I had the Northeastern Welcome Day today, and I loved the campus. I love their programs and I love the global experiences they offer. They placed a lot of stress on the global experiences which I liked, but it kind of worried me about my college experience. It was clear that students are constantly coming to and leaving campus, so I was wondering if that would make my experience at Northeastern different than a traditional school where I make friends and have them for four years. Do all of the global programs take away from the traditional college experience? And if not, how is it still the same?
Yes, students come and go, but I think more for co-ops than global experiences. Remember that in many traditional colleges, a lot of kids study abroad Junior year. My daughter’s experience was that despite her friends being everywhere - DC, Seattle, China,Mexico, Italy, Poland, Ireland - for a spring break class, summer term, semester, or year - for co-op or study abroad - she had a solid group of friends which she made the first weeks of freshman year and is still close with almost 7 years later. Interestingly, although they went all over, after graduation many ended up with jobs in Boston. Yes, it isn’t a traditional college experience, especially with 6 month stints of working 9-5 jobs, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find and keep friends.