Northeastern Questions

  1. Are major changes easy? I'm between MechE and CS.
  2. How does the cost work? If you do the 5 year program, do you pay for five years? Do you pay tuition or anything during coops?
  3. Since there are two 6 month coops in the 4 year plan, do you only pay 3 years of tuition?
  4. What's the reputation of the school outside the north east? I've never heard of it, but I thought I'd drop in an application.
  5. I heard somewhere on CC that they've moved up dramatically in rankings over the past 10 years or so. Someone mentioned somewhere in the mid-100s to the now 39 spot. Do you know if this is true? If so, how did they move up so fast?

1 - major changes can be easy - you just apply and if you meet the criteria you get accepted. CS and engineering have very different freshman course so I think you should decide before starting (although you wouldn’t have to it would just be easier if you did)

2 - you only pay when you are in class - so in the 5 year program you would still do the equivalent of 8 semesters of classes (some would be 1/2 semester summers) - so you would still pay for the equivalent of 4 years of college. The time you are in co-op you do need to pay room and board (wherever you live during the co-op)

3 - again you pay only for semesters of classes - you can squeeze in 8 semesters of classes in the 4 years with 1 or 2 co-ops because you do several 1/2 summer semesters - 2 classes instead of 4. If you come in with sufficient AP credits you might end up with only 7 semesters of classes in the 4 years and save on 1/2 year of tuition.

5 - look up the ratings yourself - yes they have climbed - some people think by gaming the system - one significant thing was not using 4 year graduation rate since most students do 5 year programs.

@kiddie So if I were to only earn my BS at Northeastern, would I only have to pay 6 semesters worth of tuition? and then cover room and board for co-ops?

@ezlbio

I’m assuming you want to do a 4 year program.

Unless you are coming in with 2 semesters worth of credit, you would still need 8 semesters of credit to graduate. You would pay for 8 semesters as @kiddie said, and then cover living expenses on co-op. That is usually done through your pay.

The only difference is instead of doing 2 semesters, you will do 2 co-ops, and then do 4 summer sessions, which equals 2 semesters. You still take the same number of classes as you would anywhere else.

The difference between 5 years and 4 years is not the degree but the number of co-ops and how many summer sessions you take.

@PengsPhils I am coming in with credit but I’m not sure how much of it will be accepted. Thank you for clearing it up.

@ezlbio

No problem!

Check the transfer database - unless you’re waiting on scores, you should be able to know right now how much will transfer in. I believe there is a maximum of 32 credits. AP and IB are in there as institutions.

https://neubos3ss375v.nunet.neu.edu/transfercredit/TransferCreditevaluatedstudent2.asp

@PengsPhils I believe I’ll have 24 credits from another university before I graduate. I’ll have taken 7 AP exams by then. Do you know what I’d need to score on them to receive credit?

Usually a 4 or 5, but it’s in the database for specifics.