@PurpleTitan Well, I mean it is a pretty small advantage. But in comparison to UCs, private schools offer students more individualized attention. At UCs, there are so many students to accommodate for, it’s extremely difficult to get into the courses that you want to take, and even if you get in, oftentimes it’s a TA teaching you. So my understanding is that you have to pretty much learn everything yourself and devote probably an extra two years to get a degree. Even though it’s cheaper, I think it’s a smarter investment to go to a school that can give you a quality education that can actually be used in the real world.
Uh. The UC’s provide a quality education. And yes, the UC’s now have budgetary issues, but it’s not like NEU is rich. Paying for outside tutors while going to a UC would still probably be cheaper than full-pay at NEU.
Really explore what a school has to offer.
Take a look at syllabi and reviews. Don’t buy the hype.
So then pick a school from your acceptances…and go. Go with the intention of loving it…and doing well!
@PurpleTitan I’m sorry if it sounded like I was bad-mouthing UCs; I know they’re great schools and a lot of their students are successful. It’s just that a lot of them offer primarily STEM majors, which is not what I’m going for. For most UCs, I applied as a psychology major. Even though I thoroughly enjoy the subject, I don’t know if I want a career in it. I just want to go to a school where I know I have other options.
@thumper1 I’ll try my best! I’ll talk with my parents about it, but to be honest, Northeastern was the one school that we all actually liked.
@zixinyu: Huh? The UCs all offer a ton of majors.
What UC’s don’t offer sociology and anthropology?
I do hope you are kidding! The UCs are all full universities…with a broad array of majors. No question, you can find something else if psychology doesn’t pique your interest. The UCs re NOT STEM only universities. They are full range universities…with a LOT of options.
@PurpleTitan @thumper1 I didn’t say that it’s only STEM majors, I’m just saying for some of their campuses, at least half of what they have is STEM. The only campus with a greater variety is UC Davis.
“It’s just that a lot of them offer primarily STEM majors, which is not what I’m going for.”
That’s what you said. But that also isn’t true when you count up the number of majors by category. Yes, most UC students would be primarily in pre-professional majors but
- Why is that a bad thing? That would mean smaller classes and more faculty attention in your major, no?
- What do you think kids at NEU are studying? From what I understand, NEU is a heavily pre-professional school. Are you expecting to find a majority of the student body there to be liberal arts majors?
- Like I said earlier, I just want to have more options if I change majors.
- It’s not that I want to be in a school where everyone’s a liberal arts major. NEU offers and encourage dual degrees, study abroad options, and co-op programs. At UCs, it’s hard enough earning one degree, much less two, and have less opportunities in terms of studying abroad.
Both does not really make a difference. It’s a matter of your performance. If you perform according to the standards of Northeastern. Then you have a good Shot! Good Luck!
Thanks for the support and advice!!
Chance me too if you can… Thanks a lot
Yeah for sure! I’ll do my best to help!
Huh? Have you looked at the UC study-abroad options?
Have you looked and compared what would be required to double major at the UCs and NEU?
Have you looked to see what majors are offered at the UCs vs. NEU?
If most students at UCs are STEM majors, why do you think you would have trouble getting the classes to graduate considering that at every school outside of tech institutes, there are always more non-STEM classes than STEM classes?
You don’t need a co-op school to do internships, research, or field work. You really should take a good look at the places you were accepted and revisit if possible, before you fixate on Northeastern.
You were accepted to some great schools, but you seem to be only superficially aware of what these places may offer.
@zixinyu @PurpleTitan I go to UCLA and often classes are crowded and teachers and TAs have incomprehensible accents. I knew I was taking a risk by going to UCLA because of its 40,000 student population, but I was dismayed to find almost no interaction with my teachers at all. Office hours were always packed with people and there was no impersonality whatsoever. This is precisely why I want to transfer out of UCLA this year. Not to say that UCLA isn’t a great university, but for my major (Economics) the resources and quality of instruction is lacking.
Northeastern student here: Go to BU (affordability pending) and then decide transferring later. If you choose a CC, you basically commit to transferring now. I think you could make what you needed of BU + internships, and if you found you couldn’t, transferring is easy and you can even likely keep friends at BU.
You’ll have a good chance to do this anywhere - I love Northeastern, but I don’t think this is a defining detail comparatively really.
Good luck 
Honestly, you may not get into Northeastern. It has gotten very competitive and has highly considered the “numbers” as it wants to move up in the rankings. One of mine got into BU but not NE and had similar stats. You have good choices. Pick one and go with it. IF you find yourself unhappy, transfer.
I am not sure that NE has a lot of coops for socio/anthro majors. Most of the social science coops seems to be in Tech or business with a few non-profits. Most colleges have a big network of internships from which you can get similar experiences. Not all the non-profit internships are paid and you would still have to pay for housing (unless you moved back home).
I’m a little confused, however, because it doesn’t seem as if you got into a UC at this point?
Did you get money from any of these schools? I know kids that absolutely loved Miami (I assume this is Miami of Ohio) and BU is great.