<p>Hey everyone! I am an international student from Barcelona, Spain. I don't have much information and knowledge regarding college selection since I hadn't even thought about university until a week before the application deadline. Anyway... I have been accepted in the following, among others, and I'd like to know people's opinions on which one to go to:
-RIT with 15000$/year. (Rochester Institute of Technology)
-U of R no scholarship (University of Rochester)
-Northeastern University - no scholarship
Well these are my top choices. I have been accepted to others but I didn't like them when I went to visit.
The scholarships and money issues don't really matter to my parents so the scholarships don't have much weight on my decision-making process.
I am, obviously, intending to study engineering: most probably Mechanical or Electrical. I wanna be involved in educational clubs, like automotive club or aerospace (RIT is strong at these). I wanna be involved in research. Co-ops are certainly helpful since, as an international, it can help me a lot when I apply to jobs (more than to national students). Note: I want to stay in the US after college.</p>
<p>RIT has an excellent and pretty well known engineering program… it’s extremely tough, I’ve seen plenty of kids drop out of the Honors Program because the grades were too tough to maintain. In general, RIT is pretty rigorous - Dean’s List is a 3.4 and that’s considered to be a good deal. RIT has great research opportunities - I’m in another field of STEM but currently conducting independent research as a first year (second year level) student. Co-ops are required for RIT engineers, though they are competitive. U of R is not as well known for engineering from what I know and same thing with Northeastern. </p>
<p>Both are excellent schools, I just have personal experience with how well-regarded RIT is in engineering. Otherwise, I’d say go on the other school’s threads and ask people about engineering. </p>
<p>I hope that helped!</p>
<p>The good news is, you can’t really go wrong; great schools. It depends on what you’re looking for. Northeastern, being in Boston, has a very different feel than the other two. Then again, UR and RIT are so different culturally you wouldn’t believe they were as close as they are. UR has a strong reputation (it’s the most selective of the three and ranks well), but I think its name isn’t as well known as the the other two. This may be because UR also the smallest of the three. RIT and Northeastern have well established co-op programs which, speaking from personal experience, is huge. Speaking strictly for engineering, I would pick RIT over NE. Unfortunately I don’t know enough about UR’s program to comment. I also can’t speak to undergraduate research programs at UR or NE, but RIT is putting a lot of emphasis on research lately. I was able to publish a paper as an ungrad which can help you stand out, especially when compounded with co-ops. </p>
<p>If you can, visit. All three schools have a culture that people either seem to hate or love, and that might ultimately make more of an impact in your success than college rankings or co-ops.</p>