Hi, my son was accepted at all 3 and we are trying to decide which one to go to. He declared ME at Santa Clara and Northeastern but a math/econ double at Fordham. All 3 offered him money so that the 2 out of states would be $30K out the door for us. He grew up in So Cal and we have not visited Fordham or Northeastern. He’s strongly leaning towards Santa Clara due to it’s proximity to Silcon Valley and the availability of engineering jobs. Also, he used to not care where he went but is now thinking it’s better to be somewhat closer to home.
For that matter, he now wants to consider CS so he may explore that option wherever he goes. I know which ever one he picks, it will be a great experience but they are so different.
Which one of the schools is in state?
Engineering / CS jobs are pretty abundant in all three of these cities, Silicon Valley is just the most famous. I wouldn’t put tons of stock in that.
I’m a CS student at Northeastern and I can tell you that the program is truly amazing. We actually use the same approach as many other top ranked CS schools (Brown is one). The department is expanding quickly and we have an entire college to ourselves (College of Computer and Information Science). The co-op program also ensures you get valuable experience and connections.
I looked into Santa Clara during my application process but decided against it for non-academic reasons. The Engineering/CS program does check out.
I think the outlier here is Fordham, but all of this could change based on price depending on which school is in state.
Santa Clara is in state but private. Ironically, NEU and Fordham are significantly cheaper than SCU due to their generous grants. How easy is it to switch from ME to CS?
Finally, can u describe the approach they have to CS? And, since he hasn’t had programming, is he at a disadvantage to others ?
Switching majors is incredibly easy, there’s not really any restrictions there.
I came into NEU with over two years of programming experience and from Day 1 the best piece of advice I was given was “forget everything you knew before”. This held true about 90% of the time. The first programming class in the sequence is required to all CS students no matter their background. My professor even said that prior programming experience could be a disadvantage if you didn’t forget what you knew before.
Instead of teaching a language that everyone knows, they use a language that was developed specifically for teaching CS (Racket, a Scheme variant).
What that does is:
A. puts almost all students on a level playing field
B. allows them to teach complex logical ideas early in the course rather than syntax and convention
C. makes them focus on good programming practices over working code. Usually self taught programmers tend to opt for working code and do not know how to properly design a program.
After the first class in the sequence, the second class is taken by nearly every student again, and they use the approach of the first class and apply it to a more commonly used language (Java) which leads into the rest of the CS classes. Some students with experience dislike it because they fight against the classes with what they already know, but if you let go of that you can use prior experience to your advantage for sure. By the second semester, there is rarely a gap between those that start with experience and those that are new to CS.
While NEU actually was the first university in the US to have a separate college for CS, it is also the smallest college in the university. This means that the staff and directors are incredibly accessible and helpful. The department is growing quickly in stride with the growth of CS but even the intro classes stay under 50-60 students per section and first year classes have dozens of tutors available. The support network is A+.
Overall the department has really blown me away. Their approach, size, and accessibility is incredible and I would suspect that rankings will begin to reflect this soon. Add this to the valuable experience of co-op and the lowest price and I think NEU is far and away the right option here academically and monetarily. Of course, there are other factors to consider for your son.
My bad on misreading the in state option, just saw you did say So Cal. Is there any reason he wants to be closer to home? Despite all the praise I can give to NEU, Santa Clara will offer a good CS education as well and if it is a big factor to stay closer to home or really any other non-academic factor it would be a fine choice.
My son just got into Santa Clara and is super excited. We live in southern CA, too, and are happy he can study relatively close to home. He will be studying comouter engineering. We were thinking the same thing about proximity to Silicon Valley - we hope he can get an internship there. I don’t know about the other colleges but I wish you well in making your college choice.
thanks to PengsPhils and Suenos53. appreciate the replies!
I recommend having your son attend the orientation day in April to see how he likes University of Santa Clara. We plan to make the journey, too. I hope my son will have a chance to meet other new students and get to see the dorms once more. I think this orientation program is such a great idea to help in the transition from high school to college.
Ok. New development: got accepted to Univ of Washington. How is its engineering programs and opportunities? Compare to SCU. I assume Boeing and Microsoft are tied in for internships and jobs.
The CS program at NEU sounds incredible. My son just doesn’t know if he is more an ME or a CS type. He wants the access to ask for help and work with friends. Can I get more details on the NEU co ops for CS?
Finally, we cannot make preview day due to prior travel commits…really blows but we did visit and student guided tour last year. Really awesome setting. Son’s good friend told me that he told my son, most CS students nowadays already are good programmers so it might be really tough for him…sounds like at NEU that won’t be true.
I don’t know if he can adapt to not being in shorts most of the time 
Forgot to mention he is wait listed at UCI for CS. Won’t know til after May so he needs to commit to somewhere prior.
Congratulations on UW! Did he get admitted right into engineering or just undergraduate? I have heard that it is common for students have to transfer into engineering once they have successfully completed a year of studies. My nephew did electrical engineering at UW and really liked the program. He was able to get a good job right out of school. He told us the key is to get summer internships in companies while still in school. Regarding CS, my son doesn’t have a lot of experience but he loves math and physics.
Co-ops for NEU CS students are pretty abundant, same with engineering. Both mean 6 months of full time work paying about $20+ an hour on average, some being significantly more some being less. NEU’s career center is #2 in the US if my stats are recent enough (behind NYU), they have constant workshops available to students to improve resumes, interview skills, and more. About 50% of students receive a full time job offer from one of their co-ops upon graduation. If connections is the worry, I would pick NEU over Santa Clara. Proximity is nice, but NEU has one of the best infrastructures you will find for finding jobs.
I don’t think the Engineering Program is quite as small/unique as the CS school is, but all majors get a good deal of attention via major specific advisors and programs. Class sizes are also pretty good at NEU relative to its size.
As far as starting without programming experience, almost all colleges level the playing field at some level. I think the idea that you have to have experience is a stereotype that simply doesnt hold up. CS was designed to be started in college. Until high schools start widely teaching CS (which isn’t too far off) college will continue to start everyone at the ground level. All schools will do this to some degree, Santa Clara and UW included. I am just giving the info based on my experiences of NEU. I do want to be fair to the other schools which are all comparable or better in CS.
As far as UW, that is great news. UW’s CS would be better than NEU academically, but transferring in is incredibly hard if you were not directly admitted in. What is his admit status? If he didn’t get directly admitted, it may limit his choices of CS/ME because CS is so sought after at UW. I do believe getting into engineering is easier though.
As far as ME/CS, is he aware of the differences? What types of jobs is he looking for? Or is he just torn between a liking to both?
U Dub admits students but they are not admitted into their major until after their sophomore year based on GPAs in their pre reqs and maybe more (we are still learning ). So, he is not really in the school of engineering until then. My son actually can’t recall if he applied and declared ME or CS. He switched between the 2 based on school reps but doesn’t recall in this case (although he thought it was CS). It appears not to matter until they build up a GPA within the field of interest.
His cousin goes there and is in his freshman year and just realized he wants to be an ME and is now planning on taking summer school to catch up. He told my son he didn’t choose NEU because he had heard it was a commuter campus. He loves U Dub and recommends a frat that is academic. Lots of help to succeed and good camaraderie.
My sister said their friend’s daughter went to NEU on full sports scholarship and loved it…so, I tend to believe it will be a great experience. This forum exists to hear subjective opinions and help us decide so it’s neat to hear these inputs. PengsPhils, what’s your op on NEU being a commuter campus? What’s dorm life like? Also,what year do co-ops start?
We are now thinking of sending son out a week from now to NEU for preview day. Seems extravagant but we need him to “try it on” before deciding. Any suggestions on what he should do while out here. Probably fly out late Friday. Preview day is next Sunday, 8:30AM. U Dub preview would be April 20th.
He still has some colleges to hear from but those were lower on his list anyways…
NEU was a commuter school for a good deal of its history, but it is NOT a commuter school anymore. The big change began around the turn of the century when they took all the space they owned that used to be empty lots and began building. The school has really gone through an incredible transformation over the past 10 years. In 2006, the average 1600 SAT was 1260. Last year, it was 1420. The school has improved in line with its student caliber while keeping what makes it special: the co-op program. Almost all freshman dorm (on campus housing is required for the first two years with year 2 being apartment style). I don’t know a single commuter. The campus has a true college campus feel and if he visits I am sure he will see that.
Dorm life is good. Pretty standard. If you had any specific questions I could answer them otherwise I can’t think of anything notable. Nothing bad, dining hall food is above average for colleges but still dining hall food.
Co-ops start as early as the second semester of year two and can be delayed as late as you like. You can choose to do 1 to 3 co-ops. How many co-ops you take varies your time at NEU but not the amount of time you spend in class. At a welcome session they should give you a good idea of all the particulars of co-op so I won’t go too far into detail here unless you have any lingering questions.
Visiting is a great idea. While it may seem a big expensive, making the right decision for four to five years of your life is important. If it is affordable I would strongly recommend it. Make sure you do a campus tour if preview day doesn’t include that.
If you want to explore the city, try the North End (little Italy of Boston), Newbury Street (shops) or Boston Commons (park)
For food, Boston Burger Company is amazing and only 5 minutes off campus from my dorm, farther from others.
Trident Cafe is on Newbury Street. A bit expensive but a great nook of breakfast food+ and a bookstore combined. Very cool atmosphere.
Local Student Food Hotspots not directly affiliated with campus:
Cappys - Pizza and other basic foods, decent quality, cheap, and open until 2 AM daily
Qdoba - not as good as chipotle but directly on campus
Au Bon Pain - Connected to Gym
Boloco - mexican, some like it better than Qdoba
Son replies: From the NEU website, we are thinking of choosing the East Village dorm. Appears to be close to Curry dining. I see that International Village is only for honor students so can’t choose that one. What dorm suggestions would you have? WHATS best in terms of locale to eating, library, sports complex?
Also, I’m not sure between CS and ME because I feel like CS has more opportunities and more freedom. But I think it would be cool to work on hardware. I’m also interested in EE, I just don’t really know what to decide yet and was wondering if there was like an engineering survey class that would give me an idea of what field better suits me.
I even have doubts after talking to my cousin this AM since he isn’t in his major til he applies. He said last year, the required GPA was 3.6 for CS or EE and a 3.4 for ME.
Wow! NEU sounds amazing. I am glad to hear there are so many great options out there. Really cool internship options.
At SC my son will be majoring in computer engineering which is of a combination of EE and CS so he gets to study both. My nephew’s EE major at U Dub was further subdivided into specialty areas and he chose “embedded systems” which relates to computers. So he got to a bit of both, though he said he would have liked to have done even more CS.
Great idea to fly your son out to NEU. Honestly, I think it is a good idea to check into each option as thoroughly as you can to find the right fit.
As far as housing goes, you pick an LLC and get a building based off of where the LLC is housed. LLC (Living Learning Communities) are essentially themed dorms, by major or interest. There’s 18 options I believe, give or take. While some are consistently housed in certain buildings, they move around. East Village I believe is upper class dorms only. Honors is always in IV. Honestly, dorms don’t matter too much. They are all on campus, and have their locational advantages and are all decent quality. No dorm is more than a 10 minute walk to class. After freshman year you pick your housing specifically and it is apartment style rather than dorms. If you want more specifics on housing just let me know and I can elaborate, but the moral of the story is there’s no big short end of the stick and you don’t really have too much choice anyways.
To me, it sounds like you want EE or CE (Computer Engineering). Check the links below for degree options. We do appear to have a general engineering option though I don’t have any first hand testimony to it.
http://www.coe.neu.edu/undergraduate-studies/first-year-engineering
http://www.ece.neu.edu/ece/degrees-programs/undergraduate-studies
That is the drawback to UW. But that is college specific. At NEU changing colleges, degrees, or departments is a piece of cake. My friend switched from Biology to Business (the highest ranked NEU school) with little difficulty and with a not so stellar GPA. I don’t know what the policy is for Santa Clara but its worth looking into. There’s plenty of freedom at NEU though and UW is restrictive, hence why direct admit is important.
Any other questions just let me know!
My nephew was able to get into EE his junior year at U Dub. If you are persistent and a hard worker things should go your way. Many more experienced students spent so much time partying at U Dub that it was easier for my nephew to catch up.
An interesting aside, he noticed that some schools like UCLA are more theoretically based (preparing for PhD programs but less practical as far as jobs are concerned) as compared to U Dub.
We will be checking out NEU this weekend. All the hotels by NEU are sold out. Had to settle on one about 5 miles north in Bunker Hill area.
Well, today he was accepted to Vassar so I think I need a new thread between that school, NEU, and SCU…UW and Fordham are probably out.
Your son has done well! Congratulations and best wishes in making your final decision. He is in an enviable position!