I went on a tour of the campus and I like the outside atmosphere. The tour guides showed us to a brand new classroom and the senior apartment suites. I’m expecting they avoided showing us unappealing areas of campus. What are the major pros and cons at Northeastern?
One of the things that I liked about campus is that there really isn’t much of an ugly backside; because it’s a very compact campus, they make really good use of all the outside space and beautifying it. In terms of showing classrooms and dorms, of course they show off the shiniest things (though I am surprised they showed an upperclass apartment instead of what new students might actually be living in). Most of the freshman dorms (with the exception of honors housing in international village) are pretty much your standard dorm living. Nothing jaw-dropping or terrible, and I think they’ve redone the bathroom/shower facilities in all or most of them over the past couple of years. For classrooms, they’re all well-equiped in my experience (computers, projectors, whiteboards/chalkboards, desks and chairs in good condition). Not much else that’s really necessary for a class. Some of them have been updated more recently so they look nice and modern (with furniture colors that will look terribly out of date in 5 years).
Also just to note: apartments aren’t seniors only - you can live in them every year but your first one. You may know that, but just want to make sure so sorry for any repetition. Of course, the ones they show will be the shiny ones, but they are also the most expensive. All of the apartments are decent though, and all close to classes due to how compact the campus is.
In comparison to the rest of campus, I guess some of the buildings on Columbus Ave are a bit different in feel, but they still are very livable and there’s actually some good housing options over there. There’s also areas that will feel more urban and not nearly as green as other parts, but the core of the campus really doesn’t have any of those - it’s more on the edges.
As far as food goes, dining hall food is still a dining hall - I think any sane person eventually gets a bit fed up with eating at a dining hall for an extended period of time, but it’s very good quality for a dining hall and it has plenty of options.
Professors have been great overall in my experience, but there’s a few everyone knows to avoid, as most schools have. If you do your research, you usually can get great professors for every class.
These are all very minor things to me - I’ve had pleasant experiences with all of the areas you mentioned on the whole.
Echoing above posters, I don’t think there’s an “ugly backside” of NU which is pretty cool. Some buildings have been overhauled recently, and facilities/resources updated, but any college will of course want to show those things off-- not so much to try and “trick you” but more as, hey look, we’re constantly improving our campus and it’s only getting better going forward!
I’m assuming you saw West Village C, which is a very nice building. For what it’s worth, basically all of the West Village (A, B, C, E, F, G, H) are of that caliber so it’s not like there’s one nice building. The Davenports on Columbus are also basically the same. In fairness, that is “enhanced” housing for which you’ll pay a small premium compared to standard or economy, but it’s not cost prohibitive by any means (compared to the other levels).
Freshman housing is more of a mixed bag. IV for Honors freshmen is really nice, in my opinion; loved my suite, the common rooms, the in-dorm dining hall and mini-gym. The other dorms are much more typical “freshman” dorms with the communal bathrooms, no AC, etc. and generally a little more dated, but what’s nice is that all the freshman housing is pretty much in the same area so it’s easy to make friends (some in IV complained about the “bubble” from being isolated from the rest of the freshmen). They’re not crazy glamorous but I can’t think of one that’s bad.
Classrooms are all fine. Some of the new ones are pretty snazzy, while others might feel older, but it’s a classroom. The vast majority seem to have decent chairs (not the hard elementary school kind), adequate desk space, and tiered seating so you can see the professor. I’ve heard some CAMD students not be too jazzed with their classrooms in Ryder; I’ve had a class there and it wasn’t my favorite, but it was fine. YMMV.
Food: I’m not all that picky, but I’m pretty happy with it. There’s a good variety across the dining halls, with staples like salad bar, a grill station, sandwiches, cereal/toast/etc. Most people who really don’t like it are the ones who eat the same thing every day for 3 months. We also have meal swipe exchanges at a few places on campus, including Rebecca’s, The West End, and Cafe Crossing-- all offer a pretty unique menu, it’s a nice switch-up.
Professors have been overwhelmingly in the good to great category for me.
You mentioned the atmosphere as well. NU does a really great job at landscaping especially during the summer. I’m sure it’s not cheap, but I’d be lying if I said the flowers, bright green grass and trees all over don’t make me happy. In addition, some of the renovations on campus are pretty impressive. Curry Student Center has basically been completely overhauled since I started 2 years ago; while I agree with nano it will probably look silly a few years down the road, it looks pretty sweet right now. Snell Library has also been revamped and seriously updated. The science and engineering complex set to open within I believe a year-ish looks incredible. A new reshall is being designed/planned as well.
Didn’t intend to write a novel but I hope that helped! I love this school and any/all problems I mentioned are minor.
I agree pretty strongly with the other posters.
One thing: on-campus housing. It’s fantastic, but also a bit pricey–a single room in an enhanced apartment goes for around $6,500–so that’s $13,000 for 8/12 months of the year.
Off campus apartments are much more affordable–a decent single room (what I would call roughly equivalent to an enhanced apartment on campus, minus the location) could go for $900 plus utilities, or around $8,000 for 8/12 months of the year.
The catch there is that 1st and 2nd year students are required to live on campus. It’s a minor point, but one that I have mixed feelings for nonetheless.
But–this is a great university. The only complaints that I have are minuscule.
That might be a decent single room on Mission Hill, generally. Back Bay or Symphony generally go quite a bit higher in my experience. While I quite like Mission Hill it’s not as safe as some other neighborhoods and definitely a little further from campus.
We are required to live on campus for 2 years largely to avoid affluent college students snapping up all the cheap housing and displacing actual Boston residents (see: Roxbury). Northeastern and other Boston schools constantly receive push from the city to build more on-campus housing.
Yeah, on campus housing is expensive, but it is much more convenient and off campus housing can also be very expensive when you add up the extras. The difference in price isn’t worth it in my opinion.