Northeastern Compared to: Miami (Ohio), Boston U, Marquette, St. Louis

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
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<p>Alright, well I tried this in the General College Search Forum, but didn't get many responses, so I thought I would post this here.</p>

<p>I am trying to cut down my list of safeties as I form my Spring visit plans, and I would like your opinions on these schools' academics.</p>

<p>Basically, I realize that prestige and rankings are not a reason to choose a school, but I want to make sure that if I go to one of my safeties, I am not closing any doors as far as top grad schools or top job placement.</p>

<p>So, could you rank these, in your opinion, with regards to:</p>

<ul>
<li>Prestige</li>
<li>Job Placement/Preparation</li>
<li>Academic Setting - (from most intimate to least)</li>
<li>Intellectual-ness? - (from the most academic-focused student body to the least focused)</li>
<li>Education in general - (best programs, business and engineering wise, to worst)</li>
</ul>

<p>Any other comparisons, advice, or suggestions would be great. I am interested in Math and Science, and I'll probably be doing Business or Engineering, but Med School is an option.</p>

<p>Thanks so much,
mvmanno</p>

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<p>I think the reason you didn’t get a lot of responses is that you don’t really talk about what YOU want in a school. What kind of environment are you looking for? What are the most important factors for you? Also, it’s hard to “rank” those schools based on your criteria… most people don’t know enough about all 4 of the schools to rank.</p>

<p>For NU, you definitely won’t be “closing any doors” for job placement. I can tell you that as someone nearing the end of college, I’m not at all worried about competing for jobs (granted, the economy sucks so that makes it tougher, but economic conditions aside). My degree might not be from a top school, but I’ll graduate with some awesome work experience at two extremely well-reputed companies and with a good background in what I do. </p>

<p>Academic setting… intimate? I’m not sure exactly what you mean. Academics here are decent. You get out of it whatever you want. There are challenging majors and less challenging majors. I’m in neuroscience and the science departments have some solid courses… you’ll be challenged plenty. But, I’ve found some of the more liberal arts classes to be much easier (sometimes too easy).</p>

<p>I wouldn’t describe our student body as intellectual. People study, people take school seriously, but I wouldn’t mind a little more cultural/social/political awareness. But, this is a BIG generalization and applies to the student body as a whole. There are plenty of people who are very intelligent, cool, interesting… but you’ll have to put some effort into actually finding them. Luckily, there are TONS of on-campus groups to join, and they attract the more active portion of the student body, so if you get involved, you’ll be fine.</p>

<p>Business and Engineering are both going to provide good educations. My friends in engineering are all doing pretty well, my friends in business are doing extremely well (I can’t believe some of the jobs they’ve landed),</p>

<p>So that’s NU. BU is also a good school and will offer just as good of an education. I’m personally a big fan of co-op, which I think offers opportunities to rival much higher-ranked schools, so that’s what puts NU ahead of other mid-tier schools, in my opinion. But, both are fine, and both will prepare you for the real world, or for med school.</p>

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<p>Thank you very much, Emily, that was the kind of response I was looking for. </p>

<p>As far as academic setting, I meant, are your classes mainly huge? Do your professors know or care about you? Are kids competitive or generally cooperative?</p>