<p>im hearing so many different things about northeastern,</p>
<p>either i hear great things about the co-op and northeastern being mediocre</p>
<p>or.. i hear how its easy to get in but hard to do good, and thats why its a "good school"</p>
<p>then i research it and its 99 on a list, but it has #1 co-op.</p>
<p>im so confused!!! this website is beyond amazing with people's opinions so please share id love to know what you think =]</p>
<p>retainersarelove, suggest you read the other posts on this forum. My son is a freshman, it is not easy to get in at all anymore. Look at the acceptance rate. It is currently 47% and will probably go down after this year. Look at the median SAT scores. Read the posts of those who were rejected or deferred.<br>
I have also not seen that it is hard to do good. Like any school, there are students who do the work, go to class, and get decent grades. There are those who do not. When you say it is 99 on a list, it is actually 98 on the US News and World report of National Universities. That is up about 20 places from last year. Yes it has #1 for cooperative education because it has a reputation for coops. If that is what you are looking for it is a great school.<br>
The lists are only worth what lists are worth. You should do your own research on this board, get on the school website, look at it in terms of what your major is going to be and go from there. Look at the whole process of selecting schools as a research project and do your homework. It will pay off.</p>
<p>When my son was applying to colleges last fall and started to seriously look at Northeastern (for its co-op program) we tried to do our homework and learn as much about the school as possible since we are from the upper midwest and knew nothing about schools in the northeast. Northeastern has been in existence for about 100 years and up until a few decades ago, it was predominantly a commuter school and even 10 years ago the student population was still largely from Massachusetts. It was considered to be a safety school for many high achieving local students. It has always been known for its co-op program and is one of only a handful of 4-year institutions that offer co-op programs for all their majors (co-op has been very common for years in certain areas of study such as engineering but not to most other students). And in all fairness to other co-op programs, these programs have only received rankings for a few years and for the past couple of years, they are not ranked by a number at all, just listed. But it does have a great reputation nationally for its co-op program.</p>
<p>Unlike internships, students do not take classes when they are on co-op; and gemerally they are paid and working full time. Most students are on a 5 year program that allows them to take 3 co-ops that last for 6 months each. They then take some classes during summer when they are not on co-op in order to get 4 years of classes completed along with 18 months of work experience during a 5 year period. Depending on your major, you may be able to do fewer co-ops and graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>Beginning about 5-6 years ago Northeastern developed a strategic plan to raise its rankings and place it in the top 100 schools according to USNews rankings. They accomplished that this year when they moved up 17 spots to #98. Part of their plan was to increase the average test scores of admitted students. They hoped to increase their average SAT score to 1250 by 2008; it was around 1139 in 2001 and had risen to 1225 by 2005;the averages for some colleges such as engineering are slightly higher and others such as General Studis is slightly lower.. Averages this year are all slightly higher although I am not sure of the exact numbers. Another goal was to increase their geographic distribution - they are shooting for about a 26% acceptance rate for students from Mass. by 2008.</p>
<p>For the past few years they have also gotten record numbers of applications – over 27,000 last year - and their acceptance rate has been under 50%. They expect close to 30,000 applicants this year. So basically in just a few short years, Northeastern has managed to move up in its rankings and is attracting higher achieving students than it has in the past. They also have an Honors program and give out significant amounts of merit scholarships to attract higher caliber students. They have also made an effort to hire more and better faculty and decrease class sizes. So they are in the process of raising the quality of their school academically. </p>
<p>So keep in mind that this is a school that has been attempting to change its academic reputation beginning just a few years ago; prior to that it was a third tier school and as a result did have more of a “mediocre” reputation. Today, it is more in line with Boston University academically yet still has its very strong co-op program.</p>
<p>thank you ebeeeee and scansmom, and yeah you are right about 98.. my mistake! i have read that its growing and im really happy to hear that the academic standards are increasing and the co-op is staying strong. thanks again, anyone else want to add?</p>
<p>Also, please remember that rankings are not always accurate. This is the case with Northeastern. Some of the USNEWS' ranking criteria incude graduation rates, financial resources, and student faculty ratio, etc. Remember however, that since NEU has many students on co-op, students typically graduate over a larger timeframe, the true student/faculty ratio is much lower, and therefore the financial strength is underrepresented as well.</p>
<p>Also remember that NEU is in the process ascending the ranks, which means that by the time many of the posters on CC will attend college, the rankings and selectivity likely be higher. It is always better to attend a university that has an increasing reputation rather than a decreasing one!</p>