Some questions about Northeastern

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northeastern University
1

<p>I'm trying to make my decision as to where I should go to school & I have some questions about life at Northeastern. </p>

<p>1.) I'm not 100% sure what field I want to become involved in. How hard/easy is it to switch majors? Does the co-op program help or hinder students who are still a little undecided?
2.) How's the "party scene"? Is drinking the only thing to do? Are there opportunities for students who don't want to drink?
3.) How present are the sororities/fraternities?
4.) Where would you say the majority of the people are from?
5.) Do students spend a lot of time in the city?
6.) Is the student body "cliquey"?
7.) What is the overall atmosphere of the school?</p>

<p>Sorry, I have a lot of questions. Answers to any of them would be greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>This link might be a good place to start: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northeastern-university/703960-neu-faqs-answered.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/northeastern-university/703960-neu-faqs-answered.html&lt;/a&gt;, it’ll answer a few of your questions.</p>

<p>1) It’s fine to be unsure. Some schools are harder to transfer into than others (switching into arts & science schools is cake, bouve and business are much harder), and that also applies to majors. Lots of people switch majors though, very normal. Co-op usually really helps you figure out what field is right (or wrong!) for you, and it’s a good way to learn what different kinds of jobs have to offer.</p>

<p>2) Social scene has been talked about a lot (see the FAQ thread), but the short answer is that if you love to party you can easily do that, but if you aren’t into it there are lots of other things to do both on campus and in the city.</p>

<p>3) There are sororities and fraternities but they don’t really dominate the social/campus scene. You’ll see people around campus with their greek tshirts and whatever, but it’s not a huge deal here.</p>

<p>4) The large majority are from the Northeast. Mainly MA, NJ, NY, with smaller populations from PA, RI, ME. People come from other parts of the country too (like me, poster neuchimie is also a non-New Englander/Northeasterner), but we aren’t the norm. There’s also a reasonable international population.</p>

<p>5) A lot of your time will be spent on campus, but on weekends we all go out walking, shopping, seeing movies and concerts etc etc. Most people take advantage of being basically down the street from downtown boston and the city thing is what most of us really love about going here.</p>

<p>6) Cliques are kind of a middle school/high school phenomenon, and while some colleges can be “cliquey”, NU is just way way too big. Most college kids are kind of over the clique deal… we all have our own individual things going on and everyone seems open to hanging out with different groups of people. </p>

<p>7) Hmm. I’ll let other people answer this one. I’m older and out of touch with real dorm/student life which is more what matters when you’re a high school senior looking at coming here. Now that I’m a junior, a lot of my friends are pretty focused on school and part-time jobs, and our social life is more about going to bars and on weekend trips than the college party/dining hall/dorm scene.</p>

3

<p>thanks so much! that was very helpful!</p>

4

<p>4) As Emily said, most are from around here. Being from Florida I can say that a lot of people joked about me last year (although most were because the Rays were doing so well that people were bitter). But now not only do I feel completely like I live in Boston, I’m only going to be in Florida for three weeks this entire year because of co-op and breaks. I feel like once you are here for a while, it doesn’t matter at all. </p>

<p>Example: Everyone, whether from San Diego or Medford, is annoyed at the 60-degrees-then-snowing weather in New England right now. Boston’s insane weather bonds people. :)</p>

<p>7) Northeastern is very casual, but very determined. Obviously people will have different experiences, but I’ve found it to be perfect for me. On one hand no one cares about how many clubs you go to or what your gpa is or what clothes you wear (although Ugg boots are common). On the other hand, even if people don’t know what they want to do with their lives, they are very serious about doing well. Co-op is huge (obviously) so people are very determined to get good jobs. Northeastern is expensive, so at least half my friends would much rather work Saturday night and make 60 dollars at a part-time job than go out-- because they need the money. NEU is really fun and everything, don’t get me wrong. But for instance my friends at other schools smoke with no qualms because they have ages before they have to worry about employer drug testing. Whereas my friends here will flip out if you try to get them to smoke (or do any drugs at all) anywhere near co-op interview time. </p>

<p>Freshman year is like any other school. It’s really fun and people wear sweat pants to the dining hall. I loved it. But for the most part I feel like because of co-op, Northeastern students tend to take their futures more seriously than a lot of my friends at other schools. They tend to know what they want to do, where they want to work, what they want to study for grad school, and/or how much money they want to make. (Sorry if this is totally not what you were asking)</p>

5

<p>speaking of taking things more seriously, etc. Does anyone know if NU has sober dorms or chemical free dorms?</p>

6

<p>Technically all but one of our dorms are “dry” and drugs aren’t allowed on campus. One of the dorms for upperclassmen requires that all residents be under 21, but that doesn’t work at all. There is a LLC that is for substance-free people, but I don’t know how much people actually follow it or live in it.</p>