I am deciding between Northeastern and UT Dallas for Computer Science. I already got in UT Dallas with a pretty big scholarship,. I got some scholarship at Northeastern too, but I will still be paying a lot more for NE.
I’m wondering if Northeastern’s quality is worth the extra money?
What are some convincing aspects about Northeastern’s CS department that would give it the upper hand? I know so far it has co-op which is nice.
How does NEU CS compare to the top schools like MIT and CMU?
I don’t know how to compare, but I will relate anecdotally that all of my daughter’s friends in CS have gotten great jobs lined up well before their graduation. This includes kids in different CS majors- pure CS, CS with business, CS/CE, CE, and CS game design.
Northeastern’s CS department is one of the best you can find in terms of industry. It’s not going to compare to CMU/MIT/UCB in research, but it’s one of the better programs for undergraduate teaching and job placement. There are co-op’s at just about every big tech company (Apple, Google, Facebook, Snapchat, Intuit, the list goes on), and in CCIS, 2/3rd’s of students get full-time job offers from past co-ops when they graduate.
This essay will detail the program pretty well - it’s by the creator, who teaches software development regularly and the introductory course every few years.
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/Thoughts/Growing_a_Programmer.html
All of that said, UTD is a pretty good CS school in its own right. If we are talking tiers, the top schools are tier 1, Northeastern is tier 2, and UTD would be tier 3. You’re not going to find some massive gap of any sorts between tier 2 and tier 3. CS is much more about what you can do than the name of the school. If you’re motivated to, you can do just as well at schools in tier 1, 2, 3, or 7. The differences you find will be in teaching, the opportunities you have available, and other fit factors of the college itself.
How much of a difference are we talking here? Where is the money coming from? Is it from your parents, loans, personal savings, or somewhere else?
What about fit beyond the CS programs at each school?
Thanks for the helpful comments! Any other opinions/experiences?
I agree with everything PengPhils said. I really liked the CS program at Northeastern and thought it was a great community of people as well. But if it comes down to a huge cost difference between UT Dallas and Northeastern that would mean going into a lot of debt, it’s not worth it. If the cost difference is still feasible and wouldn’t put you into more debt, that’s a different issue, and I’m recommend visiting both before making a decision. Beyond the CS department, I suspect it’s a fairly different university environment: UT Dallas being more the “traditional” college experience, while Northeastern is more focused on being an urban campus, co-op, and hockey instead of football (if you care about that sort of thing.)
UTD is not much of a “college campus” actually. I live right next to it, and there isn’t much to do. You are, however, about 15 mile north of downtown Dallas, so the opportunities down there are endless for social activities and internships.
You’ll receive a fantastic education in CS (one of, if not the most popular major on campus), but the social aspect is a little limiting, IMHO.
I’m not too familiar with NEU, but they should be comparable education-wise.
Do you qualify for financial need? What is the cost of attendance at both schools? The max merit I’ve seen this year for NEU is 28k/year. That means you’ll pay 150k~ over four years for just room & board + tuition. Assuming you got the AES scholarship from UTD, there should be an obvious answer on which school to chose.