<p>Northeastern and BC are very different schools. No one school is a fit for everyone. You value what BC offers more than what Northeastern offers obviously. Others feel differently. </p>
<p>Given a few BC alumni I’ve known, they do not always succeed in educating the whole person.</p>
<p>The OP asked about the “prestige” of NU and which schools it’s comparable to. Another poster said it’s on par with BC. </p>
<p>I don’t think the OP should be misled. The two are not peer schools. I base that statement on more than just the rankings which are only one factor in determining a school’s merit. Prestige probably means different things to different people, but the school’s selectivity; caliber of students attending as measured by average GPAs, SAT scores and involvement in meaningful activities; the undergrad experience and quality-of-life; qualifications and skills of professors and staff; success of graduates in the job market and as members of society; strength of alumni network; employers’ impressions of the school and their experiences with graduates they hire; school facilities; success at placing graduates in grad school and reputation with other universities; endowment…all come into play.</p>
<p>When I asked this question, I wasn’t so much looking for nitty gritty details in the school/rankings. Unless a parent is going through the college search with their child, most have only a vauge idea of what a school is like (good or bad). I only wanted to know what the general perception would be if I told someone that I attend Northeastern.</p>
<p>For example, my relatives know U of I is a good school and it’s an accomplishment to be accepted, but I know they don’t have a clue about specific programs/rankings/stats or anything like that at all. </p>
<p>I’ve already done my research and I am confident that NEU is a good school. Just wanted to see the general perception of those that have only heard about it briefly and to get an idea of how well known it is. Thanks to the bunches of people that answered the question I asked however! </p>
<p>I’m super excited about NEU and I’m going to visit this Feb!!!</p>
<p>My son is in his second year and loves it.</p>
<p>It is not like many other schools in the Boston area with the coop but just as those other fine schools mentioned have their strengths so to does NEU.</p>
<p>I don’t know how it is regarded where you live or where you are interested in working after graduation-from what I can tell it has a fine reputation in the New England area-that is all I can speak too.</p>
<p>I don’t consider this strictly a vocational school-not that there is anything wrong with that at all since I would really hope my son will be able to secure a job after he graduates. It is correct that emphasis is placed on being employable upon graduation. I don’t think that is anything but positive. If you want a more traditional college experience you can fulfill your experiential learning requirements in ways other than coop. There are more people graduating in 4 years and it is possible to do so.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a school that is more pure learning for the sake of learning-again nothing wrong with that either-this would be a poor fit.</p>
<p>There are so many opportunities both inside the classroom but even more outside the classroom to learn for the pure pleasure of learning. There are student organizations for every area of interest and there are a lot of speakers on many topics you would be able to take advantage. The best way to learn though is to go outside your dorm or classroom and discover all the things being in the city has to offer-I don’t believe learning at a school is restricted to what is taught in class-I think it is the overall experience.</p>
<p>Best of luck to you!</p>
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<p>I suppose that is fair enough. One can entertain a rather wide concept of peer-ness. For example, I might say that W&M and UVA are peer institutions although their ranks are roughly 24 and 34. I did not intend to conjure up in the OP’s mind a head-to-head battle between BC and NU. </p>
<p>Incidentally, I have applied to both schools. Would I rather attend BC than NU? Yes, I would rather have a smaller campus with collegiate architecture, a more liberal arts education, and a Jesuit school. However, with full-tuition and honors at Northeastern, the choice may start to tip. </p>
<p>It is so subjective that I did not feel comfortable categorically proclaiming that NU is indisputably inferior to BC. Is it on par? Maybe not.</p>
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<p>I just noticed this.</p>
<p>In 1990, when Northeastern began to redefine itself, an outside consultant was hired to advise the Board of Trustees on the process. When their preliminary report was submitted, their first recommendation was that coop should be eliminated or at most be relegated to a small and optional part of the Northeastern experience. The consultants felt that coop was too “working class” and would be a hindrance to the school’s aspirations to become a national university. The Board promptly dismissed the consultants.</p>
<p>Northeastern is not a place for someone who wants to spend four years contemplating ideas and theories. “Learning for the intrinsic value of learning”, as a previous poster put it, is tempered with the notion of how that learning experience will prepare a student for life after graduation. Northeastern has received a fair amount of press recently for its entrepreurship program:
<a href=“http://bostinno.com/all-series/idea-proves-why-theres-more-going-on-at-northeastern-than-any-other-school/#ss__245800_1_0__ss[/url]”>http://bostinno.com/all-series/idea-proves-why-theres-more-going-on-at-northeastern-than-any-other-school/#ss__245800_1_0__ss</a>
They trumpet this in the same was a liberal arts school would trumpet an academic conference that it is hosting. </p>
<p>Most universities have unique traits. The Catholic, and especially Jesuit, aspect of BC makes it unique. BC also has a larger focus on the humanities and social sciences. To some, this makes BC more prestigious than NU or BU. To others it is irrelevant or a negative trait. Just as coop makes NU unique, coop is irrelevant or a negative to some. </p>
<p>Maybe when the economy is booming again and unemployment is 3% (please stop laughing) the appeal of the Northeastern approach may diminish, but I doubt it. </p>
<p>As far as rankings go, Northeastern lags in one area: peer assessment. Other university presidents may look at NU and its “vocational” mission, and assess it lower than a school that puts a greater emphasis on the traditional “ivory tower” experience. </p>
<p>To each his/her own.</p>
<p>My D chose NEU over BC. She was accepted to all the schools she applied to including UNC Chapel Hill and UVA. NEU has a better nursing program than BC. BC does not fund it well enough and doesnt give merit aid. It made no sense for her to pay 28K more a year, for a program that is not as good. Some people do look down on NEU, especially the ones who go to the prep school she went too. But she chose the practical route, is happy and has done well.</p>
<p>Does anyone know the percentages of recent graduates from NE that got jobs, went on to graduate schools, etc… This would be useful information to look at as a comparison point. You can’t pay the rent & grocery with your prestigious diploma although the choice of majors would tend to skew the results (liberal arts schools will have more under employed graduates vs. tech schools or a school like NE)</p>
<p>There are multiple reasons a student might want to choose NU over BC. BC has no engineering school and is generally considered weaker in the hard sciences. NU has robust partnerships with major research hospitals like Brigham and Womens, Children’s, and Harvard Med which are all down the street. Even internally, Northeastern commands significantly more research dollars ($120M versus under $40M) than BC. BC has a very restrictive policy in terms of doing internships for credit during the school year. One school is in the city versus just outside. BC ranks poorly on race and class interaction as well as not being an inclusive place for LGBT populations according to the Princeton Review. Beyond all of that their average SAT scores are separated by 10 points according to last year’s data so saying their not even in the same league is a little bit of an exaggeration.</p>
<p>I’m not sure of a reference, but lately I’ve been hearing them say over 90% employed in their field or in med/grad school within 6 months of graduation, and 50% get a job offer from one of their previous co-op employers.</p>
<p>NEU is an excellent school and the co-op program and location makes it desirable for many reasons. </p>
<p>Also, while swimchris occasionally provides good information, its pretty clear that he has an unhealthy and obsessive anti-BC agenda. Kid uses every opportunity available to put down Boston College and has never said a single good thing about the school. He is basically par72’s counterpart as a caricatured NEU booster who has a constant need to babble about the stature of NEU.</p>
<p>Also, his claim that “BC is generally weaker in the hard sciences” is not well substantiated. If anything, BC has the stronger graduate department rankings for Bio/Chem/Physics:</p>
<p>NRC Rankings:
Biology:
BC: 59-104
NEU: 55-101</p>
<p>Chemistry:
BC: 32-90
NEU: 73-136</p>
<p>Physics:
BC: 23-73
NEU: 43-121</p>
<p>US News:
Biology
BC: 100
NEU: 115</p>
<p>Chemistry:
BC: 45
NEU: 90</p>
<p>Physics:
BC: 77
NEU: 63</p>
<p>
The $120M dollar figure seems suspect since the last time they released information about research dollars the amount stood at $80. Even then, the impact of research dollars has a very marginal effect on the undergraduate or pre-med concerns.</p>
<p>You all are obsessing about this WAY too much. Prestige is a dumb thing to nit-pick at. Comparing Northeastern to MIT: obvious difference. Comparing Northeastern to University of X State- Satellite Campus: also obvious.</p>
<p>But comparing the prestige of northeastern to BC, BU, George Washington, NYU, [insert overpriced northeast private school name here] is so silly and really not productive in the least. There is some difference in prestige between these schools. But as someone almost 3 years out of college, can I just shout from the rooftops IT DOESN’T MATTER. A kid at MIT and a kid at Duke? Both super smart! A kid at northeastern and a kid at BC? Probably also pretty smart, maybe just a notch less smart then our friends across the river (no, not tufts).</p>
<p>Your life will not be significantly better if you go to BC, which has a better reputation than Northeastern. You will not get into a better med schools. You will not get into better law schools. You will not get better job offers. Your friends will not be more attractive. You will not be better dressed. You will not drive off into the sunset and play with unicorns if you go to one over the other. These things happen because of the individual not the school. They happen because of your personal experience and successes, not because of the school name written on your resume (unless you go to ivies, but, that’s not what we’re debating here).</p>
<p>People. Choose a school that makes you happy, and where you fit in. Do you like beautiful old collegiate architecture? Want to go to school in a small college town? Love the “feel” of BC? Great! Go there. Do you love the urban, integrated feel of Northeastern? Do you want to do co-op? Do you want to have better access to the opportunities available in Boston? Great! Go to northeastern.</p>
<p>Regardless of which school you go to, get work experience. Take opportunities. Make connections, make friends. Have fun. If you do these things, when you graduate, you will [probably] find a decent job. You will [probably] find a cool apartment in Allston or in some other city where you want to live, with some friends. You will probably pay off some serious student loans. You will go be a real person and no one will really care where you went to school anymore.</p>
<p>Three years out of college I have seen my Northeastern friends finish TFA. I’ve seen them go to top medical schools and excellent law schools. I’ve seen them go off and make serious bones working in business, or make several bones getting PhDs in whatever they like. I’ve seen my friends from other schools do the same. I’m in a PhD program at a school with an excellent reputation. My classmates? Come from U of Arizona. Come from Georgetown. Come from NYU. Etc etc etc. We all wound up in the same place, and we’re here because of WHAT we did in college, not where we did it.</p>
<p>Debating the difference in prestige in schools that are “ranked” around 20 spots away from each other is such a waste of time.</p>
<p>/rant</p>
<p>Thanks Emily - great rant - I could not agree more. </p>
<p>My daughter is a freshman at northeastern and loves it - not because of some ranking - but because it is a great fit for her. She loves being in the city, has found great friends, has enjoyed her classes and found her teachers to really care about the success of their students. She likes that the school is not preppy - does not have football rah-rah - and the kids are genuinely down to earth (not status conscious). She like that she can hop on a train to get around the city and hop on the Amtrak to come home. She likes that it is big and therefore she can find people with unique and diverse interests. She likes the small classes (I think this has to do with being in honors sections) and that the teachers recognize her and say hello if she sees them around the campus. She likes the food in IV and loves lunch at Rebeccas. These are all the day to day components of college life that make Northeastern a perfect for her.</p>
<p>You are all totally missing the point of my question.</p>
<p>Thank you Emily & kiddie</p>
<p>MichLover if you can ignore the rankings talk there is a pretty good discussion on here. People can get upset when a school they think is superior in some way gets compared to another school-try and look past that.</p>
<p>If you intend to live in this area or the Northeast the school has by most accounts an excellent reputation. It is not a school to go to for a “life of the mind” experience- although I find it pretty interesting that on CC it somehow seems mutually exclusive that you can go to a school that is very much focused on graduating students that want to go right into the workforce while at the same time getting a well rounded education. Why can’t you have both? In my son’s experience he is getting the best of both worlds.</p>
<p>I have a friend who has one child at BU and one at NEU. They are different schools and both students are very happy where they are.</p>
<p>If you want a school where the focus is on taking what you are learning any applying it to real world situations starting very early in your education I don’t think there is a school better at it than NEU-this is what they do. I will tell you having just lived through the first coop experience with my son it is very difficult but a great learning experience-and he just secured a very good coop which he will be starting the beginning of January. This is a six month, paid, full-time position-a real life job-which is integrated into his education. That would not be something every student would want-but if you do this is the place for you.</p>
<p>He spent last summer on a program in a European country with NEU faculty in their Dialogue Program-it was an incredible experience and definitely not just a vocational experience. He has since developed much more interest in history and is even as I type this reading up on that topic. You know most of what you learn in life takes place outside a classroom?</p>
<p>I can only speak from my observations and what he tells me. He is surrounded by highly motivated, hard-working, and very intelligent students from around the world. He has a great living situation and the facilities are top-notch. Most of his teachers have been great-all of his classes have been taught by teachers and the class sizes have been very reasonable. He has had a dud along the way but for the most part he has been very pleased with the quality of the teaching and the availability of the teachers, the advisers and anything else he needs.</p>
<p>It’s fairly obvious I love the school for him. I wouldn’t love it for my daughter as much-this is where fit comes in. It’s great you have been accepted-it’s great you are doing your research since this is a big decision.</p>
<p>Does this help at all? I do believe most successful students would do well no matter where they attend college. If you have the ability to base your decision solely on fit that is great-but for most cost factors in as well.</p>
<p>My best advice to help you make a decision is to attend the admitted students day at Northeastern (for EA students it is in February) - they are done by school and you will get very specific information about the programs that school offers and a great idea of the feel of the school.</p>