Hi, DD was accepted to the NUin program at NEU and to Tulane as a Biology major for Fall 2023. She’s waiting for a few other reach RD decisions but would be happy with NEU or Tulane.
Any thoughts/suggestions on how she should go about making a decision between NEU & Tulane?
A few things she’s done/will be doing:
She spoke to a few students at NEU (some who transferred out as they didn’t enjoy it).
Based on these conversations:
Positives: Co-op, Boston, accelerates students transition to adulthood (may be a negative also?)
Things that concerned her based on these conversations:
Feels over-crowded (long lunch lines, no space in library especially during finals, forced double/triple housing) - possible growth pains due to rising popularity/over-enrollment in 2021?
Transient nature of Co-ops makes it less of a college with college spirit
Lots of students still having to do some online classes
Terrible administrative staff (may be a general issue at many colleges?)
She will be visiting Tulane later this week and spend the weekend there with a relative who’s a freshman. She will also attend their “Destination Tulane” event for admitted students when she’s out there.
Spoke to one person who graduated from Tulane last year. She heard a lot of positive things in terms of being a good balance between social and academics, students being generally happy, New Orleans being a great town, etc. She did get warned about controlling her exposure to the party scene.
Any comments from parents/students who have experience with either colleges would be much appreciated.
you have summarized the differences very well. for the kid looking for the traditional American college experience, with parties and sports and school spirit, that’s Tulane and not NEU. Not that NEU kids don’t love their school, but many of them have a different goal in mind, which is to get work experience and build their resume. a worthy goal, of course.
weather might be a factor, depending on your kid.
there will be parties at NEU, and plenty of kids not partying at Tulane, but the stereotypes should not be ignored in this case and your kid has to know what they want and what they are comfortable with. Boston is a great city for college kids and offers lots of diversions for the non-partier. Same with NOLA, but with more of a party vibe.
I loved the idea of my kids being in Boston (1st one chose elsewhere and the 2nd is in the application process now). I also loved Tulane when we visited, but my wife did not and my kid was ambivalent (and was therefore deferred). I thought the Tulane kids seemed truly happy, balanced, and engaged.
this is, ultimately, a completely personal decision.
Since she was accepted, I assume she applied ED so Northeastern was her first choice. Being offered NU In makes the decision non-binding. What did she like about Northeastern that made it her first choice?
NU IN has its supporters and detractors. For some it was an incredible experience, for others not so much. It depends on the individual. It requires a sense of adventure. Of students who enter on the Boston campus the freshman retention rate is 97% and the 6-year graduation rate is 91%.
Northeastern is not the typical college experience. There is no football but hockey is extremely popular. I am not aware of students being required to do online classes but some choose to do it, especially during a coop term.
My son is a junior at NU. He has had a really good experience. I think it’s best for students who are independent and self-motivated. The biggest difference between NU and other schools is co-op. Personally I think it’s great, especially after watching a friend’s son struggle with employment after graduating from Colgate.
He studies in the ISEC Building, which is beautiful. Attached is a pic from when he saw Liam Neeson filming a movie there. He would agree that the gym is overcrowded. He rock climbs at a local gym and exercises outdoors, including Blue Bikes and with the ski club. Clubs are probably the best way to find friends with similar interests. He lives in an apartment with 5 friends. One is on co-op in San Francisco and the rest live in the apartment regardless of whether they are in classes or on co-op so no issues with continuity. The kid in CA got a subletter who is a friend so it’s all good. NUIn students tend to be very happy with their experiences. You can find a lot of their videos on YouTube. My son did a Dialogue of Civilization (short term study abroad) in Africa that was amazing. There is a lot of spirit with the Bean Pot hockey tournament.
@billythegoldfish
Thanks for the comments. Agree - it is a personal decision…just hoping to find any non-subjective data points that could inform that personal decision.
@TomSrOfBoston
Thanks for the response. She did apply ED and as you said, the NUIn offer is non-binding. She had done a 2 week program in Biomedical Engineering at NEU in her summer before senior year. She really liked that program and loved being in Boston in the summer. The dorm setup was great (East Village - which I believe is an honors dorm) and she was exposed to a lot of information about NEU and the co-op program. This convinced her to apply ED to NEU.
Once she was accepted to NUIn (even though she didn’t check that box), she has talked to a couple of people who did NUIn and is totally sold on that part. One of the students she spoke to said she loved NUIn but was put off by the “over crowding” once she was in Boston and transferred out. She did talk to one person who’s now a junior at NEU and has only good things to say about it.
We found the comment about online classes from a facebook NEU parent group where someone complained that her child has 3 out of 5 classes as online. Other parents also chimed in suggesting their kids had similar experiences.
@Mom270
Thank you. The co-op program is definitely one the key things that led her to ED to NEU. The IDEC building looks super cool and modern.
She has viewed a lot of videos from NUIn students and as you said, they all seem to love it. It feels like a great, relaxed way to start college and almost looks like a well-coordinated vacation. So, she’s fully sold on the NUIn part!
NEU was one of my daughter’s final three, and the crowding issues were a concern for us too. (She got a nice merit offer from Scripps that convinced her to stay on the west coast for college.) The campus is lovely, but quite compact for the number of students. We saw a lot of complicated advice available online, describing specific half-hour windows to get food when it’s less crowded, and that sounded like it could get very old and lead to a lot of out-of-pocket spending instead. There’s definitely a lot to love as well, though!
I would also do some digging into what kind of co-ops bio students get. I know there are great co-op placements for the computational and engineering majors as well as other pre-professional fields like the business majors, architecture, journalism, PT, nursing etc. But I’m not sure what the co-ops for the more lab-scienc-y majors tend to look like. I know that some students in majors with fewer practical skills can end up in on-campus co-ops like working in admissions and such - not that this is necessarily a bad experience, but it might not be as much of a selling point. Is your daughter interested in health professions? There are of course a ton of hospitals and clinics in Boston… but also good opportunities at Tulane which has its own med center. I would consider what kind of co-ops your daughter would be hoping for, and try to investigate how competitive it is to get the more desirable placements.
Hopefully the Tulane visit will help to give your daughter some clarity. Congrats to her on having great options!
The biggest NUin con is the cost and not actually college “yet” - The cost before some other fees/ costs for the Fall of 2022 was pushing $38,000.
You can not get Parent Plus loans or student loans for these costs - from the site
Grants, loans, and work awards from federal and state sources cannot be applied to the fall semester as The N.U.in Program is a pre-matriculated pathway to Northeastern. Students that qualify can use these financial options beginning in the spring semester.
Glad to hear that your D is going to visit Tulane to get a sense of the vibe there. My D is a senior and has enjoyed her time at Tulane. The students really do seem to be very happy there in general but it’s not for everyone. My husband was dead set against Tulane (and he was both a college admissions officer and college guidance counselor in previous work lives). His biggest issue was the reputation of New Orleans as a party scene. A visit and admitted students weekend changed all that. And now we are both a little sad that our regular visits there are coming to a close.
Things to consider about Tulane:
Yes, there’s a party atmosphere - that’s the culture. However, the students are not down in the French Quarter/Bourbon street - too far away and too touristy. Instead, there’s parties on campus and multiple festivals in New Orleans throughout the year (Jazzfest, Crawfest, Carnival/Mardi Gras, Tequila Sunrise, etc). I think there might be some kind of parade every weekend! My D is not a heavy drinker and that’s never been an issue for anyone. Just know and stick to your limits.
Greek life can be as existent or non existent as you want. My D is in a sorority but it doesn’t overwhelm her social life. I’d say only 1/3 of her social group is in a greek organization and they are all in different ones. Her housemates are not in/dropped their sororities.
When my D entered 4 years ago, sports was not as significant as it is now. The last couple of years they have had some major wins which has caused a much more “rah rah” vibe on campus. The recent Cotton Bowl Win, National Sailing Championship and improving basketball teams has ignited a little spark for athletics. So again, not overwhelming, but there if you want to take in a game of some sort. (And they are consistently acknowledged as having one of the best football uniforms in the country)
Academics appear to be rigorous but not overwhelming. My D is definitely not tied to the library and will graduate with honors. She’s never mentioned it being competitive.
New Orleans is a very cool city. Lots of culture, music and food, food, food! It also unfortunately has a high crime rate so you have to be smart there. We love New Orleans but looking forward to actually exploring Boston in the next 4 years where my youngest D will be going to college.
Feel free to DM me if you have any questions about Tulane.
This is correct - non-NU financial aid cannot be applied to NUin, however, if she did receive NU merit, that will apply to NUin expenses.
Besides that financial restriction, I would say that the fact that NUin isn’t college “yet” was a big positive for my daughter. While her classes in Dublin were “real” college, they were easier and the grades that show up on the NU transcript are all P/F. It was a very nice on-ramp to college after a rigorous high school schedule, particularly for my daughter who is pre-med and therefore has many years of studying ahead of her. It was great to have a semester that wasn’t as difficult and contained lots of fun travel before she had to start worrying about GPA and all that comes with a rigorous college like NU.
The NEU college of science web site lists some co-op employers and for each of the Bio related fields (neuroscience,biochem, bioed, biotech, etc.), there seem to be around 10-12 employers listed (with a fair amount of overlap across all of these fields). It is unclear how many co-ops each of these employers hire and how intense the competition is for NEU students for these spots.
In contrast, the Khoury college of computer science at NEU does not list specific co-op employers but lists job titles such as cloud software engineer, software engineer, software developer, etc. Being in the technology space in the bay area, I think this would likely translate to a large number of employers (although the current environment is not the greatest for most tech employers).
It would be great to get data on co-op hiring for each major - # of employers, # of hires per employer, # of applications per student, # of offers, # joined, etc. Co-op is a big/biggest draw of NEU and a quantitative way of assessing a student’s likelihood of landing a co-op and the type of employer would be a big help in making an acceptance decision.
The party image of Tulane has been a concern for us - great to hear that this is contained to the campus and that it will largely be up to my D to police herself. Even if she finds it hard to do this for the first semester, I am hoping she’ll course correct and learn to balance her social life with her academics.
She definitely wants strong college spirit and the recent sports wins will be a positive for her in that regard.
I will post an update with my D’s feedback after she’s back from her Tulane visit this weekend. @1923girls, if we have any questions, we will definitely DM you - appreciate the offer.
Thanks @JulieKM - your daughter’s NUIn experience echoes what we’ve heard from two other students we spoke to and several youtube videos/forum posts.
Did your daughter have any issues once she was back in Boston? Specifically, any issues finding her friend group given the fall cohort in Boston may have already formed groups? Did you find that NUIn kids tend to form friend groups with folks they met abroad OR do they assimilate well with the non-NUIn students as well? Also, any practical issues after being back in Boston - such as housing, roommates, course selection, etc?
The additional costs for NUIn over the already high tuition does sting!
We did not look at Tulane so I can’t make the comparison but can offer that my daughter is a freshman at Northeastern and absolutely loving it. She seems very happy with the social scene and has a few different friend groups from different activities that she participates in as well as from her dorm. I do think being involved helps socially. (That’s probably true at all schools though). My daughter was on campus first semester and she did say that the cafeteria is more crowded now that the NUin kids have arrived but it doesn’t seem terrible. The school is still correcting for the over enrollment from last year so I think that crowding will get better each semester. I’ve heard kids love NUin–they come out of it with really strong friendships and they get to take classes without worrying so much about the grades, which seems like a great way to start college.
I was actually very impressed with the greeting that the NUin kids received when they came back to Boston. The school clearly understands that the NUin students need support and orientation when they come back.
The planning started back in October when they met via Zoom with their NU advisor to plan class registration, which happened at the same time as the Boston students. The NUin students also indicated their roommate and housing preferences in November, and received confirmation of their assignments in December. The move-in experience was very organized and couldn’t have been easier. The school planned several days of orientation, tours, and social activities the first week of January before the Boston kids came back from break, and that helped the NUin kids feel grounded. The RA was also there when they got there, and was helpful for answering questions.
The winter club fair happened less than a week after she got there, which helped the NUin students get involved in other activities and meet other kids on campus. Just like those who started in Boston in the fall, it takes some self-motivation to put yourself out there to meet people, but my daughter has not felt like she missed the boat on forming relationships (and she is somewhat introverted). It’s all about finding people who have similar interests as you, and clubs are always accepting of new members. My daughter has been there less than a month and is already involved in 3 campus organizations.
She had a great set of roommates in Dublin so she is living with them in Boston, but I know of others who decided to get random roommate assignments in Boston and are doing fine. With the emphasis on international education and the co-ops, Northeastern is built for these kinds of transitions. Looking back, my daughter said that she would have probably been bored if she went to a school that was the same experience for 8 straight semesters. I will have three in college at the same time next school year, so cost is an important factor for us, but the entire NUin experience was one that I would not have wanted her to miss. She grew in ways that I don’t think she would have otherwise.
One other thing related to your questions about co-ops … my daughter is a Behavioral Neuroscience major and NU did break out sessions with faculty and students from each major at our accepted students day last spring. The students shared their co-op experiences, which were very impressive. One thing I didn’t realize until then was that not every student finds their co-op through the NU database. It’s not like there are a limited number of co-ops for which all students from a particular major are competing. Some do get co-ops with employers who have hired previous NU students, but others get them through LinkedIn or Indeed or any number of resources. Some students stay in Boston and others go anywhere in the world. Students take a co-op class the semester before their co-op cycle begins, and they are taught how to find and interview for their co-ops.
Parents who have children who have already gone through the co-op process say the same thing - expect lots of anxiety leading up to getting that first co-op, but trust the process, and it all works out in the end!
Congratulations on your D’s acceptances. There is no right or wrong choice here. I’d consider Tulane and Northeastern to be peer institutions academically and I know people who have been happy and successful at both schools. Assuming finances are similar I agree with the idea of re-visiting both schools and letting your D decide which she prefers.
