Northeastern University vs. University of Miami

College Search & Selection
1

my information: I have received basically the same financial aid from both schools making them both affordable for my family, Maryland resident, I would consider myself fairly independent and mature, I find it hard to choose which because I would be adaptable to either school, neither are surrounded around greek life and that doesn’t bother me, African american but I grew up in a predominately white area

Northeastern: architecture program

     Pros:urban with campus feel, one year of co-op, opportunists with being in the city of Boston, over 150,000 college students in Boston to socialize with, D1: hockey,baseball, basketball, toured and I do love: the school, campus, and Boston, 13,700 undergrads, #49 private school in us, 448 miles from home, diverse student body, 87% graduation rate,5 year bachelor + 1 year master, study abroad semester 5

     Cons:poor social life at northeastern, no football team, cold weather

Umiami- engineering school: architecture engineering but I am considering transferring to the architecture school

     Pros: warm weather, d1: football, baseball, basketball, 10,000 undergrads, #64 private school in us,1,080 miles from home,diverse student body, 84% graduation rate, city night life, beaches

     Cons:not toured but I am planning to

please feel free to let me know of any other information that would be helpful of making this decision

2

How do you know this?

3

city night life

While Boston is a bit stricter with liquor laws, this is true for both Boston and Miami.

I love the social life at Northeastern personally so it really depends on what you’re looking for. It’s not sports or greek centered but has the city as a center itself, which I strongly preferred.

This is more or less a fit decision as the schools are comparable academically. I’d say hold off until you visit Miami and then trust your gut. That said, I’d try to get your priorities written down / ordered to help with your decision. How important is weather compared to campus feel? What about sports? How much do you like the co-op model?

Happy to answer any specific questions you have on Northeastern and I’m sure there are many people here well educated on UMiami. Congrats on the great options, there’s no bad choice here!

4

You need either a BArch or MArch to become a licensed architect in most states.

U Miami offers a BArch program (5 years). Northeastern offers a BS in Architecture (4 years), after which you’d have to enroll in a MArch program.

5

@warblersrule Which Northeastern also offers.

6

^
Yes, I dug around on the Northeastern website, and it seems they offer an accelerated BS/MArch program of sorts.

OP will have to investigate how financial aid would work at U Miami and Northeastern for that 5th year.

7

@msps1629 I think the first and most important decision that you need to make is whether you want to be an architect or an engineer. Architectural engineering is a different career path from architecture, different skill set, different focus.

I don’t know how easy it would be to transfer from Miami’s college of engineering to its school of architecture. You would have to submit a portfolio for admissions review, and most likely start over at the beginning of the BArch process. You would also need to find out how a transfer would impact your financial aid.

Northeastern’s BS+MArch is an excellent program. (It’s a total of 6 years because of the coop year.) NEU architecture students are well supported by Boston firms for internships and post-graduate opportunities.

It’s true that with a BS you would need to continue on to a master’s program in order to become a licensed architect (in most states). However, you would not necessarily have to take your MArch at Northeastern. Many BA/BS/BED graduates work for a year or two in architecture, then head back to graduate school for their MArch.

Miami’s BArch is an up and coming urban-focused program, currently rated #24 by Design Intelligence. But, again, architectural engineering is not architecture.