How good is NEU?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
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<p>Hey everyone :) I have a few small questions about NU, and you people seem to be pretty responsive. I'm a senior in high school (IB, top 1%, 1530, a few honor societies) and even though I find out this week whether or not I was accepted at NU, I'm really pretty confident about it.</p>

<p>I applied to Cornell, Columbia, MIT, and Harvey Mudd (as well as two Florida state schools that I do not want to go to). However I was deferred for Columbia ED, and I'm not feeling so well about Cornell and MIT. Also, my parents don't really want me going to Harvey Mudd (in California). This leaves Northeastern, which my parents absolutely adore. They like that it's in the city but not too much, and they adore the co-op program.</p>

<p>I want to be a chemistry major, and I'm hoping for Honors Program. Just going by my SATs, mine are higher than the middle 50% of the honors kids on the website, so again, I'm feeling pretty good about it. But I have a couple of questions about it. I know I have till spring and I could get in other places, but with the exception of MIT (veeeeeeery long shot) or Columbia (my dream school), I'll probably choose NU.</p>

<p>1- I come from a, for the most part, very difficult school academically and I'm in Higher Level Chemistry, Math, and History. I've been taking French for 6 years, and I have more science credits than I thought was possible. I really like being challenged in school, and if something is just too easy for me or too slow I'll stop caring and slack off (I sort of can't help it :P). For the most part, since I know it's different for each class, are there classes that I can take that would actually be somewhat of a challenge, or is it all just large lecture halls with professors that teach to a 100 IQ level student body? </p>

<p>2- If not, am I allowed to take more classes a semester than usual, in order to challenge myself that way?</p>

<p>3- I like the co-op idea too, although maybe not as much as my parents do. However, I'm probably going to try and go to a graduate school after NU for chemistry (or at least go someplace to get a really good teaching degree). Do you think the co-op would help graduate school chances? What I mean to say is, during the college admissions process right now, I've seen people regected from schools with a 4.8 weighted, but people with a 4.3 weighted (with vaguely same SAT scores and clubs) got in who also had several jobs. Is it the same sort of thing for graduate school? I honestly don't know anything about the graduate school admissions procedure.</p>

<p>Thank you, and I'm really sorry for this being so long.</p>

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<p>Oh, and about how people respond when you say "Northeastern", for the most part, my friends or random people who ask don't know what/where Northeastern is. Of course, nearly the SAME amount of people had no idea what/where Columbia University was. I am not joking when I say that a lot of people thought "I want to go to Columbia" meant "I want to go to Latin America".</p>

<p>Also, when someone asks why I applied to Northeastern, and I start talking about how it's in Boston and how they have the co-op program, every single person I've talked to has liked the idea of NU. Some people go to a school because of the name, but come on. If they have the same amount of resources and the same amount of job opportunities while in the school itself (interships and stuff), then there really isn't any difference except how YOU feel about the school. And saying "oooh you went to Haaarvard, how prestigous" won't help you if aren't a good student. Everyone (adults, I mean) that I've talked to has agreed that the only huge difference is if you are in graduate school (but NU's grad schools are really good from what I've heard) or if you really want the alumni support-- which none of the jobs I want would need.</p>

<p>I might just be a senior in high school, but you zepp are just a freshman. My guess is that if you don't like NU so much, it is because you got regected someplace higher up and you think you "settled" for NU. Well guess what. You didn't "settle" for NU and you aren't worth more than NU and you don't deserve more than NU and you certainly have no right to be saying (false) generalizations about the stats of this and other schools. If you are better than NU, and you think Harvard is better than NU, then why aren't you at Harvard? Instead you are going to spend years judging everything around you without giving it a chance and hating the school you are in and blaming the school for all your career failures in later life. Well that sounds like a pleasant way to live.</p>

<p>Oh, and I thought co-op people usually graduate in 5 years, not 6? Do some do 6 to lessen the workload?</p>

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<p>I'll respond to your second post after I answer your questions in the first post.</p>

<p>1.) I was in your situation, excelling in math/chemistry. I used my AP credit for Calc and calc II was still pretty easy. I didn't use my credit for chemistry, which was a mistake because that class was a complete joke. I had a 101.5 test average, 99.5 lab average, and 100 on lecture quizzes/recitation. I could have miserably failed the final and still gotten an A. (I was really disappointed that we didn't go into any detail in chem. My professor was teaching the class as if nobody had any math/science background. We didn't do Hess's Law because, according to the prof, it was too hard) If you get into the Honors Program, your classes won't be too large. My calc class has about 30 kids, chem has 39 kids, engineering class has about 35, and my honors elective had about 60 (those are all honors classes). If you aren't in the honors program, that is where you get the huge lectures and the classes are easy and where you get distracted. (Engineering class is a joke too (103 midterm/100 final). Surprisingly, there was a decent amount of work but it was real easy.) We had daily homework in calc, but it was real easy and took about 10 mins. Chem homework was due at recitation on Monday, so I did chem homework on Sundays which took about 20 mins. </p>

<p>2.) I asked my adviser if I could take Italian next semester in addition to my required classes. She said that she wouldn't do it for me because a.) I would have to pay extra for the class and b.)they don't recommend taking extra classes, even if it is to challenge yourself. </p>

<p>3.) I haven't gone to grad school so I don't know.</p>

<p>Second post. People in general may be really dumb and not know the difference between Columbia the school and Columbia the country. However if you apply for a job almost anywhere in the country, your employer will know that Columbia is an Ivy and generally produces better students than NEU. And I believe my GENERALIZATIONS (they are just that) are true. I'm not at Harvard because I didn't apply to Harvard.</p>

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<p>As a NU freshman having just completed my first semester in engineering, I would agree with some of the stuff that Zepp says.. In hindsight, the chemistry class was easy with a really good curve. The midterms and finals were all multiple choice and some people with crappy grades also managed to have a decent final overall course grade. </p>

<p>Engineering design was also the same. However, I was in the honors course and got the teacher who made us do a lot of work especially in Autocad ( which in hindsight was good since I learned more than any of the students from the other honors/regular sections ). From the feedback I got from my friend, all their Engg. Design teachers sucked and didn't teach well at all. At the end, however, I managed to get a A in that class even though I sucked at Autocad. </p>

<p>Calc 1 Honors was a piece of cake but I won't comment on that since I took AP Calc which is probably what made it easy for me. </p>

<p>The elective I took was also ridiculously easy which did not require me reading the assigned readings either. Got an easy A in that class. </p>

<p>Not sure though. I figure these classes are so easy because they are intro level courses so lets see how it is in the next few semesters. I like Northeastern's location in Boston and its proximity to my house in Connecticut. Moreover, West Village F is great! :D</p>

<p>With regards to taking all the honors courses in one year, thats what most engineering majors do since after freshman year, people branch out into their specific engineering disciplines and it becomes harder to find honors courses in these disciplines. Hence, most people satisfy their 6 honors courses requirement by taking atleast 3-4 in the first year itself.</p>

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<p>Jai,
As I said earlier, you'll find the workload becoming more difficult sophomore year. I had a similar impression after my freshman year, but found myself having to work significantly harder during my second year [so far].</p>