Boston U. vs. Northeastern U.

<p>I'm quite interested in these schools. I absolutely fell in love with Boston. The city was great, weather was nice, and from the tour, I felt a good vibe from those two schools. If any of you are from any of these universities, could you give your opinion please? For instance, I've heard Northeastern has an awesome Co-op program but they have an absolutely horrible administration. Things like that. If anyone else has something to contribute, feel free to do so!
Thanks alot!</p>

<p>The co-op thing is a complete and utter joke.</p>

<p>oh seriously? have you gone through the actual program it self? if you could, could you give me a little bit more insight for your reasoning?</p>

<p>do people not know about these schools or something? O<em>O i feel like im not getting any responses except for TUOwls2011(thanks!)
or am i just getting impatient ></em><</p>

<p>I transferred out of BU, and absolutely hated Northeastern when I visited. The whole co-op thing is a joke, because if you go to any decent school, you should be interning anyway.</p>

<p>I don't think you should take the opinion of someone who has no experience at all with co-ops too seriously.
Internships are not the same as co-ops.</p>

<p>I loved BU when I visited as well. I don't know too much about it except that it is apparently pretty Jewish.. The biggest group on campus is the Hillel.</p>

<p>As for Northeastern, I also didn't really like it when I visited.. I would not recommend going there if you don't know what you want to do. That's the point of co-op.. you get a hand up on other kids in your field. If you have no idea (like me lol), I would not recommend going there.</p>

<p>But lje62 said, the co-op is not what I would consider a joke. They have placement with many good companies (they probably have a list somewhere on their website), and you get paid. Supposedly to pay for college, although I don't think that really works out. But it is more like "real job" experience in contrast to interning. And if you do a good job, you may have your foot in the door to work in that company after college. They may even pay for you to go to school.</p>

<p>@TUOwls2011 Why did you transfer out of BU. What didn't you like about it. </p>

<p>@HottYankRemix Do you go to BU currently or are you a high school senior as well?</p>

<p>My nephew completed the co-op program at Northeastern last year, and had a nice choice of jobs when he was done. Don't downplay the effect of the coop - it is two years of solid work experience, which will certainly help get your foot in the door ahead of your competition.</p>

<p>Mmm. you make a good point midwesterner. Thats one of the things that my dad liked about the school as well. Working experience dramatically boosts your chances at a job. I'm pretty sure I want to do something in the business field I just don't know what though! </p>

<p>Which school do you guys think is better in terms of school spirit and getting along well with others. etc. sports and things like that</p>

<p>I'm a high school senior. I know a couple BU students, and I google for a living lol. I also went on a visit in February that I thoroughly enjoyed.</p>

<p>As for sports: Both schools do not have a ton of school spirit. I think BU has hockey that is pretty big.. but I've read a bit about the lack of unity there. Also, NEU does not really have too much spirit since their sports aren't really big.. They do have football though.. at Northeastern. BU does not have any football.</p>

<p>If you need a sports experience, I would recommend applying to a couple flagships or schools that have big sporting programs. Once you get your acceptances at a school like BU or NEU and a school like UMD or Villanova or BC.. you can review what has more of an environment you are looking for.</p>

<p>well, I personally don't love sporting events or anything. but occasionally i will attend a game or two. More importantly, i like schools that are very welcoming among other students. You know how it is in high school, all clicky and stuff like that. Don't think that's all that inviting lol. Seems like BU seems a little more oriented in that direction as opposed to NEU.</p>

<p>Yeah, the co-ops are great, which is why the top employers are the schools themselves...</p>

<p>There are over 2,200 Co-Op employers that work with NEU. Many NEU students get hired by their co-op employers after graduation. And that's no joke.</p>

<p>I'm aware of that, however, IMO, they have no advantage over those NOT at co-op schools.</p>

<p>NEU isn't the best for school spirit. We have some good teams and we occasionally feign interest in hockey. But outside of the athletes, no one really pays much attention. </p>

<p>Co-op is great, and very few people here have any complaints. There really are some amazing opportunities and connections, and working full-time for 6 months really is different than having a summer internship for 3 months, or working somewhere part-time. It's also true that people get great offers right out of school, and some who are able to continue working part time at their co-op during the class year.</p>

<p>Of course, it's true you can get great internships at any school. It's also true that some students don't get great co-ops. This is usually due to lack of effort on the applicants part though. As far as working for the school, I only know 2 people who have done it... one a music industry major who was too lazy to apply for a real job, and one a engineer who turned down outside jobs for a position at an on-campus nanotechnology lab.</p>

<p>I didn't go to either school, but I did go to school in the Boston area (and will be applying to one of those schools for my master's).</p>

<p>Northeastern has a more blue-collar reputation (I don't mean that as a negative in any way). It is a strong CS/engineering school. The co-op thing is pretty cool, and more extensive than most internships.</p>

<p>BU is probably more prestigious on the whole. However, they are supposed to be stingy with finaid. Also, they are kind of a police state. When I was an undergrad, our admins used to try to pacify us when we had complaints about their restricting student freedoms by saying that "Look how good you have it! We could treat you like the BU students get treated!"</p>

<p>Well it's not that bad anymore, although it's awful regarding alcohol.</p>

<p>The biggest benefit of Northeastern's Co-Op is the fact that you can work full time, not take any classes, but STILL RETAIN YOUR FULL STUDENT STATUS. Why is this important? Because you can still live on campus, use campus health insurance, and easily segue from co-op to school when your internship is over. </p>

<p>Few schools have anything like it (Drexel comes to mind.) If you're not interested in a very significant work experience during your college years, Northeastern will not be the school for you.</p>

<p>Yeah, but who would want to go to Drexel?</p>