My daughter is a self-described nerd. She has social skills, but really likes sitting around doing dorky things and will not be out at sorority or big drinking parties. She is choosing between Northeastern University (she likes residence halls and majors but didn’t see or meet many students who seemed really academic and nerdy…are they there and she just didn’t see them?) and Carnegie Mellon (everyone seems stressed all the time and no sleep…does anyone ever have fun? and food seems expensive) and Rensselaer Polytech Institute which had the fun nerds she likes but no film classes and Troy seems awful? Do they get jobs? Can anyone familiar with these schools or particularly Northeastern talk about the nerd/geek factor? People who maybe dress up for anime stuff, who watch Rhen and whomever the youtube guy is, and do theatre or film while still being engineers or computer science folks? She will be computer science or media something major. 
Quick thoughts?? Last minute count down here…
Out of the 3, Rensselaer is by far the most “nerd” friendly. See: https://sites.google.com/site/rpigenericon/ Every year the students put on a weekend which feature a wide variety of attractions that run the gamut of geeky hobbies, including science fiction, gaming of all forms, and anime. And Troy actually is a lovely little town. We spent 3 days exploring the city when we took our Daughter for accepted students day and my husband I and I were very impressed (He is originally from NYC and we both live in San Francisco now.) A degree from any of the 3 schools will open many doors. Good Luck in your decision.
STEM schools like RPI will have a more visible “nerdy” population.
Thank you TooDrew…we drove through town and thought it looked rather rundown and dangerous…and had heard bad things (crime rate was same as our town which is 4-5 times larger)…BUT maybe we saw wrong parts of town or such and so I appreciate your info. That’s reassuring. We loved the students we met and I think she was just worried about town and about getting a job afterwards.
Good luck with your decision. I am an Iowa mom too and my daughter will be going to NEU in the Fall. When we were first starting to look at schools a friend who has family who hire a lot of STEM majors gave us a list of schools they like to hire from. Rensselaer was on the list. And the companies they were hiring for were in California. There were a lot of CA schools on the list too of course but that was one that they liked on the East coast, along with MIT.
Yes…my daughter really wanted Harvey Mudd or USC but neither gave us enough FA to make it affordable so “east coast” it is. IF we end up at NEU, should look up your daughter…Iowans unite! 
As others said, RPI will def be the nerdiest. That said, there are plenty of nerds and academics around (I probably see more as a CS major though). I think the distinction at Northeastern is that a lot of the nerds here are not the classic externally nerdy ones - once you get to know people, you really see it more.
I’m not personally one that goes as much on the geek side, but I know plenty of friends who go to stuff like Magic tournaments, are into anime and will go to con’s, cosplay, etc. It’s not a huge community, but it is there. Again, you’ll fund much more at RPI. I know a few CS/Engineering and Theatre people - my RA freshman year was actually civil engineering and theatre. He’s currently working in theatre and education, actually. The ones I know aren’t the external nerdy you mentioned, though.
For what it’s worth, I absolutely love the CS program here and would be happy to give more info there! If you want a good summary, check out this essay by the founder of the current curriculum here - he’s teaching the intro class in the Fall, actually!
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/Thoughts/Growing_a_Programmer.html
My daughter hangs out with a very nerdy crowd at NEU - found them freshman year (like the first day she was there). They are mostly guys - comp sci or engineering majors and they all just went to PAX East last weekend (some go to Anime Boston also). On weekend nights they hang around and play Mario Kart, or Cards against Humanity etc. Some belong to a video game club (don’t remember which game it is - they do some Pokemon game league also) and do things like go to Magic the gathering midnight releases in Cambridge. They are all good students (mostly honors) and in general do very well (TA for classes, have top co-ops at places like Hubspot). They are mostly now all of age and so they have an occasional beer or hard cider - their idea of a party is to get pizzas and watch Spirited Away.
If this all sounds like your daughter then there are definitely people like her at NEU.
Another one that I had personally never heard of IowaMom66, was Cal Poly. Apparently their grads are good to go day one, according to my friends husband. My daughter wanted Boston, NY or DC so she wasn’t interested. But I told a friend about it so they went and checked it out and now her son is going there. They might have found it anyway, but I like to take credit.
I’m probably biased from growing up in the area, but Troy is pretty terrible (lovingly referred to as Troylet around our parts). It is definitely not a good college town in terms of things to do/see. RPI would definitely have the most “nerds” as you describe though. I think Northeastern has a decent amount, just maybe not as outward as at some other schools (AFAIK, we don’t have an active LARPing scene though there are a few gamer type clubs and what not). I really believe Northeastern is big enough that anyone can find their niche once here, so if co-op appeals to her and she liked everything else I’d pick NU.
Some Husky Ambassadors have blogs. Your D might enjoy reading this student’s blog, and you can post questions to her as well: http://northeastern-deirdredunham.■■■■■■■■■■/
In my research, I’ve gotten a very independent overall student vibe. Which I think translates to a live and let live attitude that I really like. 
Our son is the nerdy type and just chose NEU College of Computer Science over RPI after struggling mightily over the decision. RPI is a great option and has an overall nerdier feel and a more traditional college campus, but our research, including knowing some people at NEU, suggests that there is no shortage of computer and gaming geek types at the NEU computer science college. I think our son’s decision came down to wanting to be in Boston, the quality of the physical facilities, the perceived upward trajectory of the NEU computer science program, and the terrific COOP opportunities in computer science. Truth be told, I think the M/F ratio of 70/30 at RPI also was a bit of concern.
@BostonDadof2 You nailed this. My son was debating between RPI and NEU for those same reasons. Plus, NEU came through with a great financial package that we just couldn’t turn down. Good luck in everyone’s decisions today!
@IowaMom66 So, what was the final decision for your daughter?
@IowaMom66 So, what was the final decision for your daughter?