<p>Two of my sons go to small liberal arts schools. The schools have made tremendous efforts to help freshmen feel comfortable and welcome during their first week experience and help them find ways to connect with others on campus. As a result, in a very short period of time they have both made friends with students they have a lot in common with. My third son is very interested in attending Northeastern in the fall and I am concerned about the size of the school and what the school does to help bring kids together during the first week or so in order to help facilitate friendships. I would appreciate it if anyone with children at Northeastern can address this....also does anyone know what the retention rate is??? Thank you!</p>
<p>Hi Jankie,
I’m a parent of a prospective NU student so I can’t address the friend question except to say that the NU Living Learning Communities for freshmen sound wonderful. </p>
<p>For 2010/11 Freshmen, the retention rate was 95%. My favorite site for stats like this is College Navigator at [College</a> Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics](<a href=“http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/]College”>College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics).</p>
<p>First, I will start with my daughter’s experience. She is a freshman in the honors program (which is an LLC). She has already made a nice group of friends who she shares many interests with. This happened around the second week she was there - they hang out together and eat together. These kids all seem to live within a few floor in IV - only a few in the group room together. It has made her transition much easier and she is happy and not at all homesick. </p>
<p>There were tons of activities during welcome week (some by school, some only for honors, and others open to everybody). They included tourist things, social events, and club events. They also have a required welcome to college one credit class freshman year by major where they do things like take trips around the neighborhood, meet peer mentors etc. which is another place to meet kids with similar interests.</p>
<p>I would also recommend any LLC that your kid is interested in (they have others for freshman besides honors) - in general it is a good way to meet kids with common interests and creates a bond. (this is true at any school not just NU)</p>
<p>My son is a freshman, and has had a very good experience his first month there. The University has a Welcome Week which is jam-packed with many activities (some mandatory, some optional) designed to introduce and acclimate the students to the school, the city and each other. Events and activities of this type continue throughout the month (though not at such an intense pace as Welcome Week, so as to let the students get into their studies as well). Many of these subsequent activities are organized and facilitated by the RAs, so that they are specific to the dorm, floor or LLC.
My son is not particularly outgoing, and he has quickly and comfortably established a few different groups of friends. He is very involved and seems happy.</p>
<p>My daughter is in IV too, and has had a similar experience to kiddie’s story. She has also joined in on some activities, and she just “loves” (her words) NEU.
Film club - the group watches a movie weekly, then talks about it, and picks out next week’s film.
Society of Women’s engineers - periodic meetings/activities
Society of Civil Engineers - her group is building a model bridge; another group a cement canoe.
Young Democrats club
and last but not least…
one of the dance groups.</p>
<p>Nah. I get why people think it’s easier to make friends at small schools where there seems to be more of a “community”. Northeastern just has small communities inside a larger one. You become friends with your floormates, with people in clubs/activities, and with people in class. It is true that with so many people, you might have to work a bit harder to find your niche and get close to people. Join clubs, reach out to new people, be generally sociable and you’re not going to have problems.</p>
<p>Initially, my roommates and floormates were my closest friends. I slowly branched out and made friends through various clubs and through classes. I always had lots of people to hang out with, but it did take some time to find close friends. Now, two years out of college, I’m still close with a lot of people from school.</p>