I am currently an NUin student in Canada in CCIS and I am a little concerned about the transition back. I am aware I am already behind in my major due to the specific nature of Comp Sci at Northeastern. I have read on other forums that NUin students are looked down on/disliked on the main campus and I am a little worried about that. I also feel like the transition back will be hard because the classes I am taking now aren’t very challenging. I really like the CS programs at Northeastern but I don’t really feel like my classes here are preparing me for the Boston campus. How have students in the past dealt with transitioning back? Thank you for any input!
Hey! I’ve TA’d the CS intro course during the spring where we get all the CCIS NU.in students (and likely will be this upcoming spring). In terms of academics, you’re going to start basically with semester 2 as your semester 1 since the intro sequence is very important to take on campus. You’re right that you will be a semester behind, but you won’t be unprepared. These courses are designed for freshman and high school should have prepared you enough regardless of this semester. While you will be a semester behind in the major sequence, you’re doing your core classes now, so after a few semesters, you’ll pretty much be caught up. As the semesters progress usually most will be pretty equal by the end of the core CS sequence (OOD/Algorithms).
I don’t know anyone that actually cares if you did NU.in. I don’t even know how many of my friends did it and often find out someone did NU.in weeks, months, or even years after meeting them. The transition back to Boston isn’t the easiest thing socially, but none of the challenges will come from peers looking down at you. Usually the biggest challenge is that friend groups have been forming for a semester and you’ll be “new” while everyone else has a semester in Boston. The friends you make at NU.in of course really help give you a good base though and NU.in students being spread around on campus in terms of housing usually is a big help for expanding your friend circles.
Hope that helps and happy to answer any more questions!
The worst part is that you will be arriving in the middle of Boston’s brutal winters, which makes getting the know the city a bit more challenging. But catching up on courses is easy, since the only thing you will be behind in is Fundies. I assume you are taking the other required courses for your semester, like Discrete Math, English, etc. If you are only behind in Fundies, you can catch up quick enough that by your second year you will be the same as everyone else. It just means frontloading your NUpath courses and then taking more CS courses your second year.
Enjoy where you are at right now, travel any chance you get, work hard in your classes and do any extra work that you can get for extra practice. Don’t let your worry derail you from taking advantage of all of the opportunities a semester abroad can provide! Develop relationships with the kids you are with. When you return to Boston there will be an orientation with all of the NUin kids. Meet some of the other kids and hear about their experiences! Then when the Boston start kids come they have another club/ activities club sign up. Dive right in and join a few, you can always drop the ones you don’t enjoy. Then work hard and take advantage of study groups and tutoring. My son is a freshman at NUin now, he loves it. I just stress to him be ready to work hard when you get back academically. We spoke to a previous NUin student at Northeastern. She told us that she adjusted really well, but worked hard both in school and socially to branch out. She loved her NUin base of friends for support all while at Northeastern and met many other friends as well. She said with Co-op and study abroads Northeastern kids are always coming and going and meeting new friends is really easy with a little effort. She did study over a summer at NEU. Good luck and enjoy this amazing experience while you can!