<p>I got accepted in Northeastern and I would like to know how good their engineering programs are. I would study either chemical or mechanical engineering. How come Northeastern's ranking is so low? Do engineering grads from Northeastern get good jobs quickly?</p>
<p>I also got admitted in some liberal arts colleges namely Swarthmore college. I cannot decide whether to go to Northeastern or Swarthmore. Even though Swarthmore is a very highly ranked college, I have not heard much of their engineering programs. Should I choose Northeastern or Swarthmore?</p>
<p>Northeastern happens to have a very strong engineering program and many of its graduates end up in top positions at firms like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, EMC, Cognex, ect. Nothing against Swarthmore, but it is primarily a liberal arts college. SWAT's entire engineering department consists of 8 faculty members:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.engin.swarthmore.edu/faculty/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.engin.swarthmore.edu/faculty/index.html</a></p>
<p>Northeastern has over 150 engineering faculty members spread among four departments. But the real kicker is that Northeastern has over 600 employers in 31 states in its #1 rated co-op program:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.coe.neu.edu/prospective/...tml?go=coop.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.coe.neu.edu/prospective/...tml?go=coop.htm</a></p>
<p>When it comes to engineering, SWAT not even in the same league as Northeastern.</p>
<p>i keep hearing NEU is good, the whole co-op program..good for business and engineering and stuff..but i'm just as confused as u are..i dont understand why NEU is ranked so low..?</p>
<p>You should take the rankings with a grain of salt because they do not provide an accurate picture of what is good school. Here's why:</p>
<p>The U.S. News methodology is flawed because it assumes that all colleges are following a traditional academic curriculum (i.e. comparing apples to apples). But Northeastern does things quite differently. It is one of only a handful of schools to have a fully integrated co-op program (i.e. it is an orange). For example, the way the current methodology works, the rankings make it appear as if Northeastern has a high student/faculty ratio. But this is only because U.S. News assumes that all students are on campus taking classes at the same time. This is far from the case; nearly half of the upper-class students are off campus interning at companies (unlike most schools, Northeastern students follow rotations where they alternate semesters of academics with semester long internships related to their major). Anyone who knows Northeastern knows that class sizes are actually on the small side. The amount of money spent per student and faculty resources rank also seem low in comparison to other schools in the top 60, but again this is only because U.S. News assumes that all students are on campus at the same time using resources. Students who are on co-op should be excluded because they do not pay tuition while theyre interning. Northeastern really has more money to spend on the students who are on campus taking classes. Again, anyone who has visited Northeastern recently knows that the school has plenty of money. All the facilities are new and the professors, administrators, etc. are earning top dollar. </p>
<p>Another flaw in the U.S. News rankings methodology is the use of a six year graduation retention rate. Again, U.S. News assumes that all schools are following a traditional four year academic model. But again, Northeastern does things differently. A very large number of NEU students choose the five year co-op program (a four year program is available but for some reason it is less popular). Northeastern also offers a six year PharmD program. Obviously, Northeastern's graduation stats would be significantly higher if U.S. News factored this into the rankings. But they don't.</p>
<p>Northeastern's rating, although still top tier (under the new ranking system), simply does not add up. Still, even with its nontraditional curriculum, Northeastern has been climbing in the rankings. This is primary because the university has made significant gains in selectivity. Northeastern should continue to rise as it becomes more nationally known. This year, the university received 6500 EA apps out of a total of 27,000 apps which is a new record. The university is also in the process of hiring 100 new star faculty. The new faculty will significantly lower the university's student/faculty ratio (this should make up for the shortfall in the rankings).</p>
<p>As a side note, the university administration has been lobbying U.S. News to make some changes to their rankings methodology so that it takes into account the universitys nontraditional academic curriculum.</p>
<p>**As another side note, external research funding to Northeastern increased by a whopping 40% this year. The increase can be attributed to the ambitious faculty hiring plan. All these new star profs that the university has been hiring are bringing their research grants with them.</p>
<p>Maximus-</p>
<p>Where did u get all this info from? haha..i've been looking everywhere for someone to say "the ratings are messed up!"</p>
<p>Well the short answer is, just like you, I always wondered why Northeastern was not ranked higher. So found some info on the web about some of the flaws in the rankings methodology as they relate to schools with nontraditional academic curriculums like Northeastern and a handful of other schools. After crunching the numbers, I discovered that Northeastern should really be a top 60 school. Perhaps it will be next year if U.S. News implements some changes.</p>
<p>One more thing, regardless of whether or not U.S. News ever takes Northeastern's nontraditional academic curriculum into account, for the reasons stated above, the university will continue to climb in the rankings for the foreseeable future.</p>