I was wondering if most students do five years or four years and how the schedule works with the co-op? Do most students study during the Summer? And do you pay more tuition than say a four year university because of the co-op program?
Northeastern’s cost will be 4 years of tuition, just like any other school. When you go on co-op, you only pay for living expenses, which will likely be covered by your pay. Some majors make less, some make more. Engineering and CS can actually end up making 10K or more on co-op even after living expenses.
Most students do a 5-year plan with 3 co-ops, but just about every major can be done in 4 years with 1/2 co-ops if you’d like. If you do a 4-year plan, you will almost certainly need summer sessions. Summer sessions are very common at Northeastern - there are plenty of students around still and a good deal of classes offered. If you are really against summer sessions, you can often design a schedule without them if you have significant AP/IB/Dual Enrollment credit.
Here’s how Northeastern’s schedule works:
Academics:
January-April - Spring Semester
May-June - Summer 1
July-August- Summer 2
September-December - Fall Semester
Co-ops:
January-June - Spring Co-op
July-December - Fall Co-op
If you notice, if you are on co-op, you will always have a summer session and a full semester available in the same year, by design. If you co-op in Spring, you have Summer 2 and Fall. In Fall, you have Spring and Summer 1.
Summer sessions are half the classes in half the time for half the price. Two summer sessions are pretty much exactly equal to a semester in cost and credit.
So, if you do a 4-year plan with 2 co-ops and 4 summer sessions, you end up with 8 academic semesters, or 4 years of tuition. If you do a 5-year plan with 3 co-ops and 2 summer sessions, you also end up with 4 years of tuition.
In the end, it’s really a create your own schedule type of deal. Many graduate in 4 and a half years because it makes sense for them. To give you some idea of just how many options there are, check out the list of co-op patterns here. It’s a lot, so don’t worry if its a bit overwhelming. You have both a co-op and academic advisor to help you out through everything.
http://www.northeastern.edu/registrar/ref-udc-poa-ugd.pdf
Personally, I’m doing 5 years and 2 co-ops for a combined BS/MS degree because I came in with enough AP credit to do it. It’s not a common Northeastern pattern, but I have had no trouble setting it up with my advisors.
Thanks @PengsPhil, that was very helpful!
Are the courses Mathematical Thinking and Interactive Math just easier options to fulfill gen ed? And would a general Calc course at our local university transfer easily to fulfill the Econ minor’s Calc for Business? My son is thinking of taking calculus this summer but not if it doesn’t fulfill both gen ed and econ minor pre reqs. Thanks!
I know honors students have to maintain a 3.0, but is there a similar requirement for NU’s National Merit students?
hey im applying RD to northeastern and its my top choice! my stats aren’t that good so my personal statement needs to be convincing. is there anyway you can look over my supplement (for CAMD, journalism)? you can PM me your email and ill share it with you through google docs 
I would not recommend taking calc at another school - Northeastern is very picky about transfer credits (so you might not get any credit for it) and the business calc is specifically designed for those business major/minors and subsequent classes will assume you know exactly what they taught in that class. Looks like both those other math classes are ways to fulfill math requirements for non-math students.
The 3.0 requirement for honors is not strictly enforced - if you fall below you get a term to move it back up again. You would need to see the merit award letter which would indicate all requirements to maintain that award. Those merit scholarships that require a certain number of service hours are also not strict. If you don’t get enough one year you are given another term to catch up. Getting 100 community service hours a year when you co-op for six months and study abroad, etc. is difficult and I think the school recognizes this.
Very helpful, thank you @kiddie.
The honors merit scholarship requires a 3.0 (with a warning when falling under as mentioned). There is no community service component for the Honors Scholarship.
@suzyQ7 thanks! Do you also happen to know about National Merit scholarship gpa requirements? Of course I am getting ahead of myself with hopes my kid becomes finalist.
@airfire1928 I’m not an expert in either of those unfortunately. Just do you best!
@airfire1928 I’m just a parent who has helped a few kids through this process (daughter got into CAMD EA), so I don’t know if you’d be comfortable sharing with me, but if you want me to have a look I’m happy to - just PM me the link to the doc. (Absolutely no offense taken if you don’t want to, though!)
Does anyone know if the honors students are mostly housed in the North building of IV this year? We noticed that almost all doubles are in the North building, East and West are overwhelmingly singles.
Hi @suzyQ7 that’s a good question. Is your child hoping for a double or single? Can they request one or the other?
Double is preferred. There is a possibility of getting a ‘forced single’ which would cost an extra $1500 year (not optimal, since NEU is already so expensive). So, were curious if this year’s honors cohort was predominantly in the North building, which has mostly doubles.
My understanding is that if you want a single in IV, you will get one. I can see why - there are so many singles in the East and West towers.
Yes, same concern here about double. I actually think a single sounds great, to decompress at end of day, etc. But expensive.
@binky17 @suzyQ7 As someone with many friends in IV, I don’t know anyone who asked for a double and didn’t receive one. Single is definitely the more common request so it usually works out fine for anyone who wants doubles I believe.
Back in 2012 the housing questionnaire my honors daughter received asked would she accept a single if available - she said yes and got one - don’t know how many who said no were forced into one. There are several unusual configurations in IV - one of my daughter’s neighbors had a single connected to a double.
@kiddie was it worth the extra $?
Totally worth the money. She really enjoyed having her own space to study and even have friends come hang out. She slept better (always slept poorly in the two years she lived in apartment style doubles in west village). She “nested” and decorated her room exactly the way she liked it and felt very much at home. She enjoyed the privacy to skype with us and the freedom to do what she wanted in her “own” space. It was a great decision which helped her adjust to living away at college.