@apccpa, yes regarding the professor’s reaction. Of course Rice is better than NEU. I have already agreed to that. But he won’t be the one paying the bill 
@apccpa
That’s very interesting info on GT. I always considered it a very reputable tech school but after knowing that I think how I would recommend it changes significantly.
Here are some of the comments on Georgia Tech from the Fiske 2015 College Guide @PengsPhils
-Grading on a curve creates hypercompetitive situations because your absolute grade is largely irrelevant.
- Classes are big.
-Students are generally stressed and tired.
-It’s common to spend 5 years getting your degree.
-It’s absolutely horrible for things like freshman math classes. You’re typically taught by TAs, maybe half of whom have only the slightest grasp of English.
This isn’t to say that Georgia Tech isn’t a good school, but anyone that goes there needs to be able to handle the competitive and stressful environment and also be a good independent learner. If they are, and also willing to risk having to pay OOS tuition for 5 years, then Georgia Tech may be an excellent choice.
A correction. Since I checked last year, Georgia Tech has improved their 4 year graduation rate to 33.6%.
Here is a positive for GTech, we have had an excellent experience hiring people out of Georgia Tech. So it might be hell over there, but people come out prepared. Of course we only hire people who graduate… 
That is very true @rgosula. It may not be a great experience at GT but those who graduate from there are very qualified.
My daughter choose NEU over Rice. She loves Northeastern. Surprisingly for us, the cost of attendance was about the same. Rice gave need based help and Northeastern was merit based. As parents, we were not pleased with her decision but supported it.
3 years later, our D is thriving at NEU. Being a “big fish” in the pond has awarded her wonderful opportunities. She’s had two great co-ops and is currently in Costa Rica on their study abroad scholarship. She’s involved in research, been a TA, summer orientation leader, mentors for honors program and will be a teaching assistant this summer in Italy. My D does not regret her decision.
My son is a sophomore. He went to northeastern for computer science, is not a university scholar but did get a full tuition scholarship. He turned down an offer from Penn and we would have needed to pay full tuition at Penn. It was a great decision to go to northeastern. His grades are great, coop is great, friends are great. he wanted to go to northeastern over penn, because ccis is its own school. He didn’t want to be part of an engineering program and take a lot of classes which would not be relevant for his major. It’s a lot of money and it is great to not be spending that money on tuition.
Thanks @malm59. Seems like a very similar situation to us as my son also prefers a pure CS program and not one that is in engineering or Arts and Science. It does seem like NEU manages to steal a lot of kids from more prestigious schools with their scholarships.
We have no regrets that he chose northeastern. You can only get a scholarship like that when you start out. It is not hard to transfer out if you are unhappy, but that full tuition deal is just fantastic. All his cs friends have great coops as far as I can tell. The dorms are beautiful. The scholarship goes right on the top of your resume. It’s a great deal. And because there are not that many graduate students at northeastern, the ccis kids have plenty of research and other opportunities to work with professors.
I’ve been wondering about how easy or difficult it is to transfer to a school that you’ve been previously admitted to @Malm59, as if it is easy then nothing to lose taking the NEU opportunity.
I assume that your son is in Honors? Any difficulty in getting classes and does he find classes too easy?
My son did competive programming in high school but NEU does not have an ACM competitive programming team. I was wondering if that is something your son or others at NEU may be interested in doing if my son wanted to form a team?
My son is in honors. No difficulty getting classes. He has even taken a graduate class already. He said it is a nice mix of challenge without feeling overwhelmed. He has time for his other interests. He also had a guaranteed transfer as a sophomore into Cornell, but he had no interest in pursuing it. The free tuition really makes it a no-brainer to choose northeastern. Honestly, I don’t think any of his friends have transferred out. I am sure there are kids who transfer out of northeastern, but it is not something I have heard him mention at all. Just when you start getting sick of classes, it is time for co-op, so there is some excitement when you would otherwise be tired of the environment.
Cornell is a very highly ranked CS school @Malm59. How did the guaranteed transfer come about?
NEU did mention the ability to take graduate level classes for subjects if you are already advanced in an area and that is a nice option.
What you mentioned about doing a coop when sick of classes is something that I was thinking boys may find particularly attractive about NEU as I don’t think they find school and studying to be particularly fun.
Believe it or not, it is a legacy thing. Kind of ridiculous in our opinion.
Northeastern is actually in the process of starting an ACM team this semester. I know some of the kids organizing it. They also have other competitive options, like cybersecurity competitions and a very active hackathon group.
I agree with you about the legacy thing @Malm59. I wonder how many slots the Ivy Leagues really have left for overqualified students after they allocate to friends, family and legacy. You didn’t apply to Cornell out high school?
We had heard something about the formation of an ACM competive programming team when we were there a couple weeks ago @nanotechnology. Would the team be fully sponsored by NEU where travel costs would be covered by the school? Will they also have a professor working with them on algorithms and other problem solving techniques like at the top ACM competition schools?
He applied in high school and they offered him sophomore transfer if he met certain criteria. He wasn’t interested tho because he was happy at neu.
@apccpa - Unfortunately, I don’t really know many details about the setup. Historically, however, the university and CCIS have been very supportive of such ventures. Like any club, they’ll also be able to apply for funding from Student Activities if they have additional costs they want to cover.
And the winner after careful consideration is…
Northeastern University Scholars program
@apcca Welcome! Good choice.
Thanks @TomSrOfBoston will be making several trips to Boston this year with my son.