<p>I have been accepted to Northeastern and WPI, and I doubt I will be accepted to Harvey Mudd, but if I were to, I think I would choose Northeastern over it as well. I am pretty set on this, but I thought it would be good to check to make sure I am not making a drastic mistake.</p>
<p>I have visited Northeastern and WPI, and I feel much more at home at Northeastern. I love big cities (NY, Philly, Seattle) and I love the feel of the Northeastern campus. The social scene also seems the best at Northeastern by a significant margin, though I am not the party type. While WPI is a train ride away, it felt much different and I keep getting told that you rarely leave campus when you are in college.</p>
<p>Of course though, academics and preparation in your field is the most important aspect. I want to make sure that my social/location preferences are not outweighing academic strength too much. I feel confident in being prepared at Northeastern with the co-op program, and I feel that there is not much of a significant gap in the programs of the three schools from my research. Is this off-base? I like the academic structure of WPI (4 quarters, 3 classes on average per quarter) as well as the project based learning style, but that is not enough to outweigh the rest.</p>
<p>Once graduated, I realize that the recognition of Northeastern (while it is a growing school) will probably have a decent gap to WPI and Harvey Mudd in the tech community. Can anyone shed any light on how much this gap will be and how this will affect job prospects?</p>
<p>Short Version: Northeastern for best location / experiential learning / academics / social combination, is it crazy?</p>
<p>My son chose northeastern over university of Pennsylvania for computer science and he is pretty happy about it. He said there are plenty of clever kids at northeastern. He takes honors classes. The kids are really nice and friendly at northeastern, boston is a great town and he has a great scholarship. One of the reasons that northeastern appealed to him is the flexibility in his required classes. I think that Harvey MUDd has strict requirements for at least the first year or two. He wanted to have more choices and wouldn’t even consider Harvey MUDd as a result. Boston is a great town for college kids, Worcester on the other hand did not appeal to him. Also it is easy to hop a train from boston to get home, Worcester is a more complicated drive. I don’t know if you have taken ap courses, northeastern is more likely to give you credit for them than MUDd. You are going to spend 4 or 5 years at college, make sure you like the environment at the college you choose.</p>
<p>Not true at all. Northeastern has been around for 116 years and has developed extensive relationships with the tech community both academically and especially through the coop program. There is regionalism of course. Harvey Mudd would have better relationships with west coast companies for example. WPI is not as highly regarded as you seem to think although it is a good school, albeit in sleepy Worcester. </p>
<p>My daughter is also deciding between Northeastern and WPI for CS. We attended the CCIS admitted student open house at Northeastern last week, where we received a huge list of nmes of new professors since 2010. Tomorrow we visit WPI.
She was impressed with the work that the coop programs performs to help students prepare for interviews, as well as with the quality of the coops. It’s her choice, but I’d pick Northeastern for the coop, the location, and the quality of the program.</p>
<p>I should be walking in with over a semester of AP credit, so I would be losing a half year going to Mudd. Both are ways away from home (FL) so getting home isn’t a factor.</p>
<p>@Tom</p>
<p>I am fine with regional strength for both Northeastern and WPI, as the Northeast is a place I am very comfortable living in, as well as the west coast.</p>
<p>@Mary</p>
<p>Having visited both, I feel pretty strongly that Northeastern is the way to go in that comparison, at least for me. It really depends on what feel you want for your college experience. WPI’s one significant draw over Northeastern was the academic structure mentioned in the OP.</p>
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<p>Overall, what malm said summarized my thoughts best: “You are going to spend 4 or 5 years at college, make sure you like the environment at the college you choose.” I just want to make sure I am not making a choice too heavily based on that and ignoring a significantly stronger program such as Harvey Mudd if I were to get accepted.</p>