<p>Just wanted to know how much red tape one faces here, and if you or your children/family is happy attending. I know about the superb coop program, school location, campus. I am just inquiring about quality of guidance, class sizes for freshman, and professors speaking English well enough to be understood in a classroom, academic support, and red tape issues because of the size of the school.</p>
<p>Our next door neighbor's daughter is a junior at Northeastern this year. She's very happy, and they're very happy with her progress. She's doing her co-op work right now with a marketing firm in downtown Boston and sharing an apartment with classmates. (Much to her parents' chagrin, she had chosen to live on campus beginning freshman year rather than live at home.) From what the parents have reported, she hasn't encountered any negatives going to Northeastern.</p>
<p>Latetoschool's D goes to NE. You might send her a PM or email.</p>
<p>I just put a very detailed review of Northeastern written by a current student up on my blog -- click on my name, then "see Carolyn's homepage" and you'll go to it. The Northeastern review is about the 3rd or 4th entry from the top. I'd be happy to put you in touch with the student who wrote it, but she also posts here every now and then so she may reply first.</p>
<p>Marite, no luck, but thank you anyway. Latetoschool does not take pms or email.</p>
<p>Carolyn, Thank you so much! I am stiking out because when I clicked onto the NE article (on the left) it said not found or something (I forgot exactly). I don't know why it did not come up, but I will try a little bit later. Yeah, I would definitely enjoy asking her, or anyone else, about the school.</p>
<p>Marite, I think you are mistaken or have Latetoschool confused with someone else. I believe her d. is at U of Miami. (I could be the one who is wrong here, but I'm pretty sure the d. is in Florida unless she has recently transferred) But then again, maybe I'm the one who is confused - I can't be absolutely certain.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, just go to Carolyn's web site and scroll down the page rather than clicking the link. The date of the entry is Sept. 5.</p>
<p>I think that Latetoschool lives in FL, but that her D goes to NE. Could be wrong, of course :)</p>
<p>calmom, Thanks. I should have known to try scrolling down!</p>
<p>Carolyn, Thank you for the review, and I thank the reviewer too. My son is also interested in business. We visited the campus, but this interview really gave helpful information. The info session at NE was pretty good, but our tour guide raced through the school (both speed walking and speed talking). She was not the best guide, but we liked the school. Both my husband and I are familiar w Boston, but were unfamiliar w NE.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, I also have a link towards the top to an article on Northeastern that appeared in the US News & World Reports college edition. It is a very in-depth article and quite interesting. Here's the direct link to that article: <a href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/articles/brief/06north_brief.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/articles/brief/06north_brief.php</a></p>
<p>Carolyn, Thank you. It was very informative.</p>
<p>S2 had Northeastern high on his list last year. He was accepted with a nice merit scholarship, but in the end chose another school although he considered Northeastern right till the end. </p>
<p>While attending an admitted students day at the school he ultimately chose we were chatting with a family attending with their youngest of six. We started discussing which schools the kids were deciding between and when we said Northeastern was one of S's schools, they said one of their older kids was a current student. They then went on to say that of all the colleges their older five attended, Northeastern has been the easiest to work with from a parent's perspective. They felt that the administration was very organized and the red tape easy to navigate.</p>
<p>I have high regards for Northeastern and am pretty sure it will be on S3's list.</p>
<p>Although NU has a very good coop program, which is a good reason to attend there,Carolyn's review leaves out some interesting facts:</p>
<ol>
<li>In peer reviews (what other college presidents and deans think of a school), NU has a very low peer review of 2.9 out of 5.0.</li>
</ol>
<p>2.Although their freshmen return rate of 84% isn't bad, it isn't anything to praise either. The better schools have return rates in the high 80s and usually in the 90%+.</p>
<ol>
<li>Their 6 year graduation rate is very low at 60%. Good schools like Syracuse have 6 year grad rates of 79% and higher and many have 85% and up. This doesn't bode well for Northeastern University,and I don't know why it is so low.</li>
</ol>
<p>4.They have a 16/1 student faculty ratio, which isn't good. A good one is 13/1 or lower.</p>
<p>5 It's faculty resources among top universities is 120th, which is mediocre. Better than many but worse than a lot too.</p>
<p>6,Its annual giving rate is 138th in the nation, which also isn't that good. Generally schools with happy students create happy alumni. If the alumni donation rate is low, it does indicate that the graduates aren't thrilled with the university. Also, high donation rates usually mean happy and successful grads. This isn't alway true,but there probably is some reasonable correlation.</p>
<p>Thus, you have to take the concept of coop,which is a very good concept, and factor in the nagatives of Northeastern.</p>
<p>I am sorry if I "rained on anyone's parade," but I feel that folks need to be as fully informed as possible.</p>
<p>Sources: Latest US News and World Report Rating of National Universities.</p>
<p>Taxguy, I have noted the grad rate and it did bother me quite a bit. If you look further you will see this school still has just over 21% of students attending part time. I also think that it is possible, but have no objective data, that after coop, the company recruits the student and they continue to work without graduating. I have read on some website about a company that a student cooped for offering to pay for senior year if that student signs a contract to work for them after graduation. This may just be a rumor, and I do not know if it is at all factual. Part timers do not graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that Towson, although a public school also has a low grad rate which my 2 year old statistics show at 56.5%, and this is minus the coop which can take a year (so at NE the 6 year grad rate is really 5 years of full time school plus 1 year of coop job experience).</p>
<p>My-3- Sons, thanks for the post. I was worried about red tape bcs I kept reading about what some students refer to as the NU shuffle. They describe this as basically being sent from pillar to post to resolve anything. I really don't want to have my son or myself have to deal with that and I doubt that anyone else wants to deal with that either.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, you are correct about the graduation rate at Towson, which is now 59% after 6 years. I was not aware of this when my son attended Towson or I might have felt differently about the school. However, Towson does have a 3.2 in peer review vs. Northeastern's 2.9 ( maybe not that big a difference) and has a slightly better freshmen return rate. However, the stats aren't that wonderful for Towson either.</p>
<p>Towson's grad rate seems to be the typically low # for a public school, so don't feel badly. Your son seems to be falling in the graduating column. There are some publics with high grad rates and we have discussed that on other threads. Don't forget that with respect to Towson 1/4 of the students have sats below 490v and 500m. That would explain part of the lackluster graduation rates. In the meantime, if your son is taking the cpa exam he should do well bcs Towson seems to have a high first time pass rate.</p>