Northeastern for Computer Science

My son was admitted to Northeastern for CS and it is his top choice. I’m interested in hearing from current students about their experiences in the program. Also, it seems like a strong program, but it doesn’t show up in any rankings I’ve seen of CS. Does anyone have thoughts about why? BTW, I’m not so interested in the pros and cons of college rankings overall, but if folks have relevant insights into how CS programs are ranked and how this impacts NEU, I’m all ears. Thanks.

NEU offers one of the country’s more reputable and established CS programs. If you haven’t seen it appear in rankings, just make sure you haven’t consulted sources designed to evaluate graduate departments, which emphasize aspects that may not pertain to undergraduate study.

NEU CS department is ranked amongst probably the top 30 CS programs in the US. In a general sense, it’s great with strong alumni working in “Big Tech”. In addition, NEU possibly has the best Co-OP program in the country.

Nephew is CS major at NEU. He’s had phenomenal co-ops with companies everyone knows, especially if you’ve ever owned a cell phone or laptop, or have used the internet to research travel. Kid is going places…

@PengsPhils is a good source on information on Northeastern CS.

See attached link. My son is also considering NEU for CS as well. http://csrankings.org/#/fromyear/2019/toyear/2020/index?all

@graduate2017 Looking at only a single year is a bit small of a range but the source is generally good if you look at the past 5-10 years, though not much changes: http://csrankings.org/#/fromyear/2015/toyear/2020/index?all

It should also be noted that the link above focuses on research alone. The positive of it is it’s not opinion survey-based and is well designed, but it only paints a small picture for undergraduates that is a bit more tangential. Still, it does show Northeastern is serious about its CS department.

@yrmomkb I could go on for quite some time about Northeastern CS but to give you the short of it:

  1. Northeastern's real draw for CS IMO is something not as many schools offer, which is a top intro teaching curriculum and formulated educational philosophy and approach to CS, which you can read about here:

https://felleisen.org/matthias/Thoughts/Developing_Developers.html

  1. Northeastern was actually the first school to have a college (not just department) specific to CS in the US back in 1982. Many schools to this day still wrap up CS within the math or engineering departments, though that doesn't inherently make those programs any worse. As you can see above, its research strength is quite solid and the department has solidified itself a lot which that early start certainly didn't hurt.
  2. Careerwise the co-op program is great, and you can find Northeastern CS grads all over these days, many going to SF, Seattle, and NYC postgrad. Northeastern was recently actually one of the top 25 (specifically #21 in 2017) most present new hire degrees in Silicon Valley's top tech companies for CS even despite its location on the east coast. While it doesn't carry the full prestige of a CMU or UCB, it's not going to close any doors.

Link: https://www.docdroid.net/sRCdYZX/hiringsolved2017report-pdf

There’s of course nuance and details here but generally Northeastern is a great choice for CS that’s got a great combination of things. It’s hard to find research, teaching, and career all in one CS school.

Programmer here. Ignore the rankings and prestige…they mean diddly squat. CS is a ridiculously employable degree regardless of where he goes to. These schools love to boast “higher starting salaries,” but that’s a false statistic skewed in favor of east/west schools to make them look better than they actually are. OF COURSE these schools are going to have a higher starting salary, because they’re in the middle of high cost regions. The best option is to simply choose something affordable.