I’ve been accepted into both Northeastern University(NU) and Bridgewater State University(BSU) as a transfer student. I plan on majoring in computer science and want to make an informed decision on which school to attend.
My decision is leaning more towards NU because of the education and its location in Boston with a tuition est. 43,340. However, my interest conflicts with my mother who wants me to attend BSU because the tuition is est. at $9000 a year and is located about 3 streets over. Based on this information what school do you think I should attend along with some related questions.
-How does the school assist in preparing the student before and after graduation?
-What would you rate the quality of their CS program and why?
-What is their student social life and student-teacher relationships like?
Does each school accept your previously taken CS courses for its frosh/soph CS course requirements, or will you have to take “catch up” courses after transfer?
I will have to take catch up course regardless of what school I attend. I did research and found that my credits will transfer to NU and BSU but only for my math and science courses.
The big question is whether you need any financial aid, were you awarded any and where the funds will come from to make the more expensive school possible or not.
I hadn’t heard of BSU but a quick look shows it to be a liberal arts college which may have limited offerings in CS. I didn’t check, have you? I’m wondering why you didn’t apply to UMass? NEU is supposed to have a good CS program and they are known for coops where you can earn some money and gain some good experience in the field which really helps with job hunting. But this is a huge cost, you have room and board and other expenses than tuition.
Academically there is no comparing the two schools. Northeastern will give you a much better education in CS. But what about financial aid? What is your award and what can your parents afford? You should have applied to UMass Amherst to get the best quality/cost match.
With financial aid and awards I can go to BSU for free. For Northeastern it will cover half the cost which I could ask my parents to help me pay. The price difference alone is what makes BSU appealing. However, with the information I have gathered I will make Northeastern my final choice.
The cost of tuition at Northeastern is high. I plan to complete scholarships over the summer to help mitigate the cost of tuition. Are there any sites that you would recommend such as Fastweb scholarships, (etc.).
The #1 source of financial aid is the college itself. Then the federal government and your state. Fastweb, etc, means lots of time spent for very little results. You can try, of course, as every little bit helps, but you’d need to see what scholarships each university offers. What did Northeastern offer? Is there still time for you to apply to UMass Amherst?
MYOS1634, I looked and there is still time for me to apply to Umass Amherst. With everyone saying its a better option than NEU for the quality/cost I’ll take a chance and see if I can get in.
Greenman57 I’m curious, why do you say Umass Amherst has a better CS program than NEU?
@Deadulus I usually don’t say this but look at the rankings for CS. UMass is towards the top with other great schools. A lot of people in industry know it’s top notch.
Look at the rankings for CS grad school. Undergrad is similar but a paid subscription.
When comparing NEU’s costs to UMass’s instate cost’s + scholarship we are talking savings that could buy a small house over 4 years… NEU without scholarship + boarding is 62K a year x 4 which is 248K… UMass with a 10k scholarship is 12k per year with boarding. (So 48k) So do the math 248-48 = 200k in savings and as gearmom said they are ranked much higher in CS than NEU. It scares me that many MA students that don’t get scholarships from expensive schools like BU don’t realize this… (NEU does have a good co-op program but it isn’t worth 200k…)
Ya, Lowell technically has the same price, but since they are a less selective school than UMass Amherst they tend to give better aid to students who wouldn’t qualify for it at Amherst. Mind you Lowell’s engineering is great and possibly on par with Amherst, this being said, Amherst certainly has the better CS program.
Yes, Lowell will give better money than Amherst. Two yrs ago my son got admitted to umass Amherst undecided (he applied for mechanical engineering) but got into umass Lowell for mech eng and got a scholarship for 1/2 tuition and fees.
