<p>I absolutely love Boston, however, I am having trouble finding a school there that I fit in well with
Grade-wise, Northeastern is my level, but I am not sure how I would fit in with the people. I heard BU is very jappy? Is Northeastern like that?</p>
<p>Also I dont want to be somewhere where Greek Life is big because I really dont get along well in big groups of girls. I like small groups of friends with common interests. I get along the best with intellectuals and who care deeply about their schoolwork and less about partying.</p>
<p>Would you say that Id fit in here? Or do you think I belong at a more challenging school academically where people take the work more seriously.</p>
<p>Northeastern doesn’t have a big party atmosphere because most will go off-campus to BU/Harvard/etc. for parties. Greek life is also off-campus in the Mission Hill neighborhood. </p>
<p>I think we’re pretty similar in terms of what we’d want socially. The average personality type here miiight not be what you’re looking for, but you can/will find people with similar interests/intellectuals. The ease of this is kind of a luck thing, with housing and major and whatnot.</p>
<p>What other schools are you looking at, and for what majors/programs?</p>
<p>There are plenty of parties at Northeastern, and not everyone just goes to BU/Harvard/etc. The parties tend to be less at frat houses or houses illegally full of frat guys because of the nature of our Greek life, but there are still plenty of parties. They just tend to be in apartments, not houses.</p>
<p>Greek life here isn’t oppressive. If you want it, then it’s there and it’s great. If not, you barely notice them (except for the events they run, in which case their name is in small print at the bottom of the flyers). It’s a very nice compromise for a lot of students.</p>
<p>The “academic” feel you are looking for is overestimated at a lot of colleges. You’d like MIT would be the biggest group of computer-obsessed nerds, but MIT has the best frat parties in Boston/Cambridge. I have friends at Princeton who complain that people care more about how cool and unique you are (think the term “diversity”) than how smart you are. How you feel about the school will depend a lot on your own personal group of friends, and there are people at EVERY school who will feel the same way as you do. Just like there are people at EVERY school who act like idiots and barely pass their classes.</p>
<p>That being said, Northeastern tends to attract a lot of professionally-driven people. Meaning, the students here (on average) tend to define themselves and their friends by what co-ops you’ve had, how good you are at interviews, what your job prospects are like, etc. A Northeastern kid would judge someone who moved back in with their parents because they didn’t get a job after graduation more than a regular state school kid would. (Again- on average, but obviously there are some NEU kids who do indeed move back home, because there always are.)</p>
<p>We tend to care a little more about jobs than academia. Yet most of my friends care a lot about their schoolwork too, and about half are going on to grad school. So you’ll find people everywhere. Don’t think that because you go to a state school, or a co-op school, or a non-top-tier school that everyone is going to get drunk every night and flunk their classes. I lived in the Honors dorm my first two years, and sure there were people who had not-so-legal smells coming from their rooms. But then most nights there were groups of students in the common room doing homework, working on business case studies, or cramming for an exam.</p>
<p>I was considering Brandeis as well (might be a reach school though depending on my SAT scores) and also definite reach schools like Tufts and Lehigh. I have been searching for colleges for so long yet feel like I am getting no where because I dont know many people at any of these schools or know much about them besides what collegeboard tells me. All the people I used to associate with in high school are just hoping to get into any college so I have not had much help with this!</p>
<p>Dont get me wrong I would love to party on weekends but I dont feel the need that every weekend must involve partying, i enjoy relaxing and just going to dinner or movie with a few friends and dont always feel the need to be talking to loads of people all the time.</p>
<p>I find that the majority of people here take their work seriously. More often than not on week nights groups of friends will be studying or doing homework rather than partying. Thats not to say that we don’t have parties, because we do, and if you’re intent on finding one you probably will. </p>
<p>I don’t go to large parties much, and I have a close group of friends that I really get along with and we’ll end up doing something together on the weekends. There are all types of people here, you just have to find where you fit in. And don’t write off greek life or the types of girls who are involved in greek life. I don’t personally find greek life that appealing to me, but I am good friends with many people who are in sororities/fraternities who are awesome. </p>
<p>If you’re still really curious feel free to message me. If you aren’t too far away, the best thing to do is visit campus.</p>
<p>meghanupsidedown, thanks for the advice!</p>
<p>do you guys think that visiting a campus can really help u determine if you want to go there and will fit in? I always thought that visiting just shows you how it looks and that all college tours pretty much rave about their school and make it sound the best. But i also have never visited a school yet so i have no experience!</p>
<p>Oh I definitely think it helps. Every school has its own “vibe”. I remember going to a couple that looked really nice on paper, but as soon as I got there I knew it wasn’t for me. Going to campus was what blew northeastern out of the water for me compared to BU and other schools I was thinking about.</p>
<p>The party scene is alive and well at Northeastern, but it’s fairly easy to avoid. There IS, absolutely, a population of big partiers there, some are more of the jock/frat partier types, some are a more laid-back out to the bars partiers. I always went out in college and did both the beer-pong house parties as well as smaller get togethers and going out to bars downtown (once I turned 21).</p>
<p>But even the kids who like to party tend to be professionally minded. As juniors/seniors, a huge majority of my friends had a solid idea of what they wanted to be doing once they graduated. A huge majority of the people I knew had jobs lined up when they graduated. I don’t know too many students who graduated from NEU wondering what the hell to do with themselves. So, you’re going to meet a lot of students who really care about school, and grades, and working.</p>
<p>5 years ago, NEU was mostly jock/hot girl party types. That population definitely still exists, but I think it makes up a way smaller portion of the student body. I think students now are more intellectual and work-minded than they used to be. But, I think it’s good to have a little bit of everything… you’re going to meet all sorts of students around northeastern.</p>
<p>And YES, visiting gives you a good feel. You’ll be able to see what kind of people are walking around campus and what students are doing with their time, and that will help you judge whether or not you’ll fit in there.</p>
<p>Northeastern is much more diverse than Brandeis and has people from a wide variety of countries, cultures, and religions. If you like an international and diverse feel, Northeastern will probably rank higher than most other schools.</p>
<p>Brandeis is a higher level school, with much much lower student/prof ratio. 3500 undergrad as opposed to 15,000. Different look and feel. Plus, ranking is 31 vs. NEU 62.</p>
<p>Some info on tiering that may be of interest
<a href="http://www..com/rankings.asp%5B/url%5D">http://www..com/rankings.asp</a></p>
<p>But go where it makes sense to you…
-gut feel
-out of pocket costs
-big all around U feel (NEU) vs research opps (Brandeis)</p>
<p>We’re going through the same sort of tradeoff with our daughter for Civil Engineering.
NEU Honors Civil Engineering with $20K Merit
or
Renssalaer Poly Tech with $15K Merit</p>
<p>Different schools with different characteristics.</p>
<p>No wrong choice. Good luck!</p>
<p>I would disagree with te comment that Northeastern students are more focused on jobs than academics. Job prospects have never really come up in my group of friends. This may be more of an issue with business majors and such, but I can’t really say. We tend to be pretty academically focused though, and I would definitely say that the academics are food, from my experience.</p>
<p>Honest question: I know Northeastern is very diverse and all obviously, but do people from other race groups really interact with each other? or is it very cliquey like asians with asians, blacks with blacks, international with international. I want to know is it really intergrated and such?</p>
<p>I am an URM and I want to get involved with other races too as I have my entire life. The other 2 schools I got into are very diverse with racial intergration. This is actually one of the 2 things preventing me from enrolling all together because I LOVE the school after visiting yesterday.</p>
<p>I would definitely say different racial/ethnic groups interact with each other. At least from what I’ve seen. Of course, the thing that does tend to create more homogeneous groups is language. That’s something that often divides people from different backgrounds, and is pretty noticeable on campus, but even so, myself and everyone I know have international friends and I think we do a decent job of blending in that sense. : )</p>
<p>Asian students tend to be very cliquish no matter where you go, at least the foreign born Chinese are that way. Some of the foreign exchange students also stick together. Otherwise, students interact a lot.</p>