So I live on the west coast and I really want to live on the east coast. I got accepted into both schools and I will be studying engineering. Costs aside, which school would be better for engineering, has a bigger reputation, and is just overall better in terms of environment. I’m also asking this in the Northeastern thread.
Thanks
@HuskiesFan5818 while I can’t speak about the Engineering school. It really depends on whether you want to be in a city or a rural town.
What about their individual prestige
If you are into college football, tailgating, fraternities etc. go to Penn State.
If you want to live in the best college city n the country, get a leg up on your career with coop without feeling out of sync with your school, go to Northeastern.
Penn State always touts how one in fifty engineers is a PSU grad, so it’s clearly not all football and tailgating.
Above comment obviously not from someone who went to Penn State…
Penn State has a great reputation in Engineering and is a top 50 University overall. Football and tailgating make up a small amount of the time spent at Penn State and in all the years I was there, my husband was there and my daughter is there now - not one of us ever went to a fraternity party. The school is very academically focused, and especially in engineering is very highly regarded and the alumni base is huge. State College is also an amazing college town -often voted one of the best.
I don’t know anything about Northeastern so I can’t speak to that, but wanted to comment based on the above comment saying that PSU is only football.
Very surprised to see the snarky comment from Tom Sr. I’ve seen many good posts from him on the Northeastern thread. Both are very solid schools academically, and in my mind it comes down to the location and college environment you are looking for. My son has a friend studying engineering at Northeastern and is having a good experience with some very good co-ops. My son chose Penn State over Northeastern and has had a good experience studying accounting in Smeal with a minor in Econ. He had a great internship last summer which turned into a nice job offer at a Big 4 firm in Boston (we are from the Northeast). He has engineering friends at Penn State who are also thriving. No bad answer here in my opinion - more about the type of experience you are looking for.
To answer the prestige question - they are currently pretty equal, with Northeastern on the rise. As others have said, co-op and location is the biggest difference by far here. NEU has an amazing co-op program and if that interests you, NEU is the clear choice. It also is located in the heart of Boston and provides a very different atmosphere - still a campus, but it’s a city school no doubt. If you want a traditional campus / college town with an equal academic program and prestige, Penn State.
I would say Penn State has a stronger engineering program than Northeastern. Northeastern isn’t a top 10 school for any engineering major, as far as I’m aware. Personally, I’m not a fan of Northeastern’s co-op program. You can repeat-intern at a company without being part of a co-op program; I don’t like the pressure of co-ops the way Northeastern does them. I would suggest considering it very seriously, because that’s the feature of Northeastern engineering which people tend to talk about - not academics, not research. I’m sure Northeastern is strong regarding those as well, but I will say that when I’ve interned, there have been several Penn State students and no Northeastern students. That’s not necessarily indicative of anything. Penn State has a larger number of engineering degrees than Northeastern, which I think is an important consideration if you’re not sure which engineering you would like to study. For example, Penn State is a top school for materials engineering, while Northeastern doesn’t offer a degree in materials. Each school will open a huge number of career opportunities, but they are in very different locations (obviously). People who speak only to Penn State’s partying notoriety are missing the fact that any school as large as Penn State has a huge diversity of on-campus attitudes and lifestyles.
Oops, double-post.
I’m sure that’s much more to do with geography as well as the fact that co-op students won’t be doing internships - they’re doing co-ops and only a few do internships. I can say the exact opposite about my experience because I’ve worked in Boston. Hell, I even ran into a NEU CS grad in Florida on my first internship in my hometown.
Also, repeat interning means taking multiple years - the benefit of a co-op isn’t the total time but rather the consecutive time that allows a company to invest more resources into you. The model does have a very significant difference - and engineering programs often do have co-ops at other schools - Northeastern just has one of the best and most extensive programs with the added advantage that everyone is on the same boat for co-op.
If OP is against co-op, Penn State would be the clear choice - but co-op has tons of advantages. 50% of NEU grads get full time employment offers from a co-op they did upon graduation.
S was accepted to both. He chose Penn Sate and is doing very well, and has had excellent internships, etc. He has become friends with a student who transferred from Northeastern to Penn State. I asked this friend why he transferred, and his primary reason was that is was difficult to maintain friendships due to students leaving for co-ops. Probably not a game changer and may be unique to a few students, but something to consider.