Northeastern over WPI and Harvey Mudd for CS - Crazy?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Worcester Polytechnic Institute
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<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>

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<p>No, not crazy. These are all great schools that are pretty different from each other. If you really like NEU better then go there.
If I were you I would visit each one a second time and ask lots of questions to make sure.</p>

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<p>Go where you feel most comfortable.</p>

<p>However, your assumption that one rarely leaves campus when you are in school is, for the most part, incorrect. True, you spend a lot of time on campus. After all, that is where your classes are and the labs to do your project work. But the rest of the time you are on your own. </p>

<p>Whether you live in the dorms or an off campus apartment also gives one a different “feel” to it. </p>

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<p>Thanks HPuck. I was hearing that, and I disagreed with it as well, so I thought I would mention it to get more opinions. Thanks to both of you for the responses.</p>