<p>How competitive is the college of science as opposed to some of the other schools. My impression is that it is a bit less competitive - it seems as if engineering,, bouve, business are the most competitive schools. Within college of science does anyone know if environmental science/studies would be more/less competitive than biology?</p>
<p>Well… It’s like… new. Like this past year kind of new. The class that just entered is the first one that entered in as College of Science students. So there isn’t exactly enough time to compare.</p>
<p>Business is more competitive to get into, but it is very tough to transfer into it. The main point is that it’s just really really popular. Obviously the acceptance rate will be lower, since so many people want to get into it. But judging by what I saw of the students in business versus other colleges, I wouldn’t say they are a smarter bunch than any of the rest. Of course Bouve is competitive, but it’s mainly the Pharmacy (a doctorate degree- duh) and Nursing (where you have to be crazy passionate about nursing to get in) that people talk a lot about. Engineering is competitive because of the applicants themselves. People going into engineering tend to have higher grades, etc than say a communications major- totally a generalization, by the way. So yes, someone with a low grade might get into comm, but someone with a higher grade may not get into engineering- but it’s because the applicants were a tougher pool. </p>
<p>An important issue is that, beyond screening to see if you had a 1.5 gpa in high school, acceptances to the old CAS colleges are made by major. For example, when I said communications major above, it was actually a little in correct. We have a very highly ranked comm program, so it’s really popular. Since the major only has a certain amount of room, it tends to be a pretty competitive program to get into compared to say, english. Environmental science is probably a popular one, but I’d personally guess that the more advanced students would be going into biology. All of the wanna-be premeds are going to apply for bio or chemistry.</p>
<p>But apply to what you want to do. Why does COS’s competitiveness compared to the business school matter? If you don’t want to do business, then you shouldn’t be applying to the business school period.</p>
<p>Thanks neuchimie - I actually just submitted my application (last night) and chose college of science. The common app made me choose a major so I chose biology, but I’m not 100% sure I want to do biology. Environmental science was of real interest too. As to whether I am advanced or not - well I’m not the top 10% of the class, but I am in the top 25% at a very competitve high school in MA. Every year NEU accepts lots of kids from my school. Because I like both sciences I hope I made the right choice as far as getting into the university. I know the first year a lot of the courses will be general and the major itself doesn’t matter that much if you’re talking science anyhow. Even with environmental science, bio would be part of the first year curriculum I would think.</p>
<p>Well actually, the courses WILL be different between the two even your first year. Bio is a pretty tough major, whereas environmental is more policy based (even if you do “science” and not “studies”). There are a surprisingly large amount of classes with ENVR… </p>
<p>Bio reqs: <a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/registrar/courses/cat1112-acad-sc-biol.pdf[/url]”>http://www.northeastern.edu/registrar/courses/cat1112-acad-sc-biol.pdf</a></p>
<p>Environmental reqs: <a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/registrar/courses/cat1112-acad-sc-envr.pdf[/url]”>http://www.northeastern.edu/registrar/courses/cat1112-acad-sc-envr.pdf</a></p>
<p>But the main issue will just be the timing. Bio kids will definitely take bio 1, chem 1, calc 1 and (for example) a core class their first semester. All of those ARE required for environmental science majors, but they might not always be taken right away. You might want to take ENVR 1101 Environmental Science as your elective so that if you decide to switch, you don’t fall behind. They also have a dual in Bio and Environmental Geology, if that interests you… But all of these options could be discussed and figured out with your advisor if you get in.</p>