<p>I went to boston this weekend to check out some colleges, I really want your opinions on these colleges especially if you attend them or have visited. just want to let you know I am a sciency, math person probably a pure math major or physics major.</p>
<p>mit. my opinions, very cool, they made it out to be very project and group oriented, like how you need to work on problem sets together, and also a tennis ball launching contest for a mechanical engineering class was going on. the students seemed slightly nerdy which isnt necessarily a bad thing. The school culture seemed nice, with the hacking, and the different "focuses" of the dorms.</p>
<p>northeastern. Modern looking, really nice campus. I couldn't get an idea of whether this was a sciency school or not, the student life seemed cool.
I didnt get a very good idea of this school besides it was good looking.</p>
<p>harvard, obviously stellar academics, i can never get an idea of how many actually are stelar students, and how many get in for sports/money. the place was really nice and looked colonial and lots of smart kids. one thing I didnt get an idea of is how cutthroat it is, cornell is the only other ivy Ive been to and its terrible. Things I didnt like were all the homeless hanging out around campus, and all the non college people hanging out in the yard.</p>
<p>tufts was bad for me. it had a really nice college, but it was really liberal arts focused. The kids on the tour and the tour guides all seemed like rich kids. The school is really expensive for a not so top science and math program.</p>
<p>please comment, tell me your opinions, tell me If I'm wrong or have been misinformed.</p>
<p>It sounds like you went to these campuses without knowing anything about the schools in advance, probably not a good use of your time. I think you need to do a lot more research–visiting is nice, but it doesn’t tell you a lot and should be a supplement to checking out an institution in detail. Look at school websites, then read a few college guides–Fiske, etc.–to learn about the vibe and the academic strengths at each school. Finally, post any specific questions on CC’s individual college forums.</p>
<p>Anyone with the kind of qualifications to get into MIT or Harvard would be looking at Northeastern as a safety school–is that the case for you? Northeastern is generally regarded as a school for those who are geared toward entering various professions, and its biggest appeal is its co-op program. It seems to me that there are more suitable safety options for a pure math or physics major. Again, research, research.</p>
<p>Northeastern has a strongly pre-professional emphasis, with an integrated co-op program; the normal time to a degree is five years, although only four academic years of school are interspersed with co-op jobs during those five years.</p>
<p>All four are great schools for the sciences. Harvard and MIT are top notch. They will allow for great research opportunities and open doors, although they are very expensive. Northeastern is also fantastic. Through the CoOp program you can get a job in your field and explore the different things you can do in a particular field. NASA, private companies, academic research, publishing, etc. </p>
<p>Tufts is not for everyone. Campus is far, there isnt much going on, and the student body can be a bit cliquey. That being said, it has decent academics. </p>
<p>You could also look at BU as a safety. I don’t think BC has as good math/science programs.</p>
<p>Harvard and MIT are reaches for everyone. Looking at you stats in your posting history, they would be an extreme reach for you. In fact, your test scores would be only slightly higher than the 50th percentile for Northeastern admits.</p>
<p>Harvard and MIT will provide very comparable educations/opportunities for math and physics majors. My daughter is a senior physics major at Harvard and has found it very collaborative with study groups for all of her math and physics classes just as you describe at MIT. There are many levels of introductory math and physics classes at Harvard, so you do not need to worry about taking those classes with people that are not at your level. The difference between these two will be more around the overall college experience that you want rather than the specifics about the major you choose.</p>