adding 2 things: (we have a lot to say, clearly!)</p>
<p>1.) While we’re talking about dining, I just wanna say I think NU does a pretty good job with meal plan food. Yeah, it gets repetitive, but only if you eat the same things every day. I am by no means a picky eater, and I didn’t really get sick of the dining hall this past semester- and I ate dinner daily at IV, I think I went to Stetson East and West a combined total of 4 times. The food isn’t out of this world, but there’s a good variety and most of it is decent to above average- I like it quite a bit. A good amount of my friends did complain about the food being repetitive, but they tended to eat the same things most of the time.</p>
<p>2.) As a business honors kid, I just wanted to add that I got a 4.0 this semester with 3/4 of my 4 credit classes being business core classes (stats, financial accounting, and business 101- the 4th was a blowoff elective). I didn’t feel that I had to work very hard to get that 4.0, though…I had no late nights studying, didn’t have a ton of homework, the only thing that probably made them difficult was getting groups all together for group projects. I am definitely a minority in this boat, in that most of my friends felt they worked pretty hard and didn’t do quite as well (still did well, just not a 4.0). However, I have met a few others who had similar experiences (business honors kids, I mean). I can’t tell if that means I’m just efficient or if the business classes aren’t quite that challenging, but it’s something to think about. I found a few of my high school classes (AB Calc, APUSH, etc.) to be way tougher than anything I did this semester, and that includes stats which was a 2000 level course.</p>
<p>@novafan1225, @jcfsox, and @nanotechnology, Many thanks to you for all this info on your honors experience and life at NEU. My son is now more excited than ever to be a huskie! Can any of you comment on honors activities (outside of honors classes)? Thanks again.</p>
<p>My son is in the honors program at NEU in the College of Science. IV is indeed a big perk. My son really likes it, and considers the IV dining hall to be the best on campus. He was on the 15 meal plan, but is dropping to the 10 this semester to see how it goes and to give him more flexibility to eat elsewhere. He does not feel isolated from the rest of campus, and doesn’t see walking through Ruggles Station every day as any different than having to cross Huntington Avenue.</p>
<p>Unlike other majors, his (chemistry) does not have honors sections within his major. That’s because the NEU chemistry department is already small, and has small class sections just for chemistry majors. Ironically you can only take honors chemistry if you AREN’T a chem major! He took the 1 credit “Enhancing Honors” and another honors elective this semester. Even without honors classes in his major, I don’t expect he will have any difficulty completing 6 honors courses.</p>
<p>In the spring semester he’s taking an Honors first-year inquiry course, reserved for freshman honors students, that learns about volcanoes and the class takes a spring break trip to Costa Rica to learn about them up close and personal. How awesome is that? The trip is only an extra $800 thanks to a $400 subsidy from the Honors program.</p>
<p>Overall, he doesn’t see any downsides. It has been a positive experience so far!</p>
<p>Thanks for starting this thread! My son was just accepted into the honors program at CCIS, and will be looking at it carefully over the next few months, and he will have questions. NEU was not his top choice (Brandeis is) because he wasn’t sure he wanted something so big, but with the merit aid and special perks of the honors college, it’s moving up his list. For those who have applied RD or are thinking about it, here are my son’s stats:
SAT 2270 (CR 780, M 770, W 720)
SAT II Biology (M) 710, Math I 740, Math II 800
GPA: 4.0 unweighted, 4.39 weighted</p>
<p>@Awesomekidsmom , no worries about your son’s situation, I think that type of thing applies to a lot of us, at least in the Honors program. I know Northeastern was not my top pick when applying, nor was it the top pick for maybe upwards of 1/2 of my friends. I personally really liked UVa and UNC-CH, and I was deferred then waitlisted at both. Getting an early acceptance with Honors and good scholarship at NU definitely bumped it up my list, and I absolutely love it here now. Other kids on my floor alone chose NU over Berkeley, BC with a big scholarship, Duke, etc.</p>
<p>(Also, something to add: I’ve gone to Brandeis once to catch a ride home with a friend for Thanksgiving, and all I can say is, it’s a HUGE perk that NU isn’t as hilly of a campus as Brandeis. Oh man were my legs tired.)</p>
<p>@Putterer </p>
<p>Every week I get an email from the Honors program that details several opportunities available. They sometimes provide free or greatly discounted tickets to various events around Boston. For example, in October I got tickets to a production at the Lyric Stage theater in Back Bay. They were $20 normally but the honors office got some and gave them away free to honors students. (I have an example of an email available for viewing here: <a href=“https://insideinternationalvillage.files.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2014/12/honors-email_.pdf”>https://insideinternationalvillage.files.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2014/12/honors-email_.pdf</a>)</p>
<p>The honors program was also very helpful during Welcome Week back in August. The honors freshmen were among the first to move in (a whole week before classes started), but they kept us busy. We attended a ropes course and team building outing on the third day.</p>
<p>@Putterer I forgot to mention the honors Dialogue of Civilizations programs. DoC is a university-wide study abroad program, where students travel abroad for a period of about 6 weeks to explore a difference culture and take related classes. The honors program has its own special dialogue session(s?). Earlier this week I was notified that I was accepted into the one next summer, during July and August. I will be traveling to Europe to explore rhetoric and human rights.</p>
<p>Thanks for all this great info on IV and honors. @jcfsox, Congratulations on your accepted into the Europe Dialogues of Civilization this summer. How does the honors section of DOC differ? Also, what’s the honors housing situation after freshman year? Thanks again!</p>
<p>The honors sections of the DOCs are not all that different as far as I can tell, however depending on your opinion it may be the most exciting trip. The list of programs is available here: <a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/studyabroad/programs/?type=Dialogue+of+Civilizations”>http://www.northeastern.edu/studyabroad/programs/?type=Dialogue+of+Civilizations</a></p>
<p>Also, they’re only open to honors students, so you get to bond more closely with other honors students and associated staff. Note that DOCs, including the honors one(s) are open to students of all ages, so I will be around upperclassman honors students too.</p>
<p>Housing opens up after freshman year, for the most part. There is a quite involved housing selection/lottery process for upperclassmen. There are some housing options only available to honors students. My group of friends (all honors) is hoping to get an apartment to share in the honors housing. More information on sophomore+ housing here: <a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/reslife/upperclass/oncampus.html”>http://www.northeastern.edu/reslife/upperclass/oncampus.html</a></p>
<p>Thanks, @jcfsox!</p>