<p>I'm currently deciding between Northeastern, Lehigh, and Villanova. I have already visited all 3 and as of now I really can't decide.</p>
<p>In my opinion, Northeastern has the best location and I do like their co-op idea, but I am not completely sure if it is worth it compared to a regular summer internship which I'm pretty sure both Lehigh and Villanova offers. I know I definitely want to get some work experience, but I am also planning to go to grad school to either specialize in a specific engineering field, or to study something such as architecture or management. While I'm okay with the 5 year program if its really necessary, I really don't want to have to do it if I can accomplish the same thing in 4 years through interning. I do know that many people have told me that if I get a good job through co-op, the company I work with might help me pay for my grad school expenses so that is a plus. They say at Northeastern I can do up to 3 co-ops, but I think that is too much and I would probably just end up doing 1 or 2. In terms of environment, I love Boston and its diversity.</p>
<p>To me, Lehigh seems to have the best reputation and I love how their class sizes are smaller. They also seem more flexible about the co-oping, and for a smaller-sized school, they seem to offer a lot of research opportunities and I can also graduate in 4 years, but my concerns are that I am not really a big fan of their location, and I'm also not a big partier nor am I interested in Greek life which I've heard is really big at Lehigh. I'm worried about not having enough things to do on a weekend compared to a city-like environment.</p>
<p>I need an opinion on Villanova, but as of now, I like the friendly and community-like atmosphere of Villanova, but what really bothers me is that their curriculum has so many core requirements and isn't very flexible.</p>
<p>Any advice is really appreciated and thanks for reading!</p>
<p>The best thing about Northeastern is its location. Its reputation has also been trending upwards in recent years. Coops are interesting because they give you more experience than just an internship and are more likely to result in a full time job offer if you do well. Assuming your coops are paid, you will also make more money than you would otherwise, which can be nice. I think they have been trying to give students the option of graduating in only four years recently, which you may want to look into.</p>
<p>Lehigh probably has the strongest academics of all three schools, and the campus is pretty nice. It is also much smaller than Northeastern, and much closer to what is in my opinion the optimal school size (~6000 undergraduates), which is a good thing for both the quality of your education and the social scene. However, it doesn’t have the advantage of being located in Boston. </p>
<p>Villanova is probably your worst option. Is there a difference in cost between the schools?</p>
<p>Yeah I’m pretty sure Northeastern has a 4 year option but that is mainly if you come in with a lot of APs or if you take a lot of summer classes. I’m pretty sure there is also an option to graduate in 4.5 years with 2 co-ops. In terms of cost, Northeastern will cost me around $30,000 a year, while Villanova will cost around $15,000. This is including the tuition, books, and room and board charges. I have not heard back from Lehigh yet about my financial aid so I am not sure how much that will cost.</p>
<p>Northeastern’s total cost of attendance isn’t really the cost of attendance. You pay almost half of it through co-op. You can also look at co-op as a job guarantee. I definitely recommend NEU other those two.</p>
<p>Yeah, Northeastern is becoming a really popular school right now. Boston also beats Bethlehem in most ways, unless you’re looking for a more quiet and traditional environment. I know Lehigh also has a good co-op program too, but I’m not sure how it will compare with Northeastern’s.</p>
<p>Co-op will probably help with paying tuition since you’ll be paying for 8 semesters over the time-span of 5 years over 4 years, but I am not actually sure if the money from co-op will actually cover much. Since you’re in Engineering, I’d say it might help pay tuition by a few thousand dollars or so. I will bet though that you’ll at least more money than someone who is living off minimum wage.</p>
<p>One thing we learned while deciding on a school for my daughter is that you can do a coop with almost any school. Coop is becoming increasingly common even with schools that don’t officially offer it. We met several students at PSU who did coops and just took extra time to graduate. They called themselves Super Seniors in their fifth year. Daughter is doing civil engineering at Virginia Tech and her classmates are regularly offered coops after doing a summer internship. Neither school has a formal coop program like Northeastern but will support students who choose this path.</p>
<p>So pick the school that you really love and the intern and coop opportunities will likely be available to you.</p>
<p>The construction industry has been noticeably better as of late, at least in my area, with the biggest improvement in the luxury residential sector. We’ve had quite a few skyscrapers break ground in the past year, two of which are part of a larger $15B and $4.5B projects. To put things in perspective (though I’m not a civil engineer, I’m a construction superintendent), I typically get contacted by a headhunter once every few months. In the past couple of weeks, three have reached out to me about new opportunities.</p>
<p>This isn’t to say things are back to the pre-2008 levels; it’s far from it, but I would certainly not characterize the current market as bad. On a scale of 1-10, I’d put the current situation as a 6 or 7, with pre-2008 being an 11 and 2009 as a 2.</p>
<p>2 sons at Northeastern both engineering majors one civil one industrial. I the job market is ok for both and will be better in a couple of years. Something has got to be done about the infrastructure before more deaths and tragedies occur.</p>
<p>Anyhow my 2cents is that even though other schools will let you do what they call co-ops - a lot of that is on the kids to find them. It is very hard. I can’t imagine my sons not at northeastern and not reaping the benefits of built-in co-op. One of my sons is just a freshman the other is 3rd year - on his second co-op. </p>
<p>You can graduate in 4 years or 4.5 if you opt to do 2 co-ops but even that is a full year’s experience. My older son with graduate with > 1.5 years (closer to 2) when graduates, which is amazing tome.</p>
<p>" you can do a coop with almost any school." - True. </p>
<p>What sets Northeastern apart is the fact that all students are doing it, so it is part of the culture. You can even live on campus while you co-op. Longer co-ops usually more meaningful to the student and employee. But at other schools you often need to do a shorter summer co-op or abandon your roommates for a semester (which can be awkward, especially if renting off campus).</p>