You always go to grad school for business/IS. Can you major in economics at BC? Do you want smaller class sizes ? Check on that at both. You liked the vibe at NEU better? Read the CC posts for both schools…that helped us decide. Which one is easier to transfer into if you decide you dont like your choice? Which one has more professors teaching vs TAs? Hope this helps you decide.
Thanks so so much to everyone who has replied!! I appreciate it so much & I’ll post another reply like this one on my final decision later today!!
This won’t help OP, but just to show how much schools and their reputations change over time: I grew up in Massachusetts in the late Sixties, and in those days kids in my city almost universally stayed in-state for college, so we had a firm handle on all the local options. (I guess the thinking was that with all the schools in the state, why pay for travel costs and why be distant from family?) Back then, among the academically strong students in my smallish, blue collar city, Northeastern was a fairly grungy commuter school on no one’s radar, and BC was thought of solely as an option for Catholic kids who wanted to stay close to their religious upbringing. I keep up with this stuff much more than H, who was incredulous when he learned that both schools had zoomed so high in the rankings and were becoming competitive with our own alma mater, which had not been the case at all back in the day.
My son is actually deciding between the same two schools (narrowed from a list of ten acceptances). He is also a business major planning to do a finance concentration, accepted to CSoM and D’Amore McKim. We love the beautiful stone buildings and traditional campus at BC and the rankings and reputation of Carroll are impressive. We feel he would fit in well. Although not Catholic himself, he has attended a Catholic high school. He is involved in theatre and choral music and BC has a great Arts program. Sounds like an obvious choice right? But he has struggled, first to cross highly ranked UVa off his list to avoid reapplying to their business school after sophomore year when he has enough APs to be done with an undergrad degree in three years elsewhere, and then to pass on scholarship offers from BU and Babson, among others. From BC he received no scholarship and was not offered honors even with a 34 ACT. From NEU he received merit and voice scholarship offers, so it is among his least expensive options while BC is the highest except for UVa requiring a fourth year. His brother is a third year student at NEU and they would be in the same honors dorm next year. I am in a Parents’ Facebook group at NEU and I hear from other parents daily about wonderful co ops (after the stress of finding one), endless global travel and HAPPY students involved in all kinds of exciting opportunities. My son who is already there has not chosen to study abroad yet, but many of the students he knows have been to four countries by the end of sophomore year. We can’t advise, although from the info you supplied it sounds like NEU may have more of what you are looking for, as long as you are comfortable with co ops and people coming and going. Good luck!! Either school is a wonderful choice and we truly believe there is no ONE AND ONLY right college. Go with your gut if all else fails. My son just asked his brother to bring home a Northeastern shirt for him to wear on college gear day next week, so I think he is leaning that way.
@Beantownboys What a coincident that we have such similar dilemmas!! I have thought for so long that BC was the school for me. I got accepted there back in early November, whereas NEU deferred me at first. I think that’s part of the reason why I am so hung up… I had all of that time to fall in love with BC and had practically convinced myself that I would commit there. Fast forward to when I got accepted at NEU RD, specifically the explore program, I realized it has everything I could possible want academically speaking. I have heard a few rumors about NEU being considered an “antisocial school” which I personally have NEVER gotten the impression of on my four visits. In fact the atmosphere struck me as laid back and everyone seemed to be hanging out. My brother goes to CMU and he heard similar things about his school at first but he’s a sophomore now and he LOVES it there. Does your son, who is currently at NEU, love it? Are there any things he is not crazy about? Thanks for your help!
I can see how a lot of time thinking about BC would make it very hard to give up. It is a pretty place. My son had three visits and we were all tempted by the beauty. My brother also graduated from CMU BTW.
My two sons are very different from each other, and your interests may align more with the one in your year. For my older boy (a science-oriented engineering major whose other top acceptances were GA Tech, Purdue and CMU) the most important things were a good dorm situation and smart students around him who make good decisions (he is not into the party scene). He has been in great dorms for two years and will be in an even newer one third year. He found a nice group of boys to be roommates with this year and next. He says EVERYONE in his classes is smart. He was a National Merit Finalist, 34 ACT with 46 AP credits who entered as a sophomore technically and feels like he is below average in his engineering classes. He opted out of wonderful global experiences but friends, roommates, etc. have had a wonderful time on those. Parents are thrilled with the options their kids have and CCIS students make $30-$40 an hour on their first co op (WOW!). His advisors have been accessible when he needed them. In terms of negatives, there is stress when searching for your co ops – he watched his roommates do it and stress out, but they ALL landed nice co ops very close to campus. He goes next. Campus food was a disappointment, but there are restaurants all around campus so the advice would be to go with low meal plan option and get food elsewhere. The other negative is the stress of the housing lottery. You are assigned a number and the trick for second and third years is to find friends with a lower number and form a group for an apartment. Then you wait to see what is available. Stressful, but at the end of the day he ended up in an apartment with AC, a kitchen, living room and his best friend as a roommate second year. Next year he and two best friends (other non-partiers) will be together in an all single room apartment that is basically a penthouse with a view of Boston. Stress – then success. Good adult life prep.
Second son will be involved with music heavily and pursuing finance. He is also a straight arrow and comforted by the fact that his older brother kept away from trouble for two years at NEU. That is not to imply that parties do not happen, but Boston has other places to go if it is not your scene. A recent weekend visit to another college for Scholarship recipients where his student host took him to a frat party and a senior’s all-night drinking party left him unimpressed, despite the $$ offered, and he crossed it off the list. We hear BC is a very safe college too, so I am not dissing BC here, but another school nearby. My younger son would fit in perfectly at BC, or a JCrew catalog shoot, but he will just be the JCrew guy at NEU. He doesn’t mind being overdressed by wearing a polo shirt. During co op interview months there are students at NEU walking around in business attire everywhere and the other half of students are in t shirts and gym shorts or boots and parkas when it is cold.
Best of luck to you with your decision! Let us know what you decide.
@Beantownboys & everyone else,
Thanks again for all your advise!! In the end I decided the best fit for me was… Northeastern!! I’m extremely excited to be able to explore any and all of my interests. Go huskies!!
@shannon14 - thank you for the update and congrats on a great decision - Happy May 1st!
Congrats and all the best to you!
Congrats @shannon14! See you on campus! 
Fit is important! Congrats – and best of luck in the next 4-5 years. It’ll be great.
Leanid, I think you are referring to my post, describing the NEU vibe as intelligent? In no way did that imply that BC students are not. Just seemed to wear it differently. Big Bang Theory vs Frasier. All good.
Congratulations! It feels better once the decision is made doesn’t it. We took a break from research after my son committed to Northeastern as well. Since then, he has become aware of two more guys in our neighborhood who will also be attending. He will be at Orientation June 19-20. I am sure he’d like to meet another future D’Amore McKim student if we can go offline and exchange contact info. I can also share the enormously helpful Parents’ Facebook group with your family if they are interested. Go Huskies!