Anyone else comparing two or three of these schools, and what are your deciding factors? D is very undecided regarding major. Only in Honors at Northeastern. Got merit at all three making cost of tuition pretty much a wash. Raving fans and harsh critics alike…what are your thoughts?
Northeastern is definitely the most competitive school out of the three, plus honors is a great bonus. I would definitely go with that. The co-op program there is something to consider - some people hate it some love it. it’s a chance to work for 6 months while in school, and you can do them abroad as well. Your daughter should think about the environment she wants to be in though. That’s what it comes down to. Fordham religious with New York, Boston and Co-Op, or DC political activism, study abroad opportunities
Northeastern for sure. Why is this even a question
Honestly if major isn’t a factor, I would base it off of which city she likes the best. Northeastern is the best university, but all are great and offer tons of opportunities! Also, as the person above said, keep in mind that Fordham is religious - not sure if that plays a factor. I definitely would not just choose Northeastern solely because it’s the best university/honors. Make sure she genuinely wants to go there/would be happy!
Considering they are all good universities your daughter should go wherever she would be happiest (also I’ve never been a fan of NEU, they’ve only “improved” in a way that puts them better in the rankings). If she wants to participate in greek life Fordham would be out (though since she’s seriously considering it I don’t think she does).
I would also look into which school has the most flexible choices when it comes to majors. Some schools make it really difficult to internal transfer while others don’t. You also want to look at the student body. How diverse does she want the school to be? Is she political active? Check out the freshmen retention rate to see how the students like it. One thing I’ve done is join the admitted students’ pages on FB for each university I got into. It really gives you a feel your potential classmates.
ah yes flexibility is a good point being that she is undecided. personally gw is my fav for this (that’s why i’m going there) - they have a program which you can design your own major even. fordham however has a strong core liberal artsprogram
Northeastern is very flexible when it comes to major changes and has a very helpful undecided program. Co-op, as mentioned, is the thing that most go for. Northeastern’s retention rate is 97%, GW’s is 94%, 91% for Fordham - all pretty good.
@17andcomingclean …it’s a question because while NU is the highest ranked school and the only one of the 3 to offer her honors, I’m a little concerned that she will miss out on a traditional college experience.e Perhaps I’m just comparing to my experience at a big SEC school, but it seems like a comuter school in many ways with the student body changing drastically every semester. With that said, none of her choices are anything like mine. .And she isn’t really like me. Definitely not worried about a party school or anything, and actually goes to a catholic girls high school so Fordham might be wroth looking at. Her favorite city is DC but dream school was Georgetown and she was deferred and then denied, and I’m not sure GW is a close enough second. Just a big decision. Happy to hear pros or cons either way. Yours was a big pro…thank you. 
As a Northeastern student, I’d completely drop rank here, especially given that your daughter is undecided on major. While I absolutely love the school, the ranks game they play mentioned by @Kd6410 is absolutely real. That said, the results of that really make big positive changes to the school on campus and all three schools here are a very high caliber.
Northeastern isn’t a traditional college experience at all, but it’s absolutely not a commuter school feel either. It’s a school very much about the practical application of education (co-op but also other practical type programs) and being a city lover versus your traditional college campus. It’s personally exactly what I wanted, but it’s not for everyone. The important question is if it fits your daughter best. It doesn’t matter what the rankings say here.
I’d be happy to answer any specific questions when it comes to daily life, feel, etc at Northeastern.
My daughter was also undeclared. She got into honors at both Fordham and Northeastern (the honors program at Fordham was the most selective program she was offered at any school.) She had some other strong choices (Tufts and American) and picked Northeastern.
Being undecided she wanted someplace with strong advising - not only was advising strong at Northeastern but they have a real program for undeclared students (one which has gotten even better since she was in it) She also felt that co-op would help her to decide what to be “when she grew up”. One of my favorite co-op stories was the admin person at Northeastern who had always wanted to be a lawyer. After a 6 month co-op at a law firm he knew it was not for him. Saved him lots of time and money!
Fordham actually ended up with several strikes against it - not truly in the city (Bronx campus is a bus ride away from NYC), the core seemed too restrictive, the honors program was too small (was afraid the other honors students wouldn’t be her tribe and they live and take all their freshman classes together), and she didn’t want a school with a religious affiliation.
The students and vibe at GW and Northeastern are very different and Boston and DC - although both “small” cities - also are very different in feel (she might want to go to the admitted student days at both to compare - note they have special sessions for the undeclared one at Northeastern). GW students are preppy and political - the city is political, Northeastern students are serious and professional minded and Boston is young (over one million college students - although I thin they include Cambridge to get this number).
@PengsPhils …thank you for your comments. I’ve seen your name/log on a few of my other posts I believe. I would love to hear more about the campus feel and student life. Is it fun? Are kids enjoying themselves and going to sports events (I know you have decent D1 sports even if not football), and are they ever, on a sunny day, sitting around the quad reading in the sun or contemplating the literary works for JK Rawling?
My quirky, sometimes awkward, sweatpants always girl is not the business/professional type. I want her to embrace her uniqueness and study philosophy or anthropology. My husband wants her to major in CS or business so she can support herself with a high paying job. Maybe at NU she can do both…that is the idea right? I am sold on the co-op program and think it’s amazing, and my D was also admitted to the Explore Program which is perfect for her. Just wondering if it’s traditional in the sense of campus, dorm life, campus life, etc. Thanks!
It’s a bit of both - I absolutely find it fun! I think the retention rate above says a lot as well to that, but I’ll try to give a picture of my typical week and hit your questions on the way
When it comes to sports, that’s not me or most of the school, but there’s probably about a quarter of the school that’s more into that, usually via Hockey/Basketball which are the two main sports here. Generally, though, the school spirit is expressed in a shared mindset of practicality more than through your typical school spirit. I think people often conflate practicality and pre-professional when it comes to Northeastern - I’m a very practical person but I hate the corporate world frankly. While there are certainly more pre-professional people here too, there are plenty here that are interested in academic subjects for the sake of it and usually minor or double major accordingly.
I have a philosophy/ethics minor and plan to eventually get a Ph.D. after I retire, just for fun. But to make money to enable that, I’ll work in my career in CS, which I also enjoy.
The STEM programs here do tend to be bigger/better funded, but there are still plenty of good non-STEM programs. The philosophy department at Northeastern is actually pretty amazing in my experience, of course specializing in applied philosophy, specifically ethics.
In terms of typical days on the quad, that’s absolutely a thing when the weather gets nice. There’s also plenty of igloos, snowmen, and some other fun snow shapes in the winter. The difference with Northeastern is that student life takes advantage of the full city. On sunny days, you may find hundreds on the quad, but you’ll also find them in the Boston Commons, kayaking on the Charles, running along the Esplanade, walking Newbury, at the SOWA market, etc. As many things happen on campus as off, so usually people do outings with friends all over the city. As a fourth year, a few friends and I have a regular brunch setup where we go and try new places (usually still college level cheap) for brunch weekly or bi-weekly. Even if it’s not a perfect day, people will go find a cool coffee shop and hull up or do tons of other activities. I personally rock climb (indoor gym) and try to make it out a few times a week with friends. There’s a huge Facebook group you can post in to see who’s going to be at the gym when you are, and often people arrange weekend trips for outdoor climbing via that too. My best friend and I will regularly go out and just explore a new neighborhood just for fun.
Everyone lives on campus the first two years, and you don’t go on co-op until your fourth semester or later, so your first year would be indistinguishable from any other school. Dining halls, dorms, clubs, etc. There are a few small differences that make co-op easier though. Clubs work by semester instead of year, things like that. While people go elsewhere for co-op sometimes, a good deal of people stay in Boston and are still there when it comes to social things, and people tend to wait until 2nd/3rd co-op before going elsewhere. Even when you do go elsewhere, most major cities have concentrations of Northeastern students, and our co-op connections office sets up events in those cities. There’s usually Facebook groups too and people go do trip in the area. I was in LA for a co-op, a good friend of mine in SF, and I flew up a few times and hung out with Northeastern students in SF. Some of them are now my better friends in Boston now. There’s definitely some coming and going from campus, but everyone’s in the same boat and the social life adapts. I have a friend I’m hanging out with tomorrow that I didn’t see for a year between co-ops outside of Boston, but we’re still very close just as when we met freshman year.
As far as planning and pre-professional go, I like to say that every Northeastern student has a plan, but it’s always subject to change. People go on co-op and change majors or career direction or maybe they love it and get that confirmation years before graduating. The point is that you don’t have to have it all figured out, but people here all tend to have an eye towards it. Not because they’re all money hungry and anxious to put on a suit and work 9 to 5, but because they want to be happy when with their career when they do actually have to do that. Or maybe they realize they can’t do the 9-5 and explore starting their own business, being a freelancer, etc. But you get that 9-5 work experience with co-op so you can decide for yourself what works for you.
Hopefully that all gives you an idea of what it’s like
@PengsPhils … you are awesome! Thank you!!!
I’m a little off-put by the claim that GW students are preppy and political. I completely understand what you mean and why you may think that, but preppy is not really a positively connoted word today. Being someone who has visited GW twice and is in their Facebook group, I completely agree that they’re political. However, out of all 5 of the university groups I’m in, they’re by far the most liberal and least preppy. Not to pick at words, but a genuinely preppy school would be something like Boston College. GW is very different from that, with one of the most un-preppy student bodies out of most of its fellow well renowned private schools on the east coast. I just don’t want OP to get a negative impression of that statement because I don’t feel it’s completely accurate!
From what I’ve experienced with GWU, I think @djm1999 brings up some valid points. As a Northeastern student close to BC, anecdotally, I don’t generally like preppiness and find BC people to be far less my type than GW people. I don’t think I’d go as far as “one of the most un-preppy”, but upper 50% “un-preppy” for sure
@djm1999 and @PengsPhils … ironically, I “have heard” that Fordham kids are “preppy”, and sometimes the negative kind…may very wealthy and always dressed well. I would think at any private U there will be a group like that. Not too worried about that stereotype. There are are worse! I know the BC rep well…I don’t think NU or GW are anything like that. No worries.
@kiddie …thank you for your note. Spot on about Fordham…I know it is religious and now really in DC. Honestly they gave us the biggest merit at $32k/yr but not the honors program, so that was sort of odd. NU is more selective that both FU and GW and she got honors there…thinking that a straight A girl from an all-girls school with 100 in her grad class might be overwhelmed by college in general, so we were happy about the honors program at NU.
I just think her heart is in DC and her head at NU, but as a parent, I think she has glamorized DC a bit. And I do think/agree no matter what anyone says, no matter your major, if you go to school in DC you should be interested in and willing to talk about politics. You are living in the center of it and it will be everywhere, so at the very least it shouldn’t annoy you! I’ll have to have that talk with her.
I fully believe that as long as she can have some normal college kid fun, NU will provide that guidance and structure she needs. And we are lucky to have gotten honors and $20k. They also give the honors kids $6k for any global experience they choose so it’s really like a bigger scholarship.
Still contemplating a bit, but this has been the most helpful thread. Thank you!
my daughter is at GW and I what I do love about it is how they take the learning outside the classroom. For one class she went to the National zoo. For another one of the museums. And this will continue. in the warmer weather the kids will study on the national Mall. you can go to parties at embassy’s. These are experiences that one only gets in DC. Oh and my D still wears leggings and sweatshirts . The feel from the two schools are totally different. I would say that you need her to visit again and deep dive and make a decision.
@djm1999 and @PengsPhils , thank you very much for responding to the comment about GW’s “preppiness.” My son is considering GW, but he is not preppy at all - didn’t apply to Georgetown in part for that reason (of course, it would have been a reach anyway). He is obsessed with politics and loves DC, but has not been to GW yet. We are going soon for an admitted student day, but the preppy comments kind of freaked me out. GW gave him good merit $ and he really likes the Political Communication major.
FYI, he was admitted to NU like OP’s daughter, but not NU Honors, and has decided against it because he got less merit $$ there and is not all in on the co-op program.
@sdl0625 , is your daughter at the Foggy Bottom location?
@pickledginger …I did not feel that preppy vibe at all. I’m the OP. We visited in the fall and did the whole day tour. We liked it!! Only saw Foggy Bottom campus. Was easy to get around, weather is nice, very clean and safe feeling area. Area is charming. Lacks a traditional campus feel but I still felt the students seemed connected in different ways.
For us, I think it just depends on whether my daughter would rather live in Boston or DC…if she’s interested in politics…and if it matters to her about the honors program. Honors was only of interest to her at bigger schools because she’s a little overwhelmed with size.
When is the admitted students day? We haven’t received anything in the mail yet, just the acceptance online.
@twinmom71 , it has been getting really difficult to keep track of all the admitted student communications etc, but I am pretty sure that he did not receive any email about it from GW, either. We were going to be in the DC area to go to a UMD admitted event in mid-April, so I looked at scheduling a tour of GW then, and found info online re: Inside GW.
The UMD event and the GW event are on the same day, so he may do half and half or ??? Currently, he is signed up for both. Here is the the content of the confirming email. Also, there are sessions for the individual colleges or majors in the afternoon, from 2pm-4pm. He signed up for one of those.
Email from GW:
"Thank you for signing up for Inside GW (4/13/2018 9:00 AM)! We are excited to welcome you to campus.
Inside GW will provide you with an “inside” look at life as a Colonial through conversations with current students, faculty, academic advisors, and staff. You can visit both of our undergraduate campuses, tour select residence halls, and explore the many social and academic opportunities that await you at GW.
To help you prepare for Inside GW, please review the following:
Check-in will begin at 8 a.m. in Lisner Auditorium (730 21st Street NW).
Inside GW will be held from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. Lunch will be provided for students and their guests.
Please note that we strongly encourage use of Metro to get to GW as parking on campus is limited. The Foggy Bottom/GWU Metro station is on the orange, blue and silver lines and is a three-block walk from Lisner Auditorium.
If you choose to drive, a limited number of visitor spaces are available in the garages listed below, with a daily parking rate of $23:
University Parking Garage, accessible via H Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets
Marvin Center Garage, accessible via H Street between 21st and 22nd Streets
G Street Garage, accessible via 20th or 21st Street between F and G Streets
If your plans change and you are no longer able to attend, please cancel your registration. We hope you will be able to reschedule your visit. Links to other admitted student programs are available in your student portal.
We look forward to seeing you on campus!
Raise High!"
My son has a great offer at UMD with Honors, merit $, and what seems like an appealing living learning community, but he really sees himself in an urban environment. GW’s Foggy Bottom campus definitely has that going for it! Thanks for sharing your impressions.