Northeastern vs Bentley

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
1

accepted to BU (Questrom)
accepted to Northeastern
accepted to Babson College
accepted to Bentley College

I have a strong interest in business Finance. I would greatly appreciate some comments/insights on these two colleges (NEU and Bentley).I’m not considering BU and Babson as they both didn’t offer any money.

I am looking for ideas on:

prestige, social life, academic program, overall better choice…?

2

If you take cost out of the picture, which would be a better choice for a finance degree- UMass Isenberg / Northeastern /BU/Babson or Bentley?

3

Babson’s strength is entrepreneurship, not finance.

4
  1. The D'Amore-McKim business school at NEU is excellent. The co-ops pay extremely well, and the management/finance co-ops are especially high-paying.
  2. As for social life, being in the center of Boston is pretty awesome. There's always something to do. I always like to remind people that we get free admission to the MFA which is virtually on campus.
  3. A cool thing about NEU is that there is a general feeling of cooperation between students; unlike the Ivies where the competition is cutthroat and students tend to step over each other, NEU students realize that any success of their peers opens up new pathways for other students in the future. For example, if a student creates their own co-op somewhere and does well, the company they work for might continue with that position, therefore allowing other students to do that same co-op.

I can’t speak to Bentley though.

5

@TomSrOfBoston Yup. You’re right. Which one do you recommend?

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Oh, think about size of the institution also! 19,798 students at NEU vs. 5,565 at Bentley

7

At Bentley and Babson everyone is a business major. I’d find that kind of boring. Do you want a city life at Northeastern or BU or a college town life at ZooMass Amherst?

Also, you cannot ignore bottom line cost.

8

BU and NEU are going to offer very different experiences than Babson/Bentley as others have mentioned. The diversity of social and academic life at NEU/BU is much stronger.

All of them are well-regarded business schools, Babson specifically for Entrepreneurship as others mentioned.

Both offer about equal name recognition/prestige - one could argue each has an edge over the other. Most here will have a NEU bias, myself included, but I think a fair assessment is to objectively say they are in the same ballpark.

Co-op is a big part of NEU, and it benefits business well. If you aren’t into co-op Bentley will be a better option. If you do like co-op as many do, NEU will be much better based on that criteria.

If you want the city life, the social and academic diversity, and the better price compared to BU, that’s NEU.

If all of those fit factors work with you, I say Northeastern :slight_smile:

9

@sreya124 My son is in NU finance. His first coop was in the Boston financial district for a large multinational, where he audited the financial statements and prepared multi-billion dollar SEC filings. His second coop is in Paris, where he is an auditor for global software firm. I don’t know what experience the other colleges offer, but I am very impressed with the level of responsibility that students at NU are given. For his second coop, he had to turn down several offers and the company he is with now is trying to encourage him to stay with them. I think it is typical for companies to hire their finance interns after they graduate.

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@Totoro66 That sounds awesome. Would you mind sharing the hourly rate he received?

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@LkL5789 The typical finance range is $16-18 dollars an hour for first time students, and probably closer to $21-24 for more competitive or second/third co-ops. I think the program is excellent for finance and can help you place in some top tier finance companies that otherwise don’t recruit outside HYPSM (think JP Morgan, BCG, etc.) In general, it’s recommended not to count on co-op earnings as a way to discount tuition if that’s what you’re getting at due to taxes, living expenses, what have you. That being said, it is possible.

12

Thanks @novafan1225