I got into both of these schools for EA. I’m interested in doing Computer Science, but I have a hard time choosing.
Northeastern seems to be better reputed + the co-op which seems interesting, but I like the smaller size of Case Western Reserve.
What are the primary differences between the two?
What are the distinct advantages of either?
How popular is the CS major at each school?
Any additional information will help!
I looked at both during my college search and chose Northeastern. I absolutely could not be happier with the CS program here. The program itself has a truly unique teaching philosophy you can read about below. I enjoyed the teaching philosophy so much that I currently help TA the course.
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/Thoughts/Growing_a_Programmer.html
This past semester for the intro course, we had 7 professors teaching it, 12 TA’s, and at least 40 tutors. We also had a growing number of students of course, as the major is growing everywhere, but the section sizes stay under 50 students. More students means more sections, not more students per section. Every member of the staff holds office hours and you can get help on assignments pretty much 24/7. The same support network exists for the entire first-year curriculum, and then shifts towards just TA’s and professors in the later classes, as well as specific upper-level class tutor help. If you’re worried about class sizes and attention, you will get plenty here. CS is it’s own entire college, so you get specific CS classes and a specific co-op prep class too.
The professors are amazing and passionate about both teaching and research and very accessible. I have had maybe a single professor that I didn’t speak with outside of class at some point. The program creator, who wrote the above essay, taught and ran the introductory course last semester.
Co-op of course is great for CS and probably the highest average co-op salary at Northeastern. People go to Google, Facebook, Apple, Intuit, Snapchat, Hubspot, Tripadvisor, VMWare and more every semester. I’m actually going out to one of those big name companies and personally know someone who has worked at every single one of them. There are tons of companies without the big names that give great experience and pay as well. As you would expect, the big name companies are very competitive and more likely for 2nd or 3rd co-ops. While you should have no problems getting internships at Case, the difference in experience from 1-2 internships to 2-3 co-ops is very significant in CS and companies love experienced entry level applicants.
Again, Case is a very solid school, in general and for CS too, and I don’t want to minimize that. And if there is a significantly different fit, that’s just as important as the different programs. So, some differences:
Overall, they are pretty similar schools and attract similar students. I think fit is a big part of why students choose one over the other, as well as specific programs. What are you looking for in terms of fit?
I don’t know Case as well since I don’t attend, so hopefully someone can speak to their department in more detail than I can. If you have any more questions I’d be happy to answer more specifics!
Thank you very much! Any other insights?
Boston vs. Cleveland.
@Bop @MotherOfDragons I spent nine years in Cambridge. Visited Cleveland many times in the last four years. University Circle Cleveland reminds me of Cambridge MA. they are very similar intellectually focused communities. Their is NOTHING suburban about University Circle. University Circle offers as many museums, and top classical music and fine arts as Cambridge, and Case students get season passes to the Cleveland Orchestra and entrance to other museums like Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Cleveland Fine Arts is free every day for everyone. Modern Art museum students get a discount. . Most musicians feel Cleveland Orchestra is rated much better than the Boston Symphony. The architecture in Cleveland is very east coast. The ethnic neighborhood are similar and offer great Italian food, walking distance to Case Western. Northeastern students get on the T to get to the North End of Boston, and surely they do that some.
Cleveland is BETTER than Boston, arguably for level of Theatre productions and a long history of live theatre.
Cleveland has more gritty poverty, but the crime rates are not that different I would say. I personally know many students getting mugged in Boston and Cambridge and know of a student who had a man crawl in a window in Boston and steal things at gunpoint. My Cambridge apartment, in a safe part of Cambridge, 400 Broadway, closer to Harvard Square, a thief broke in and stole gold jewelry out of my underwear drawer in 1988. It still happens there today.
The pollution in the Charles River was so bad that we joked about walking across it. The Muddy Charles Pub is named after this stinky river between Boston and Cambridge. BU students and MIT students live closer than Northeastern students do.
Boston has one really unique problem: College Move in day. Be prepared for a huge crowd and give yourself 24 hours to get through the crowds. If you are bringing a car, be prepared to wait a lot and be stuck in a lot of traffic.
On a normal day in Boston the Central Artery, the north/south highway, is considered to be rush hour, 22 hours per 24 hour day. On snow days its worse.
Driving around Cleveland is problem free, as it is a smaller city with way fewer universities. (CWRU, Cleveland State and a few Roman Catholic schools)
At Case western–Move in day is so fun! Its easy and students will help you. Case Western is friendlier overall as is Cleveland.
Crime, culture and move in day, may not be a reason to pick CWRU over Northeastern, look at programs, research options and coops.
Case Western offers some of the best medical related software firms and research in the nation. Boston is also a medically focused city.
A lot of the things you’ve mentioned have changed a good deal since back then, and you also omit the huge positives of Boston.
It should also be noted that Cambridge would be considered a suburb of Boston, especially as you get farther out from Central / Harvard Square.
A typical college student will not care about the minute differences in quality of the symphony or theatre. Most will likely never go to the former, and Boston theatre is plenty fine and is still a luxury most students won’t utilize.
Move-in day is good to be aware of, but again, isn’t really relevant to the experience of a city over the course of a full year.
When it comes to art museums, Northeastern students get in free to the MFA and art surrounded by plenty. The MFA is huge. There’s also the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum a few blocks away and the museum of science, where there are often school sponsored free trips.
The Charles is now one of the cleanest urban rivers in the US thanks to a huge effort by the city over the past decades. So clean we have tourists on it now. A nice cheap activity is renting a kayak on it during the summer, or even better, running along the Esplanade for free.
As far as crime, that’s all very anecdotal, and at odds with what I have experienced. I don’t know a single person who’s gotten mugged. The only normal thing in Boston right now that I know of is bike theft. None of my friends have seen a gun, let alone heard gunshots.
You mention a lot of car problems, but virtually no students own a car in Boston thanks to the amazing public transportation with the T, a good bus system, extended commuter railways, and central Amtrak stations. Not to mention that the central artery is completely underground since after The Big Dig. As a student in Boston, you won’t even see rush hour traffic, and will often likely walk on top of it on parks in the North End without realizing it at first. To me, if you have to own a car in a city, it’s not a good city.
The amount of academics in the city and the youth is a big appeal for many as well. The abundance of college cheap food is nice as well, given that over 400,000 students are in the metro area, 250K in Boston proper.
In the end, the student experiences are distinctly different. For anyone looking for a city experience, Boston will beat out Cleveland easily, speaking as someone who had that as an important part of the college search. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy Cleveland and that it doesn’t offer much of value, but if you’re comparing, NEU/Boston is much more of a city experience than CWRU/Cleveland.
Yeah, cities change over time. Sometimes dramatically. When I was in college in Pittsburgh in 1988, it was ugly. The river had caught on fire recently, and everything was coated in black soot from the coal mining.
I’ve seen pictures that tell me how stunningly different and amazing it is now. Atlanta is similar-it’s unbelievable to witness the growth (both good and bad) that has happened in just the last decade.
So, dated knowledge of the area is invalid, @Coloradomama . It’s my personal opinion, having been to both Cleveland and Boston recently, that Boston is a better city, especially with regards to quality of life for college kids (with 250k peers around them), public transportation, access to the ocean, historical depth and breadth, and contacts in the industry.
And to be fair, I live in Atlanta. My kids aren’t going to undergrad in either city, so I don’t have a personal dog in the fight.
@Bop @MotherofDragons. I work for a company on Milk Street in Boston, since 2003, and visit Boston frequently. I guess my point to OP is this: Look at the academic programs not the city. You will be working and studying a lot in the first four years of your education. CWRU offers CS students a co op and access to the best jobs in CS at Google, Microsoft and a rigorous program. Case Western Reserve University is a true liberal arts college. Case Freshman read a book together the summer before freshman year, all students take three reading and writing classes, service is incorporated into the curriculum as is strong scholarship. Cleveland really does remind me of Cambridge. And Really Boston has more litter than any city I have lived in, including New York City and Tokyo.
Northeastern often takes more than four years to complete.
There is a perception among parents on CC that Boston is BETTER. I disagree. I lived in Boston for nine years and work there, with frequent visits, as I live in Colorado now.
I think the rah rah about Boston only holds if you are from the northeast and cannot get beyond the northeast, but Boston, is not New York City.
Cleveland is an east coast style city. I grew up near NYC, and lived there for twenty years and the similarities are there, to both Cambridge and parts of NYC. Cleveland has old money
and neighborhoods, and fantastic music and art. It offers students trains and public transportation to the Lake Front area, and some of the best theatre outside of NYC.
I love the friendliness of Cleveland, although Boston is a great location with lots of young people.
Now THIS I can get on board with 100 % 
Well, maybe 90%. If you’re a poor college student, you can’t take advantage of what any city has to offer, but some cities are safer/more fun to be a college student in…
I go to Case Western and think you should go to Northeastern. The CS department has too few professors here. Many students have to pay for an extra semester just to get the degree. At Northeastern, you will get great benefits from the co-op program and have less trouble with getting into classes you need. Good luck.
@spittinfire Could you elaborate what it means to pay an extra semester? Are there so few professors to a point where theres a high probability you cannot even get in the CS classes?