<p>I am preparing to reapply for colleges next year so I want to add Northeastern onto the list just simply because it is in Boston area.</p>
<p>Other than that, I know Northeastern has a great reputation too. However, I am not so familiar with its bio and biochem departments. How good are these departments ? Are there many opportunities for undergrads to do researches ? How well known is Northeastern among grad schools ?</p>
<p>This next question is really random and off-topic but how good is the Economics department at Northeastern ?</p>
<p>Econ is good, but the advisors aren’t (except the coop advisor, who is a goddess of employment searches). However it’s mainly only “great” for grad students; we have some pretty cool research programs but unlike a lot of other majors at Northeastern, they don’t really encourage undergrads in econ to persue research. </p>
<p>I know nothing of the major itself or the program, but when I was a chem major we always heard that biochem students were abused because neither the Chemistry department nor the Biology department wanted to deal with them, so they sometimes neglected. That could be COMPLETELY wrong though; it was just always the joke we heard.</p>
<p>I can’t really speak for biochem students either. I’m a neuroscience major some I’m also interdepartmental (we float between psych and bio departments) but we have our own advisors for the most part, so we always have someone kind of “responsible” for us. I think it would be the same when you’re biochem.</p>
<p>If you’re thinking science grad school (MS or PhD), what matters is research, letters of rec, GPA, GRE (probably in that order), so the chance to get solid research in is really important… and co-ops are a great way to get in research. </p>
<p>There’s enough research going on around campus to get involved if you’re interested, and once you get to co-ops, there are TONS of research (biotech and academia) positions available. I did research on campus before co-op and then moved to a lab in a hospital, which I’ve stayed with. If you don’t find research on campus that interests you, you have labs at Tufts med, BU med, Harvard med, MIT, and in the biotech industry to look into, so it’d be tough to not find anything.</p>
<p>I don’t know how well known NU is among grad schools… I don’t really know how much name matters in grad school admissions either way. It’s what you do in undergrad that’s important, not where you do it, and I assume students at NU who do good research and are qualified applicants will get into good graduate programs. </p>
<p>Overall I’ve been pretty happy with my science education here. The academics are sufficient to get you competent in whatever area you’re hoping to go into, and the research opportunities through co-op are really, really awesome.</p>