Northeastern University Vs. University of Toronto

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, so I recently received my admission to Northeastern University and the University of Toronto. I’m planning to double major in computer science and business or major in computer science and minor in business/entrepreneurship. I was accepted to the combined major in computer science and business at Northeastern University, as for University of Toronto, I was admitted to their computer science program, and I could start my second major(business management) during my second year.

The cost is similar, and I am struggling to choose between these universities, as the differences are huge. When it comes to numbers, University of Toronto is in the top 30 in the world generally and in computer science, unlike Northeastern. However, when it comes to qualitative data, northeastern seems to be better because of the CO-OP(I am the type of person who will love CO-OPs), smaller classes, and environment.

I have read that as a student at the University of Toronto, you are just a number as in each class there are about 300 students if not more. In addition, the teaching style is very tough and old-fashioned, unlike northeastern’s innovative approach to teaching.

Please note that I am an international student and in specifically from the Arabian Gulf, my nationality is not one of the nationalities that were recently banned from traveling to the U.S. However, the current state of the U.S may affect me in the future, so maybe Canada will be safer for me. But, still northeastern is in Boston, which I believe is a safe place for international students.

So may you please help me in making my decision.

2

It sounds like you will be looking to go into industry more than research when it comes to CS - I think that Northeastern makes more sense given that. U of T is a great school for CS, but is more on the research side and is not nearly as focused on teaching and its students, while Northeastern has that at the center of its CS department in addition to research.

Northeastern is getting to be a pretty significant player in CS, both in industry and academia. If you look at the past 10 years, on research output alone, Northeastern actually has more in quantity than U of T.

http://csrankings.org/

That site’s name is very misleading and something I would take at face value: A tool for looking at research output for CS schools over a period of time, not a ranking in any way about teaching, industry outcomes, or even research quality. However, it does a great job of giving raw data that is genuinely useful, even if limited.

I think US politics are much more likely to affect you while in college but not in the long term. The most real danger would likely be returning home during breaks, if you choose to do that. If you’re from Saudi Arabia, I don’t think you have anything to worry about simply because of the political ties there. Boston is a very welcoming city, and many schools in Boston have significant international populations from all over, middle east included.

To me, that all points to Northeastern here. I don’t think U of T offers anything unique between the two that you’re interested in, besides not being in America.