DS admitted to these schools for engineering. Any insights appreciated regarding education, college life, future career opportunities, etc. Any input appreciated! We have not visited, as from the west, and DS wanted to wait til he reviewed his acceptances.
There are both solid engineering schools with a lot in common. The main difference here is co-op at Northeastern. Either you love it or you don’t usually. So I would start there - how do you feel about co-op?
Cost would also be another consideration - if there’s a significant cost difference, it’s hard to argue that one of these is going to be more worth it than the other.
@PengsPhils thanks! The dean gives a great intro to the school on the webinar. Nice touch that they offer straight-up access to students and classes. NEU Would be about a 25% cost savings. I just can’t shake the reputation that NE had in the 90’s - but I recognize that is rapidly changing. Boston is such a beautiful and diverse city. I need to get my DS speaking to some students.
@clubtennisletsgo my son is a first year CS major at NEU. I went to high school in NH in the 80’s and it took me a while to get past my view of NEU. It is not perfect, but he has loved his experience so far and wishes he was in Boston now. One of the things that surprised me was how the llc really worked well for him. He was in the CS llc and most of the kids had a many of the same classes. Finding study group was easy and the some of classes had office hours in the dorm. DS was not a super social kid in high school, but he has developed several groups of friends. Now at home, he continues to study with friends. I think a lot has changed for NEU in the past few decades.
While a lot has changed at Northeastern in the past 20 years I must take exception to its reputation prior to that. Northeastern has always provided a solid education to those who were able to take advantage of it. They remained true to their original mission of serving primarily the students fro working class families in the Boston area. Northeastern shared such origins with BU and BC but those schools changed their mission a generation before Northeastern did. The growth of UMass Boston and the changing dynamics of higher education forced Northeastern to change.
In the past they had a policy of giving students the opportunity to succeed. Many did but many also did not and left. The education I received there in the early 1970’s was excellent even without the great campus (and expensive) facilities that exist today.
A 25% cost difference makes this no contest. Northeastern. Plus, IMO, the “campus” is much better.
@lindagaf Appreciate your answer.
The Coop seems like an amazing opportunity, I wonder how many engineering students eventually go on to get an MBA? Most kids need work experience following college, but at NEU - can one go directly?
I don’t think a lot of engineering students get MBAs in general. It isn’t a natural progression in my opinion. They do have some combo majors with CS and business (but not with engineering).
I think NEU grads go on to grad school or get jobs - just like every other college.
For Engineering, I would give the edge to NU. The program has been attracting research funding which has helped its graduate ranking move up to 31, with BU at 36. For undergraduate, while research activity is less significant, the overall quality of the engineering program benefit from new research areas that are interdisciplinary and span departments. There’s collaboration between Engineering, CS, and Business for entrepreneurial studies and areas like Robotics. The co-op program is definitely a big factor when comparing NU and BU.
In terms of your first question, engineers can do well out of both schools. Does your son have a preference? Are both affordable (without hardship/loans)? Is your son enthusiastic (or at least OK) about the co-op idea? Does he prefer one campus over the other?
In terms of MBA the top schools generally look for applicants with a minimum of 2 - 5 years of meaningful work expereince with increasing responsibility. They want students who can share things they learned/experiences they had in the workplace to the grad program. Your S could probably get into some MBA program right out of undergrad but I don’t think that would be the most effective long term career move.
@Happy1 - MBA would be after 3-5 years of working post graduation, I would guess. Just was curious if people from NEU do that, and if so would a BS from NEU be a feather in his cap, so to speak - and if so where do NEU grads go onto study MBA, or maybe undergraduate education has no bearing on how grad schools view the applicants.
@Kiddie - my son has an entrepreneurial spirit and has already started a small business, his goal is to continue on that trajectory in some way. .
@MojiMojo very helpful, he also is considering Case Western Reserve U as he has an opportunity to play on the Varsity team, and a good scholarship too (not too different from NEU). I also wonder if a smaller school would be more invested in him, and his success. As former Yale faculty, that is something that existed there…maybe not a fair comparison. (lastly UCSD - but he does not seem interested.) Trying to narrow the options down!
In my opinion, the real contenders are Case (if he wants to play in college) and Northeastern (if he wants the co-op experience). Both have great campuses in great cities and sound affordable.
25K more for BU isn’t worth it.
Thanks. I think my son is going to CWRU. He is really set on being a scholar athlete, and CWRU has a great team, coach, and a developing solid engineering dept. Hope that COVID does not impact its growth and changes, as it seemed to be headed in an innovative direction. I wish I could PM you! So much knowledge on this site, but obviously a lot is subjective. I prefer Boston, but know very little about Cleveland! I wish we had visited!
@clubtennisletsgo my daughters final 2 choices were CWRU and Northeastern. She just happily finished her first year of engineering in Boston. It’s a shame that you couldn’t visit, the feel of both campuses and educational philosophies are quite different. But honestly, you can’t go wrong with either choice.
@NovaMom93 - Thank you for your words. Yes total bummer we can not visit. I love Boston, and not sure about Cleveland. Boston had such a vibrant tech community - probably second to silicon valley back in the 90’s. What findings lead to her final decision? (Our friend’s daughter is a Sophmore at NEU and loves it - but not engineering) What about the feel and educational philosophies differ? BU was also a choice too.
Case is in a vibrant, very student-friendly area - one that’s walking distance to terrific hospitals, biotech start ups, research labs, etc.
(Boston is great too, but I assume more people can talk about Boston :p)
@clubtennisletsgo the campuses are quite different. University Circle is beautiful, but it is more like a suburb rather than an urban campus - people might disagree, but we’ve lived in NYC and DC. Northeastern’s campus is unique in that it’s a dedicated campus right smack in the middle of Boston. The dorms at Case are not the prettiest, they are a flashback from the 70’s, but my D liked the eclectic mix of modern and historic educational buildings - but the dorms were bad.
As for the educational philosophies…Case does have a small co-op office that helps kids secure an optional co-op at some point in their undergraduate experience. But there are really only a small number of kids who do this. Case has strong research activity, and we got a sense that it leans more on theoretical rather than practical applications of engineering. Northeastern’s co-op program is practically baked into their engineering program. (After wrapping up first year, my kid is more excited about engineering than ever before, so I would say that the First-Year Engineering Program was pretty effective). The Biotech scene in Boston (versus Cleveland) is what really sealed the deal for my daughter so the choice was made after visiting both.
My daughter is also keen on both music and engineering/math, so her final 2 choices weren’t a surprise.
One final observation from my kid, she said that Case struck her as a “work hard, work hard” kind of place. Her high school experience was like that, so that was a negative. But the size of the school, location, music offerings, were awesome.
Two great schools!