How good is NEU?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
21

<p>Regarding the original poster:</p>

<p>I'm a sophomore poli sci major here at NU and I would recommend it highly. Our faculty is absolutely brilliant and the department is highly underrated [due to the excellence of our other programs, Int'l Business, Architecture, etc.]. Fmr. Governor and Presidential Candidate Michael Dukakis teaches a few classes here, that's no secret, but the rest of our faculty is also very impressive. I'd suggest looking at the Dept. website and looking at some of the Prof's bios.</p>

<p>On to the "prestige" nonsense. </p>

<p>Prestige lags behind achievement. Northeastern is a very school, a school that is only a few years away from moving into the next tier of schools with the Boston Colleges and Tufts of the world. But perception, as I said, lags and as a result the myth that we are still: A: easier to get into and B: not as academically excellent as schools on the level of a Boston University is pervasive.</p>

<p>Zepp, if you do choose to stay and graduate from NU [which from the sound of things, appears highly unlikely], you're diploma in 5 years will look far more impressive "prestige"-wise as you think it will now.</p>

<p>That's my 2 cents.</p>

22

<p>We'll see NJNP40 about NU being ranked with Tufts and Boston College. I HIGHLY doubt that will ever happen as these schools already have a much better reputation, higher selectivity, and stronger student body than NU will ever have. </p>

<p>And NU is easy to get into compared to other schools that you are saying it is/will be comparable to. And once you get into NU, it is nearly impossible to do poorly. The average for engineering design and chemistry midterms: 89. Average for calculus II midterm: 87. And those are unscaled. Other classes have had higher exam scores and have been scaled. It is a great feeling knowing that you can get a 50 on your chemistry final and still get a solid A for the semester (or just not take it at all and get a B+ with extra credit, but who would pass up the easy A?)</p>

23

<p>Personal experience with NEU: NEU is good at getting people good jobs (financial advisor, drug rep, banking IT, etc), but not so good at getting people into the elite jobs (Bain consulting, Goldman Sachs, etc). In the beginning there isn't much of a salary difference between these (ex. a financial advison might make 60-70K, a first year banker 65K salary plus bonus) but in the longrun there is a tremendous difference. A longterm FA might make on average 150K after 10-15 years, a Goldman banker is likely making a 1-3M annually by that point. Different sets of expectations.</p>

24

<p>And the elite jobs are earned by the people who went to elite schools (Wharton, Sloan, Stern, etc.)</p>

25

<p>Then please go post on an "elite" school board and leave the rest of us alone.</p>

26

<p>I love how Zepp selectively decided to ignore my posts which were directly aimed at him...(because it proves him dead wrong)...</p>

<p>
[QUOTE]
Personal experience with NEU: NEU is good at getting people good jobs (financial advisor, drug rep, banking IT, etc), but not so good at getting people into the elite jobs (Bain consulting, Goldman Sachs, etc). In the beginning there isn't much of a salary difference between these (ex. a financial advison might make 60-70K, a first year banker 65K salary plus bonus) but in the longrun there is a tremendous difference. A longterm FA might make on average 150K after 10-15 years, a Goldman banker is likely making a 1-3M annually by that point. Different sets of expectations.

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>THIS NON-SENSE STOPS RIGHT HERE...</p>

<p>I don't know what you're talking about... I know (and hang out with) Northeastern co-op's who work for Goldman Sachs....(not to mention I interviewed with them, got an offer, but got a better offer from a competitor).</p>

<p>Goldman, Lehman, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Merrill, JP Morgan Chase...they all hire from Northeastern (I gave out my resume to all of them). Are you sure you're a current/former Northeastern student? </p>

<p>I'm not really familiar with the consulting co-op's offered by the school because I didn't apply to any of them so I can't comment about Bain. I'm pretty sure I remember hearing about Boston Consulting Group hiring co-op's but I'm not 100% sure. </p>

<p>However, when it comes to getting a career in investment banking...the opportunities are definitely there. This doesn't even include the dozens of Buy-side firms as well... (wellington, fidelity, etc) that hire from Northeastern.</p>

<p>As a side note... I'm friend's with a guy that graduated from Cornell 2 yrs ago, works for GS, pulls in roughly 200k a year...he told me as long as you get in the door the importance of your college experience means little. Do you think they base promotions on where you went to school? Hell no...it is largely performance and seniority based...</p>

<p>VP's don't sit around tables and debate who's getting the next promotion based on a worker's college credentials from 4-5 years ago. They dont give two ****s about that stuff...what matters is what you do after you start the job. You can have the smartest person in the world come out of Harvard, but if they don't have a work ethic, show up late, and/or are not productive they simply aren't going to stack up against kids who are hard workers but come from from schools that are not as highly regarded. Your college education means JACK once you get a job offer...remember that. </p>

<p>I mentioned in one of these threads somewhere...I work with a guy who went to a state school in Jersey...became an international equity trader for a big bank...he progressed ahead of his peers (including alumn from ivy schools) because he worked his ass off and got what he wanted. </p>

<p>All of this proves how neither you or Zepp have any clue about what you're talking about. Neither of you have a grip on reality. I would encourage both of you you to stop giving false advice and posting bad information to people on here who are thinking about applying/going to Northeastern.</p>

27

<p>GoGetta09, very well said.</p>

28

<p>Everybody says something along the lines of "a Harvard education with no motivation gets you nowhere." While this may be true, most students at Harvard had some motivation to get into the school and will continue that motivation into their jobs. When someone with a good work ethic from NU competes with someone with a good work ethic from Harvard, the Harvard grad wins. I think it would be interesting to see how many top tier school grads work for the companies you listed and how many came from sub par universities. </p>

<p>I just can't wait to get out of this school that has already closed many doors. It has been a waste of the little money that I pay to go here as I have yet to learn anything new or worthwhile (except for a little calculus that I could have picked up from any calculus textbook).</p>

29

<p>
[QUOTE]
When someone with a good work ethic from NU competes with someone with a good work ethic from Harvard, the Harvard grad wins. I think it would be interesting to see how many top tier school grads work for the companies you listed and how many came from sub par universities. </p>

<p>I just can't wait to get out of this school that has already closed many doors. It has been a waste of the little money that I pay to go here as I have yet to learn anything new or worthwhile (except for a little calculus that I could have picked up from any calculus textbook).

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>This does nothing but further prove how little you know about something called the REAL WORLD. Dude... once you get a job your superiors dont CARE AT ALL where you got your degree. How many times do I have to repeat myself? A degree at Harvard will only get you better interview/job opportunities upon graduating...it will NOT guarantee you a long life of financial success. As I have mentioned previously...all of that crap goes out the window once you become a full-time employee. Managers turn a blind eye to your education because it means very little when compared to job performance. </p>

<p>The ONLY circumstance where your education comes into play is if the people who are competing for a position have different LEVELS of education. Examples include...NASD/FINRA exams/certifications...an MBA grad vs. Undergrad degree, CFA vs. Non-CFA, etc...</p>

30

<p>All I will say is this. Goldman Sachs, Bain, etc hire for many roles. There are tons of infrastructure jobs that aren't the top jobs at those companies. NEU is good at getting those jobs, not so good at the elite jobs at these companies</p>

31

<p>No undergraduate education is going to get you an elite job at one of those firms. As has been said, what will get you there is an unbelievable work ethic, a lot of drive, and a little luck.</p>

32

<p>That's not true. These firms actively recruit from a core group of schools.</p>

33

<p>
[quote]
We'll see NJNP40 about NU being ranked with Tufts and Boston College. I HIGHLY doubt that will ever happen as these schools already have a much better reputation, higher selectivity, and stronger student body than NU will ever have. </p>

<p>And NU is easy to get into compared to other schools that you are saying it is/will be comparable to. And once you get into NU, it is nearly impossible to do poorly. The average for engineering design and chemistry midterms: 89. Average for calculus II midterm: 87. And those are unscaled. Other classes have had higher exam scores and have been scaled. It is a great feeling knowing that you can get a 50 on your chemistry final and still get a solid A for the semester (or just not take it at all and get a B+ with extra credit, but who would pass up the easy A?)

[/quote]

First, I never said anything about NU being ranked with Tufts and BC within the next few years...I didn't say anything about rankings at all, and that is because it will be difficult for NU to move that far up in the rankings as a result of how the rankings are formulated. Three aspects of the rankings in particular result in a bias against schools such as NU. One, 6 year graduation rates...obviously if most individuals at NU co-op, the odds of finishing school in 6 years are less than they would be if you go to a traditional 4 year school. Second, staff-student ratio, US News and World Report does not take into account that roughly half of our student body is on co-op and therefore is not in class. Third, and similarly is the avg. class size; the fact that all 16,000 undergrads aren't in class at the same time is not taken into consideration.</p>

<p>Moving on, NU is easiER to get into than BC [29% acceptance rate] and Tufts [27%] but certainly not easy [NU's rate is 39%], so don't sell NU too short.</p>

34

<p>But the quality of students applying to NEU is generally a lot lower than the quality of student applying to Tufts. I will say that there are some students at NEU who are smart and do well, but there are FAR more students who should not have even graduated high school. I think there are more students like this at NEU than at BC/Tufts.</p>

35

<p>u know a school sucks when you turn down a 48K scholarship....zepp for president!</p>

36

<p>Zepp, perhaps you didnt know.....BC was once a commuter school, not very selective at all....that is until a man named Doug Flutie came along and gave them national recognition with a touchdown pass. It's pretty ignorant to think a school won't move up in the rankings.</p>

37

<p>We'll see how far it moves up. The schools that are ranked just above NEU are trying to make it higher and the schools at the top are trying to stay up there. So even though NEU is making "great strides" the schools in front of it are compensating for that.</p>

38

<p>Zepp, again you seem to believe the "rankings" are infallible. Many of the criteria used to rank by U.S. News, etc. simply don't apply to a co-op school like NEU. There are numerous threads on this.</p>

39

<p>You can tell how respected a school is by people's reactions when you say you go there. When I am with some of my friends and people ask where we go to school, it goes like this:</p>

<p>Friend 1: "Johns Hopkins"
Person asking: "Wow, great school."
Friends 2 and 3: "BC, BC"
Person asking: "Good for you guys"
Me: "Northeastern Honors Program" (I have to add Honors Program so the person asking doesn't think I'm completely stupid).
Person asking: "OO, thats alright. Where else did you apply?"</p>

<p>The other popular comment is someone saying that they know someone who went there (NEU)/who goes there, but they don't comment on how good of a school it is as they know getting into NEU is not great achievement. </p>

<p>I understand, RatedPG, that rankings aren't fair. That NEU is probably ranked higher because of the students graduating in 6 years etc. However the general trend that Harvard>Tufts>NEU is true. Even if NEU's stats had value, I don't think it would move up 60 rankings to be considered with BC/Tufts.</p>

40

<p>What? HARVARD has a better reputation than we do? I'm so tired of you comparing us to Johns Hopkins, Yale, etc. We get it. People get more oohs and ahhs when they go to, say, Penn than if they go to Northeastern.</p>

<p>If people's opinions of you matter that much, go to a name-brand school. If NU is a good fit for you, it shouldn't matter.</p>