<p>Wondering why NU has so little topics posted about it. After visiting Boston it seemed to impress me more than Brandeis and BU. Idk maybe its the bigger atmosphere I like.</p>
<p>Is there something I am missing. Is is it not that presitigious? Is it justa crappy school?</p>
<p>You probably want to base your opinion of Northeastern or any other college on its merits, history, reputation, etc., rather than on the quantity of posts on the CC board. NU is a fine school but it all depends on what your looking for in a school. That's up to you to figure out. Major academic interests, co-op, small enrollment vs. large. City vs. suburb vs. rural. You get the idea.</p>
<p>Also, keep in mind the time of year. July and August are vacation months and ones attention may be focused on less serious issues. trust me...things will heat up over the next few weeks or so.</p>
<p>Did you visit the school and speak to students/faculty?
Have you read about the school in any of the plethora of college guides? Fiske, College *******?
Have you spent time perusing NU's website?
Prinecton Review, College Board, US News and World Report?</p>
<p>Do a litttle research. A truer picture of of the school will begin to evolve with a fair amount of study. No pain....no gain. </p>
<p>You may want to change your thread viewing preferances to "year", or older view. You'll see plenty of interesting posts about NU.</p>
<p>To add to what jeffreycone said, also keep in mind that NEU has just recently started to rise in the ranks. Being from the area, I remember the school 20 years ago had a reputation as a "commuter school" and while it was always well regarded for its co-op program, it was never really a very hard school to get accepted to. </p>
<p>That has definitely changed. Northeastern becomes more selective each year. I know students at my daughter's high school this year that were rejected by Northeastern and accepted to schools like BU, Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech (engineering students). NEU has a master plan they have been working under to consciously reduce the number of students, build up the facilities, and become a major research univerisity. They have been successful in all of these areas. It's just a matter of time for the "rankings" to catch up.</p>
<p>I only know these things because my daughter will be attending next year and my eyes were opened during the college selection process. I actually tried to steer her away from NEU, in favor of BU, RPI and WPI. She also was accepted to Cornell in engineering. But after a few visits and much research on Northeastern, I definitely was won over by everything it has to offer.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that this particular forum tends to attract a really large number of "high-achievers" if you will, that are set on ivies, etc. And there is nothing wrong with that. But there are a lot of great schools out there that are not ivy league and in my opinion NEU is definitely one of them.</p>
<p>yeah co-op looks kind of extensive and i want to be doing film so i dont know how that would work out.</p>
<p>but yeah would you rank NEU to be upper-tier under ivies.
what other schools compare to it in that sense? bu, bc tufts? or is it majorly under those</p>
<p>There's more to a school than rankings, but Northeastern was ranked 98th in the nation by US News. In comparison BU was ranked 57th, BC 34th, and Tufts 27th.</p>
<p>I would like to echo what RatedPG said as we are from the area and my husband and his brothers all went to NEU, and commuted from home. Recently, however, I visited the engineering school with my son and was very impressed with the changes they have made to the campus. The campus used to feel very urban but the new buildings and improvements have given it a real campus and a campus feel. The engineering presentation we went to was the best I have seen so far. NEU took enough interest to have professors speak at both the admissions session and on the tour. The engineering department has worked hard to build in features that help engineering students be successful in the big school setting from ensuring that some are living in the same areas so they can more readily work together on problem sets, to assigning mentors to everyone, to special scheduling of engineering classes. The coop program clearly leads to an abundance of well paying job offers at least as we heard at graduation and NEU has an impressive list of coop places and a large alumni pool that participate. </p>
<p>I also read an article in my husband's alumni magazine a few years ago about NEU's goals of becoming a national research facility. They want to eliminate the image of a commuter, local school and are deliberately trying to attract students from outside of MA. (Everyone in MA needs to move somewhere else, it seems - smile)!</p>
<p>keep in mind that boston is also home to MIT and harvard so of course, other colleges will be overshadowed.</p>
<p>NU isn't a "traditional" college, in terms of academics and even aesthetics. i'm sort of critical about NU for this, but with its strongest programs being in the professional schools, you aren't really learn for the sake of learning, but are rather being trained on how to get a job.</p>
<p>if you're looking for a big school, BU is practically integrated into the city. you might not like tufts since it's outside boston and it's a smaller university with a focus on liberal arts.</p>
<p>Moonwave, not sure what you mean about NU's "aesthetics" and BU's being "practically integrated into the city". Can you clarify?</p>
<p>NEU moved up 2 in the US news college rankings to 96th best national university. I don't understand how people can say NEU is a great school and the rankings are lagging when they are tied with a school that goes by "Zoo-Mass." And Tufts and BC are ten times better than NEU and BU is probably five times better.</p>
<p>Some of the US News criteria fit traditional 4-year university programs. Since many NU students choose to do the NU 5-year program which includes coop (experiential education periods), it lowers rankings by dramatically bringing down the category of "graduating in 4 years after initial entry."</p>
<p>You can do the BA/BS degrees in 4-years at NU, but since many students pick NU over other universities for the coop program, a much larger percent graduate in 5 years or more (i.e. the 0-6-yr DPT and PharmD programs).</p>
<p>ZeppRock:</p>
<p>You write,</p>
<p>"Tufts and BC are ten times better than NEU and BU is probably five times better."</p>
<p>How about University of Northern Montana? 6.78% worse than NU? Princeton 60X times better?</p>
<p>Do you have any thoughtful information to back up your simplistic assessments besides what you read in US News?</p>
<p>Well you may be right; perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about. The very fact that NEU's SATs are hundreds of points lower than Princeton's, the fact that the acceptance rate at NEU is ten times greater, and the fact that the average NEU grad is making half of what someone with the same degree from Tufts would be making there really isn't any proof. But what do I know, I am after all an NEU student so what I say is probably wrong/stupid/unfounded anyways.</p>
<p>if you're an NEU student, why are you bashing it so much?</p>
<p>elaborate por favor!</p>
<p>Zepp, don't go claiming that you have first hand knowledge of neu. You're going to be a freshmen in the honors college in a couple weeks so you've yet to experience any classes there. If you have such a firm belief that neu will be a sub par education then your decision to choose northeastern over villanova was obviously a bad one. You're a person that needs to pride themselves on their school name. Northeastern simply will not give you that. What neu will give you (especially in the honors program) is a true engineering degree that is, in fact, one of the best degrees that neu offers. There have even been employers that have come on this site that have raved about northeastern coop and alumni students. Northeastern is not BC but it will give you the opportunity to compete with them if you have it in you to do so. </p>
<p>I have a very close friend who goes to villanova for engineering and he loves it. He loves it for the people, the activities, and the culture. Villanova is a very good school. His brother, however, is a middler in the honors program at neu and I asked him before I decided to attend neu last year what I could expect from northeastern. In fact he was the reason I knew about neu and then why I decided to attend. His main assertion about neu was that it is not like an ivy league school where job offers will fall on your lap. There's a reason that people who can go to an ivy league choose to do so. What neu does offer is the opportunity to get an education that will let you get out into the workforce and grow into a high-level job. When you first apply for a job with an neu degree there is no doubt that someone from BC or Tufts will get hired over you. No one should have and delusions about that. On paper a student from a higher-ranked university looks better. What neu can do for you is make it so that when you do get a job and go to work you can show your company that while you didn't go to a top 50 school, you have gained the knowledge and experience to be just as successful. Will a northeastern university degree obtained with minimal effort be the same as one from Villanova? Probably not, but northeastern will most certainly not hold you back from achieving your goals.</p>
<p>Saying an engineering degree from NEU is "one of the best degrees that NEU offers," isn't saying much. It's kind of like how a player from the KC Royals has to be on the All-Star roster every year. Honestly, Gil Meche?</p>
<p>actually, what I was saying is that the information used for the usnews rankings is an average of all the neu colleges. The admissions stats for the engineering college is higher than that of sections like the business school and is one of the best at neu save for the really exclusive pharmacy program. You need to compare specific degrees individually and not just general neu stats. Oh, and you have a really poor view of northeastern Zepp. If as you said in another thread the costs between Villanova and neu were similar for you, why did you choose northeastern? I highly doubt anything will be able to change your view on northeastern now so I suggest looking into transferring. There would be nothing worse than attending a college that you hate and feel is beneath you. Don't spend the money on neu unless you feel it's worth it. This is true for any university.</p>
<p>Zepp, where are you getting your information? Tufts engineering program is not very highly ranked first of all. Secondly, have you spoken to people who hire engineers? And where they look to hire them? If you are interested in living in the Northeast, NEU is VERY highly regarded. And not all students that get admitted to ivies or the top 50 necessarily attend those schools. Finances are a concern for many many students. With merit aid being non-existent at the top tier schools, a student not qualifying for need based aid has to weigh their options - attend the ivy/top tier and be in debt for up to 200k on graduation, or accept the generous merit aid that NEU can offer, get a solid education, outstanding co-op experience, and graduate with much less debt.</p>
<p>NEU's acceptance rate this year ws 39% - hardly ten times over princetons. As far as starting salary, the avg. starting salary for engineers at NEU is 52k,
compared with Cornell's (top ten engineering school) starting salary of 58k, hardly half. </p>
<p>Get the fact straight before you continue.</p>
<p>ZeppRock,</p>
<p>Your parents must be so proud to have such an obviously greatful son like yourself who clearly values the sacrifices endured to finance your sad and less than appealing choice of a $45K per year education.</p>
<p>If you had any real ****s. you'd give up your spot to one of many deserving aspirants who would happily give up their left one just to get a sniff at a school like Northeastern.</p>
<p>If it cost me anywhere near $45K to go there- never mind $45K, even $20K- I wouldn't be going. It is definitely not worth that much money.</p>
<p>why are you going then?</p>